this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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  • Texas power prices soared 20,000% Wednesday evening amid another brutal heat wave.

  • Spot electricity prices topped $5,000 per megawatt-hour, up more than 200 times from Wednesday morning.

  • The state's grid operator issued its second-highest energy emergency, then later said conditions returned to normal.

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[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 216 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Hey little buddy, how's the independent grid working out for you?

Jesus Christ.

[–] pensivepangolin@lemmy.world 119 points 2 years ago

Texas: Big government is evil!

Also Texas: Big government, the climate change weve been denying is boiling us please save our freedom grid

[–] Wogi@lemmy.world 40 points 2 years ago

I want a book that's just passive aggressive notes signed by Jesus

"Bet it all on the Steelers huh? Bet your wife is going to be real happy about that.

-Jesus Christ"

"Oh you sure showed that group of children who's boss yes sir.

-Jesus Christ"

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[–] Pistcow@lemm.ee 205 points 2 years ago (9 children)

As a lib, I feel so owned.

I'm glad I live in Washington state with our cheap renewable energy.

[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 118 points 2 years ago (4 children)

You are kind of owned, since these red states fucking up just means that more of your tax money will go to saving these idiots from themselves through federal aid

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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Texas actually does better in the renewable energy front than you may expect.

A quarter of the state's energy is produced through wind and solar. The biggest bottleneck preventing more wind adoption is the capacity of transmission lines up and the lack of energy storage.

The advantage of natural gas is that it can be dry up pretty much anywhere and isn't dependent on weather.

The biggest problem Texas has right now regarding energy (and housing costs, and inflation, and municipal planning, and traffic, etc) is its extremely rapid population growth.

Yes, the heat wave is historic and ERCOT is awful, but even in perfect weather the grid is being stressed from the sheer number of people and businesses moving here

[–] Rusticus@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Don’t forget natural gas lines can freeze. Remember Ted Cruz going to Cancun? Pepperidge farm remembers.

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[–] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 10 points 2 years ago

How do I upvote you twice?

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[–] Daisyifyoudo@lemmy.world 135 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Are you idiots Great Again yet?

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 47 points 2 years ago (2 children)

hey the rest of the american grids are fine. Texas didn't want to follow certain governemnt regulation so they made their own grid.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 45 points 2 years ago (3 children)

With blackouts. And hookers.

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[–] Daisyifyoudo@lemmy.world 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I was talking directly to the women hating, book banning, brown people fearing , maga-loving, selfish ignorant racists that vote in Texas.

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[–] blazera@kbin.social 52 points 2 years ago (1 children)

If only there was some kind of energy source that worked best during intense sunlight.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 9 points 2 years ago (12 children)

Solar is only half the battle though. There can often be a severe electricity shortage in the evening when solar power shuts off but temperates are still high. This issue is greatest in the late summer and fall because it’s still very hot but the sun sets earlier.

There are solutions to this issue but they are fairly early in development and sometimes expensive. California is struggling with this issue currently. We’ve installed a huge amount of battery power over the last few years which has prevented several catastrophes so far but heat continues to get more severe, increasing energy needs as we are trying to shut down the state’s remaining gas peaker plants.

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 51 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Aaahhh, the free market economy at work without limits, without government planning, regulations, or interference.

Government regulations bad! It means we can't squeeze our customers, we can't fuck up on an hourly basis, we can't be dicks!

And in before the commies start... No. Bad dog! Get out with your "we need to become Communist hippie communes!" comments, please

We need to put reasonable rules and limits to a capitalist system. Regulate big companies, regulate infrastructure, tax the rich, use the money for social platforms

[–] TurtleJoe@lemmy.world 47 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm with the commies on this one. We need to nationalize utilities like energy distribution. No reason to have a profit seeking entity in charge of necessities like electricity.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

In sane parts of the US, utility companies are technically private entities, but they're related so much they pretty much operate like government agencies.

[–] sploosh@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The big difference being a drive toward profit. Nationalizing energy production and distribution would be a slam dunk for everyone except the people at the top of these energy companies and their shareholders.

