The Texas attorney general says a lawsuit he filed against the energy company Griddy will keep about 24,000 Texans from having to pay $29.1 million in unpaid bills related to last month’s winter storms.
“My office sued Griddy Energy, under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, to hold them accountable for their escalation of last month’s winter storm disaster by debiting enormous amounts from customer accounts as Texans struggled to survive the storm,” AG Ken Paxton said Tuesday in a statement.
The company on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, noting more than $29 million owed to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the state’s electric grid. That form of bankruptcy allows a company to restructure its debts and reorganize to pay creditors back over time.
Through the bankruptcy plan, Griddy will “release all outstanding payment obligations for those Texas consumers who were unable to pay their energy bills due to the high prices charged during the storm,” the attorney general’s office said.
And Paxton said his office is working with the company “in ongoing good faith negotiations to attempt to address additional relief” for customers who have already paid energy bills stemming from the storms.
Griddy did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. In an online post announcing the bankruptcy filing, Griddy put the blame on ERCOT.
“The actions of ERCOT destroyed our business and caused financial harm to our customers,” Griddy Chief Executive Officer Michael Fallquist said in a statement.