There’s a new Texas two-step.

Natural gas prices and retail electric rates are moving in tandem — steadily downward — a trend that could leave many energy consumers dancing with delight.

As of Thursday afternoon, powertochoose.com, the comparison shopping site overseen by the Texas Public Utility Commission, showed 31 retail electric-rate plans priced below 10 cents per kilowatt-hour in the Oncor Electric Delivery service area that includes North Texas.

California is in bad shape. It is likely to get worse. As America’s most populous state faces a $26.3bn (€18.4bn, £16.2bn) budget gap, lawmakers in Sacramento have had no choice but to make desperate spending cuts. Their latest solution? The legislature is debating a plan to release 27,000 prisoners early to save money on correctional facilities.

California, like so many other states facing budget shortfalls, is a victim of decades of reckless spending and unsustainable budgets. It was not always like this. The Golden State’s government services and public institutions – including its prisons – were models for the country in the 1960s and 1970s. But Californian policymakers stopped planning for the future. The state’s population ballooned from 23m in 1980 to 36m in 2008, and demographics shifted dramatically due to immigration. Roads, schools and prisons built with 1975 in mind are now crumbling and overcrowded.

As you know, I've been very outspoken in my opposition to the healthcare plan that the Democrats and President Obama have been propagating in Washington. A couple of weeks ago I joined several of my colleagues in the Texas Legislature in sending a letter to the Texas Congressional delegation urging them to oppose the plan as well.

This week State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) joined Governor Rick Perry in Dallas at a ceremonial bill signing for House Bill 469. King authored HB 469 this past legislative session to keep Texas as the leader in energy innovation by continuing Texas' significant progress in energy diversification.

King stated, “Conservatives fought off many attempts this past legislative session to unnecessarily raid the rainy day fund and now we are seeing the positive effects of taking that stand.” King went on to say, “Texas has it right – we have ensured our ‘savings account’ is intact, have kept taxes on families and businesses to a minimum, and have kept our government programs in check – that’s why our state is blowing the rest of the nation away in key economic indicators like employment and trade just to name a few.”

In a letter to the Texas Congressional delegation, State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) joined thirty-five of his colleagues in the Texas Legislature in urging opposition to pending federal health care legislation that would vastly increase government spending, necessitating tax increases.

The proposed climate change legislation, intended to reduce carbon dioxide emissions over the next 40 years, will substantially raise electricity bills. An analysis recently released by ERCOT, the electric grid operator for most of Texas, joins other reports from around the country that project significant job losses and dramatic increases in the cost of electricity if this legislation is enacted.

About 50 percent of all electric generation in America comes from burning coal and about 20 percent comes from natural gas. And, even though Texas has more wind generation than any other state (and all but a handful of other countries), we still burn fossil fuels to generate the vast majority of our electricity.

GOPAC-TX will raise money and work to get additional Republicans elected to the Texas House and Senate, the group’s chairman, Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, said at a press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel Austin.

“The questions we first asked in March have brought troubling facts to light about illegal abortions in Texas,” said State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford), who is a member of TCC. King continued, “By accepting state funds for its illegal facilities, Planned Parenthood has endangered the health of women in Texas, misused public dollars, and violated the public trust.”

“Representative Phil King was one of the good guys this legislative session,” said Michael Quinn Sullivan, President of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. “King worked diligently this session on behalf of Texas' taxpayers and sound fiscal policy. We need more champions like him.”