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[–] SCB@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago (1 children)

In all fairness, Texas has an incredibly weird, idealistic, view of the value of market forces and their government utterly fails in its job as a result.

It's not just power lines. It's everything. They distort their market on ideological lines and then assume that's the best case.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Too be fair, it is the best case if you're one of the rich assholes who owns everything and just wants to squeeze the poors.

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[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 31 points 2 years ago (3 children)

They have an excess of energy (too much sun) but the grid is close to collapsing (too much cooling). Maybe install more solar power?

[–] ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world 42 points 2 years ago

The problem is ideology. The Texas power grid is the end state of neo-liberalism taken to the extreme.

The belief that natural monopolies should be privately controlled with minimum regulations has lead to this. A power grid run for maximum short term profit with minimum investment. The grids poorly maintained, because that doesn't make money. The grid is unfit, because implementing designs that cover the extremes is expensive. The price is excessive because the state is ideologically unwilling to intervene.

[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 27 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Many Texas leaders (and other Taxans) see any energy source that's not oil and gas based as "part of the radical liberal agenda."

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

Pay 1000$ electrical bill to own the libs!

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[–] Zenbach@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I work in Solar Construction and Texas is our fastest growing market right now.

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[–] JTode@lemmy.world 30 points 2 years ago

Good thing they got rid of all those pesky regulations or the poors would be using the power.

[–] MisterNeon@lemmy.world 29 points 2 years ago (1 children)

As a former Texan this breaks my heart. Alot of innocent and less well off people will suffer due to entrenched corruption.

I moved away because of this exact kind of shit.

[–] NightAuthor@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Where’d u go? We came up to Portland.

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[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 27 points 2 years ago
[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 26 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Wasn't the whole point in investing in oil in Texas to keep the energy prices low?

How is that working out for em?

[–] NightAuthor@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Actually, pretty well 99.9% of the time. And if a few people die here or there in a freeze or heatwave, well they shoulda use some of those electricity savings on a generator or something.

^ How the conservatives in Texas feel about the situation

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[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 26 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Texas is trying to attract crypto miners, I hear.

...

giggle

[–] Magister@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Crypto miners say "ok you need power so we will stop our servers" and Texas gov gives them millions of $ to thank them.

[–] BlinkerFluid@lemmy.one 24 points 2 years ago

EMERGENCY!

YOU ARE IN TEXAS!

oh my God!

[–] Pickles420@lemm.ee 18 points 2 years ago (1 children)

People will soon be living in Texas no power year around when they throttle you and charge you thousands for power every month of the year because either A) ITsSS TWOooh HAaAWwTT or B) TtThEEee GGRiiIdD IIsSSnnTT Winterized. What a joke

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago

Texas power prices soared 20,000% Wednesday evening amid another brutal heat wave.

Makes sense. I'm told everything's bigger in Texas.

[–] breckenedge@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Meanwhile in reality:

Texas is 1st in the nation in renewables (thanks Obama).

3000Mw battery storage averted this emergency, and there’s a ton more of that on the way (thanks Biden).

[–] SaintWacko@midwest.social 48 points 2 years ago

Look, this is super misleading information and I keep seeing it repeated. They're first in the nation in total electricity generation from renewable sources, but that's mainly because of how big they are. If you look at what percentage of their consumption is from renewable sources, they're not even in the top ten.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 28 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The reason Texas is #1 in renewables is actually Rick Perry, bless his heart. He pushed for a massive expansion of wind generation capacity back in the early 00s and was instrumental in building high voltage transmission lines between west Texas wind and the more eastern population centers. He would be drummed out of today's Republican party

[–] Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

When wanting to eliminate the Dept of Education is too woke...

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[–] Scotty_Trees@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

This has been going on for years now. I feel bad for those that suffer there because of this, but if you choose to willingly live there when you have the means to leave, I don't feel sorry for you anymore. It's the ones unable to leave that I truly feel bad for, those that don't have any other choice.

[–] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Has Turd Cruz fled to cooler vacation spots yet?

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[–] fiat_lux@kbin.social 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is why poorer people bear the brunt of climate change danger. Maybe the only thing absurd about Tank Girl were the talking kangaroos.

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