Texas lawmakers are poised to pass several measures designed to help pay for the billions of dollars of energy costs stemming from catastrophic blackouts during the severe winter storm that hit the state this year, Bloomberg News reported. The Texas House of Representatives approved a bill on Tuesday that would allow electric co-operatives including bankrupt Brazos Electric Power Cooperative to cover unpaid power expenses from the disaster by selling debt that can be paid back over 30 years through charges on customer bills, a process known as securitization. The measure, which needs final Senate approval before heading to the Governor’s desk, would offer financial relief to electric co-ops that make up the bulk of the nearly $3 billion in payments owed to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s main grid operator. Brazos filed for bankruptcy in March, citing about $2 billion in debts to Ercot.
