Texas Blocks Utility Companies From Billing Customers or Disconnecting for Nonpayment After Sticker Shock Outrage After outcry over skyrocketing energy bills following the severe cold snap that threw millions of Texans into the dark with no safe drinking water, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on Feb. 21 that the state’s utility regulators will temporarily ban power companies from billing customers or disconnecting them for nonpayment. “Texans who have suffered through days of freezing cold without power should not be subjected to skyrocketing energy bills,” Abbott told reporters on Feb. 12 in San Antonio. The governor said the Public Utility Commission of Texas will order electricity companies to pause sending bills to customers and will issue a temporary moratorium on disconnection of services for nonpayment.