This is intended to assist and gain control of the choice which, by law, is given to the residents of the City of Cuero, Texas to choose individually their provider of electricity.  The City of Cuero, Texas, in cooperation with the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), has for decades held a monopoly over the electricity offered to its residents.  Electricity deregulation in Texas, approved by Texas Senate Bill 7 on January 1, 2002, calls for the creation of the Electric Utility Restructuring Legislative Oversight Committee to oversee implementation of the bill. According to the law, deregulation would be phased in over several years.  As a result, 85% of Texas power consumers (those served by a company not owned by a municipality or a utility cooperative) can choose their electricity service from a variety of retail electric providers (REPs), including the incumbent utility. The incumbent utility in the area still owns and maintains the local power lines (and is the company to call in the event of a power outage) and is not subject to deregulation. Customers served by cooperatives or municipal utilities can choose an alternate REP only if the utility has "opted in" to deregulation; to date, only the area served by the Nueces Electric Cooperative has chosen to opt in.  In laymen terms what this means, is that the great State of Texas in 2002, decided that electricity service providers should not be able to monopolize any one area of the state, and therefore gave the option to "deregulate" and leave the option of who provides an individuals electricity where it belongs, in the hands of the individuals.  Since 2002 ~40% of residential consumers in deregulated areas have switched from the former incumbent provider (in our case, the City of Cuero) to a competitive REP (retail electric provider).  It would seem that the City of Cuero has no intentions of opting-in to the initiative to deregulate for residents that live in the city limits, that is why I'm creating this petition; to show the City of Cuero and our elected officials that this is what we want as paying residents of this great city.  Recently, about 2 years ago, the City of Cuero enclosed a letter in our monthly utility bill and statement, stating that they had made a mistake.  A mistake that cost them largely and would have cost them $1,000,000.00 to correct (Yes you read that right, 1 Million Dollars).  However, they decided to take this cost to correct a mistake that they had made, and pass it on to us the residents of Cuero.  This was the first increase that we saw on our bills, however City Manager, Raymie Zella, will tell you that since his first day in this position 7 years ago, there have been no increases.  Since that time we have not seen that increase, that was supposed to be for a limited period of time, be removed from our bills.  We have seen the conversion from what we were told were old, outdated water and electric meters to new digital meters.  We have lost one of the oldest, the 3rd largest employer in the county, and the largest consumer of electricity within the city limits of Cuero, Mount Vernon Mills.  Now, the city will swear up and down that they had no part in the closing of the Mill and that they "did everything in their power" to ensure that it stay a vital part of the Cuero economy for years to come; however, for ~10 years Mount Vernon Mills of Cuero has pleaded with city officials for assistance in lowering the cost of electricity, which would not only benefit them but the entire community.  This did not happen.  Now, this is not to say that this is the sole reason why the Mill is no longer operating and is currently scheduled to be sold and parted out, however I can assure each and everyone of you reading this that it was a very large factor.  Now comes to this months bill, where in just the last 2 hours I have read dozens of posts on Facebook, not just complaining, but showing the heartbreak of a family trying to make ends meet and their untimely utility bill is $100, $200, and even $300+ more than what they typically pay.  This after an article in the Cuero Record near the end of June stated that rates were "set to be dropping" starting in July.  It's time we took a stand as citizens of this great country, state, and city and say enough is enough.  No more sitting on the bench.  No more idly sending in Letters to the Editor of local papers.  We have to get up.  We have to make our voices heard.  We, the people of Cuero, Texas, need to tell our elected officials we want our CHOICE of electricity providers and we want it NOW!