About Texas ROSE

Texas ROSE is:  

All about Affordable Electricity And A Healthy Environment

A nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization that represents residential and low-income consumers to promote energy efficiency and fair utility programs.

We are the only public interest group in Texas dedicated to providing straightforward, plain language information, representation before the Public Utility Commission of Texas, advocacy for low-income consumers, and education and training.

Texas ROSE has been operating since 1992 and has hundreds of members in all parts of Texas.

Texas ROSE works with other consumer groups, consumers, the Public Utility Commission, electric companies, and others to develop programs and policies that benefit consumers, low-income consumers, and the environment.

Mission and Goals

Affordable Electricity and a Healthy Environment.

Our goals are:

• To promote a diverse, balanced electric utility resource mix which will provide long-term, affordable, sustainable energy supplies for residential and low-income consumers.
• To assure that energy conservation benefits are available to all classes of customers, especially low-income customers and renters.
• To promote energy conservation and renewable energy as viable resource options through an integrated resource planning process in a competitive market.
• To supplant all planned construction of dirty fossil fuel plants with energy-efficiency and a cleaner mix of alternative energy sources by the year 2005.
• To provide reliable information to commissioners and public utility boards on the benefits, advantages, and costs associated with energy conservation programs, renewable energy applications and resource planning standards.
• To educate and empower the general public on utility issues affecting customer costs and the environment.
  

Carol Biedrzycki is Executive Director of Texas Ratepayers' Organization to Save Energy (Texas ROSE), the only statewide organization dedicated to affordable electricity and a healthy environment.  At the Public Utility Commission (PUC) Texas ROSE works to expand energy efficiency programs and customer service standards for low-income consumers.  The 1995 Texas ROSE report, ELECTRIC UTILITY "RESTRUCTURING" - CAN THE SMALL CONSUMER AFFORD IT? studied the possible effects of competition on small electricity consumers.  Ms. Biedrzycki has written reports on low-income issues in a competitive electric industry.  She works on deregulation issues daily and intervenes to help resolve problems that impact residential consumers, low-income consumers and energy assistance programs.  
 
Ms. Biedrzycki served on the Public Utility Commission’s Retail Electric Competition Pilot Project Working Group.  Ms. Biedrzycki is actively involved in the discussion of restructuring issues at the PUC.  She has filed written comments on important consumer and energy efficiency issues, participated in workshops before the commission, and filed testimony as an expert witness in commission proceedings.  

Ms. Biedrzycki has spent the past nineteen years in Texas.  On the staff of the PUC, she reviewed utility plans for customer energy efficiency programs and drafted the state's first integrated resource planning proposal.  Later Ms. Biedrzycki supervised statewide energy conservation programs in the Governor's Energy Management Center.   She has an undergraduate degree in political science from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and a Master in Urban Regional Planning from the University of Pittsburgh. 

Previous Accomplishments 1992-1999

Working for affordable electricity and a healthy environment Texas ROSE has many accomplishments:

During the 1998 heat wave Texas ROSE convinced the PUC to ban all electric utility disconnections of electricity until September 30 and give every customer six months to pay off high summer electric bills.

Worked with Central and South West Services, El Paso Electric Company, Houston Lighting and Power Company, Texas Utilities Electric Company and Southwestern Public Service on the advisory groups of deliberative polls to measure customer values and opinions about energy resources. The results have shown customers are resoundingly in favor of energy efficiency and renewable resources. Texas ROSE provided information on energy efficiency and renewable energy and answered consumers questions on a panel of experts.

Organized a successful low-income coalition to support fundamental change to Public Utility Commission (PUC) policy on energy efficiency programs to help low-income households reduce their energy bills. 

Worked to establish low-income weatherization programs in the major utility service areas in Texas. 

Drafted model legislation to present to the legislative restructuring working group charged with drafting a bill on retail electric utility competition in Texas.

Filed a court case to require utilities to pay legal costs of consumer and environmental groups when the court decides in favor of those groups.

Filed a petition at the PUC to adopt a rule to limit the amount of money that utilities can pass through to customers to cover legal expenses to protect their own shareholder interests.

Our participation in utility hearings has redirected $18 million in annual utility promotional expenditures to conservation programs and increased utility spending on low-income weatherization programs by $5 million per year.  These are programs will eliminate the need to build a large power plant and will save consumers $500 million on their electric bills. Our work has also stopped three unnecessary power plants, saving another $588 million in construction costs and helped to establish new pilot renewable energy projects in Texas. 

Community Shares of Texas

Texas R.O.S.E. is a member of Community Shares of Texas (http://www.communitysharestx.org) a 501(c)(3) nonprofit federation of charitable organizations.  The mission of Community shares of Texas is to promote corporate and governmental workplace giving to non-profit organizations who serve diverse communities seeking social, cultural, environmental and economic justice.