Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope Now Supports Electric Competition?

Yeah, I was kind of shocked by this revelation as well.

Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope on Tuesday announced his support for electric competition in Lubbock. This was filed as rebuttal testimony before the PUC of Texas.

So why is Mayor Pope now in support of competition, while previous mayors and councils seemed to have been against it? (Remember, the city told SPS/Xcel Energy to take a hike in 2009 and put the city into more debt.)

Does it strengthen Lubbock's chances of getting on the ERCOT grid? My guess would be yes, anything to make Lubbock look better to ERCOT.

From Everything Lubbock:

Economic development is another motivating factor for Pope, he said. Companies interested in Lubbock's facilities frequently ask about the city's electrical services.

So, it looks like there are two motivations for the mayor to support competition: 1.) a better chance of getting on ERCOT, and 2.) bringing more businesses into town. Businesses that want to spend less on electricity.

Number two makes perfect sense, but number one seems kinda shady. LP&L doesn't want to build new plants and take on more debt, so why not do anything they can to ensure they can use someone else's power and distribution.

I guess at the end of the day I can't blame the mayor but seems a little funny that he has waited until now to tell us how he really feels about electric competition. He waited until the decision-making process with ERCOT was in full swing. And it was rebuttal testimony, a rebuttal against what Mayor Pope?

Nothing fishy about that, nothing at all.