Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation (WSJ)

[Jedi2016]

This is why I'm so glad to live in a place with power as a city-run utility with fixed rates. Last month's electricity was about fifty bucks (before the freeze), I don't imagine next month's will be that much higher.

 

[tadaima]

I was going to post about the turning point for Texas finally becoming blue but I realised that in this context it may be considered distasteful.

 

[Nepenthe]

Deregulated corporations are really good at siphoning up a shitload of money without necessarily providing an equivalent return in value or service to the public?

I am shocked. Shocked I tell you.

 

[Kthulhu]

will they work under winter snow storms?

Click to shrink...

If the power is gonna be out regardless then what's the loss?

 

[Pantaghana]

wonder how long before somebody blames the green new deal that hasn't passed yet.

Click to shrink...

They did that a week ago

AOC rips Texas governor for blaming outages on Green New Deal

Ms Ocasio-Cortez points to Gregg Abbott’s own failures and apparent lack of knowledge of his state’s energy supply as reasons for outages

www.independent.co.uk

 

[XenIneX]

So that's, like... (vague Googling and intense calculatoring) $20 per month, per household.


That sounds about like what I'd expect.

 

[Syriel]

For all three of those, it's extremely rare for anyone to shop around. More often, people skip a medical procedure, schooling, or have their utilities shut off rather than just find a better deal.



Not unless they're connected to a battery system. When the solar panel controller detects that the power line from the utility isn't able to send power to the house, the solar panel has to stop running or else it's going to feed electricity back into an inactive grid. They have this safety feature built in so that lineworkers don't get electrocuted when working on downed power lines.

So you would need basically one of those $7,000 power wall things for your panels to do anything during a power outage. I guess you would also need to go up there periodically to brush off the snow.

Click to shrink...

Combine solar with a battery like the power wall and you can completely disconnect from the grid.

Houses like that essentially run off the battery all the time. Solar recharges the battery.

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

Christ on a con (lol autocorrect fixed that accordingly)


i hope Texans are paying a fucking ttention because y'all got ROBBED.

 

[Deleted member 82064]

Shocked. Moving to private will cut prices early on but eventually markets will be cornered and prices will go up. And at this point companies are already enormous and up starters can't compete with them with prices.

 

[FaceHugger]

Texan voter: "I nearly froze to death and have been paying thousands more a year than I should for energy"

The rest of the country: "You could vote Democrat and better your life"

Texan vote: "AOC IS THE DEVIL WINDMILLS FROZE MAGA"

History will keep repeating itself in Texas for a few more years at least. Never underestimate the sheer staggering stupidity of GOP voters.

 

[DryCreek]

.

 

[Kwhit10]

So you would need basically one of those $7,000 power wall things for your panels to do anything during a power outage. I guess you would also need to go up there periodically to brush off the snow.

Click to shrink...

If your roof is steep enough you don't need to brush off snow. Brushing of snow is actually not recommended as you are more likely to damage your panels. At least here in the northeast. The snow just falls off my panels on their own. I've never had snow on them more than a day after it snowed by doing nothing.

But yea they'd need an expensive battery for when power goes out. With the infrequency we lose power it's just more economical to have a gas/LP powered generator.

 

[Powdered Egg]

That is quite the hustle.

 

[Dali]

How many homeowners in Texas are thinking about installing solar panels now I wonder.

Click to shrink...

A lot of them were blaming the problem on solar and wind.

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

Imagine thinking businesses want deregulation so they can charge you less. How fucking dumb are people?

Click to shrink...

Republicans. That's how dumb.

 

[Psychotext]

So much freedom. Why would you want anything else?

 

[Fallout-NL]

Health care. College. This.

Privatization is always bad in any market where the service or product is essential and the customer has almost no power to elect against buying any of the product.

Click to shrink...

Yup

 

[Lost Lemurian]

I mean yeah the results of privatisation were predictable but why can't this information be effectively communicated to Republican voters? These people are obsessed with paying lower taxes but apparently perfectly okay with higher bills. It makes no damn sense.

Click to shrink...

Think about how many relatively poor people donated huge sums to Trump, a guy who's entire claim to fame is being rich.

It's not about savvy spending, it's about maintaining a system where personal value is determined by personal wealth. These people believe that the world is an infallible meritocracy and virtue is rewarded by the "invisible hand" (of either the market or God).

So, in their minds, the government is evil, because it takes money from "good" rich people in the form of taxes and gives it to "bad" poor people in the form of services. It's a profoundly fucked up worldview.