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 213 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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

Jesus Christ.

[–] pensivepangolin@lemmy.world 117 points 1 year 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 39 points 1 year 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 201 points 1 year 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 124 points 1 year ago (5 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

[–] krayj@sh.itjust.works 85 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

As another fellow Washingtonian, I'm getting pretty tired of subsidizing willful stupidity.

[–] stewie3128@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Red states are a luxury we can't afford anymore. They need to pull themselves up by their freedom bootstraps and start turning a profit, or the spigot turns off.

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[–] Fog0555@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

honestly it's not willful for a lot of residents there because of gerrymandering instead of redistricting.

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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year 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 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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

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[–] Daisyifyoudo@lemmy.world 132 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are you idiots Great Again yet?

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year 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 1 year ago (3 children)

With blackouts. And hookers.

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[–] Daisyifyoudo@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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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[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 103 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I remember my parents planning to retire to Texas about 10 years ago, I told 'em "that state's going to be unlivable b/c of climate change pretty soon, don't buy land there".

They're Republicans so pish-tosh. They have spent weeks this summer essentially unable to be outside anywhere.

[–] perviouslyiner@lemm.ee 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Retiring somewhere where you can be burned by the pavement if you fall over? That's an interesting choice.

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[–] spacecowboy@sh.itjust.works 72 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Maybe stop electing Republican orcs and your state will improve.

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 52 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm trying so hard... I swear, our ballot boxes should be called wishing wells to better curb my hopes...

[–] WHYAREWEALLCAPS@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The problem is Texas Democrats and those who'd stand against Republicans don't vote. I don't feel like digging out the exact numbers, but the 2022 gubernatorial race shows it best. Abbott got nearly 80% of the votes Trump did in 2020. Beto got 60% of the votes Biden did. Republicans show up, Democrats don't. Until that changes. nothing in this state will change.

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[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Voter suppression is big in Texas.

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[–] blazera@kbin.social 52 points 1 year ago (22 children)

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

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 48 points 1 year 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 45 points 1 year ago (3 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.

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[–] SCB@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (4 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.

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[–] MisterNeon@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (5 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.

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[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 29 points 1 year 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 38 points 1 year 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 25 points 1 year 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."

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[–] Zenbach@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

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[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 year 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 29 points 1 year 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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[–] BlinkerFluid@lemmy.one 26 points 1 year ago

EMERGENCY!

YOU ARE IN TEXAS!

oh my God!

[–] JTode@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

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

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 24 points 1 year ago
[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Texas is trying to attract crypto miners, I hear.

...

giggle

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[–] Pickles420@lemm.ee 18 points 1 year 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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[–] Scotty_Trees@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year 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.

[–] breckenedge@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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 52 points 1 year 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 1 year 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 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

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

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

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