this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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If only the power companies had been repeatedly warned that this would happen, and given millions of dollars of taxpayer money to increase power generation potential.
Oh wait… They were warned of this? And they were given taxpayer money? And they illegally used it for stock buybacks instead? And nothing was ever done to prosecute the illegal spending? Yeah, that sounds about on par for Texas.
Texas: The One Star State
Whaat? But THAT would mean Republican lawmakers are pushing a dangerous and dishonest anti-government agenda that is, in fact, just a cover for greedy anti-consumerism! That can't be true!!
I mean, even if everyone did everything right, the demand would still be record high, right? It's not like heeding the warnings would lower demand.
Yes, but if they had invested it like they were supposed to, the grid capacity would be higher, so there would be less chance of failures...
Well, they did invest in it. After the mass failure in February 2021, they passed a bunch of new regulations, and within one year, the entire grid was pretty much up to the new regulations. IIRC, like 98% of the grid was up to the new regulations within a year after that freeze. There hasn't been mass failure since then. There was a local failure this past winter in Austin due to the trees not being trimmed properly, then freezing rain caused branches to break and fall on power lines (called Arborgeddon by the locals). But there have been no state-wide failures since the new regulations have been put in place.
Interesting.... 🤔 So regulations and not the free market fixed the problem.