City launches electricity provider website
A few days ago, the Chronicle's Matt Stiles reported the launch of Mayor White's new website aimed at helping Houstonians to choose a provider of residential electricity.
Earlier reporting on the topic suggested that the costs of the program would be borne by private industry, although Mayor White (as usual) left himself a bit of wriggle room:
White said he envisions a full-scale blitz of television, radio and mailings. The $1 million for the advertising would come from donated services and perhaps from nontaxpayer city revenue, such as the franchise fees the city gets from utility companies, he said.
According to the latest reporting, the city will bear a non-trivial portion of the costs of the program:
The $800,000 program featuring a planned advertising blitz is funded mostly by the electricity companies and other donors, White said. Less than $100,000 will come from city funds to pay for city staffers and an outside consultant who designed the program.
Less than $100,000? That isn't very informative. Why not report the exact amount? We'll just assume the amount is "close to" $100,000, since it seems unlikely the Mayor's press people would give the $100k number to reporters to repeat uncritically unless the total was close to that amount and not some lesser amount (like, say, $20,000).
So, the city's $100k has bought it some staffing and the advice of an outside consultant (boy, we'd sure like to find a sugar daddy with $100k to throw at the blogHOUSTON.net website!) and a nifty website (replete with a nice photo of Mayor White). It's always nice when governmental entities can enrich outside consultants.
Of course, Mayor White's consumer education website isn't entirely about educating consumers. As the Chronicle's Matt Stiles notes, some companies are not listed on the city's website:
In addition to listing the various companies and their plans, the site features a glossary explaining common electricity terms. Similar information also is at www.powertochoose.org, a site administered by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Several companies listing offers on that site either were excluded or didn't participate in the city's plan, but Houston customers still can get their power from those companies.
That the city is designating certain companies on its Web site contradicts deregulation, said Carlos Santos, a spokesman for TXU Energy, which didn't participate.
"Government intervention that limits the choices that people have is not good. It's not good for consumers. It's not good for deregulation," he said.
But the mayor argues that selecting companies based on their financial viability — or the number of complaints they've received — is an important consumer-protection tool.
So, the city's $100k only buys consumers information that meets criteria established by Mayor-Nanny White, which doesn't seem as informative as it might be. What a deal!
It's not surprising that the Chronicle editorial board (or Mrs. White, as Sedosi refers to them) loves Mayor White's initiative. However, it's still not clear that this program was necessary. While $100,000 may not seem like much money to those who think of government as a perpetual money catapult, it's still $100,000 that might have been directed towards other priorities (public safety, graffiti eradication, etc).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/09/06 01:38 PM | Print |
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