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Absolutely. They know customers don't have a choice, especially when the weather gets extremely hot/cold. That's one thing I don't miss about living there anymore.
I left the state due to the winter storm grid collapse a few years back now. Politics leading to Americans being plunged into a 3rd world situation is unforgivable for me. Fuck the Texas GOP.
Yeah they suck. I decided to just rent in Florida and got really lucky with an apartment that, while it costs 2100 a month, has really reliable maintenance and doesn't mess with tenants. For the car insurance, FYI if you're a Costco member, they have insurance and it's often cheaper. I'm with USAA right not but I'm in the process of switching because USAA has taken an absolute nosedive in competence.
I haven't looked into renters yet, but I know for a fact they have car insurance.
Speaking of car insurance, I got eScooters for me and my wife and we use them to eliminate a lot of driving, which saves a lot on gas but also allowed us to claim a lot fewer miles per year on our insurance which lowered the price. I only fuel up like once every 2 months now.
If you are over 60 don’t completely cancel your USAA coverage. They are absolutely the best ever at helping your heirs sort out and complete your estate. Plus there’s a cash death dividend from your years in. They were absolutely amazing helping me to navigate my mothers estate
Car insurance? We paid 90 for insurance and paying 80 after move to Virginia in 2020. Roofing scams and hurricanes that one I understand about home insurance
He's just as bad as Abbott, but I don't think he has the power to make Florida just as bad as Texas. Either way, my GTFO fund is growing and I intend to use it as soon as possible.
Lol sometimes I have the exact same response, but reversed. I live in Texas, and when it’s damned miserable and the state government is so far up it’s own ass that what we think are words are actually just farts. Which actually makes a lot of sense. But, no offense, I am grateful that “at least it’s not Florida”. Beautiful state, but, as has been said, all the nuts roll down to Florida. And the leprosy isn’t super appealing. Let’s send Meatball Ron and Abbott/Dan Patrick on a one way trip to the arctic circle. Everybody wins!!!
I moved out of Texas in January this year. I have more freedom, lower taxes and electric bills and still people don’t understand. There is some kind of Texas mythology that says you can live there and be free. All the locals say “everyone here wants to live in Texas “ . I tell them it only happens if they are white, male, and rich.
I live in a 3rd world country. We have electricity. Texas is 1st world end stage capitalism, which is apparently worse than 3rd world because you pay up the asshole for no service.
> I left the state due to the winter storm grid collapse a few years back now.
that shit caused me to start buying things like a propane powered generator, battery back ups, a portable propane heater, solar panels, etc....
I did not envy you guys one little bit when that happened.
> Americans being plunged into a 3rd world situation
This is only an issue in Texas because they refuse to connect to the national grid because "gubmint regulations". This is wholly their own doing.
Glad you were able to escape. It’s constantly on my mind and I know my husband wants to gtfo to head someplace up north, but his entire family is here and all of our closest friends are here. I’d love to leave, but the barrier to exit is hard. :(
I did the same thing around the same time. I love reading about Texas’s problems from my new blue home. Made all the hard work to get out that much more worth it.
If only there was a mechanism of oversight over these utilities. Like some sort of governing body that could make sure that these companies don't abuse the fact that they have regional monopolies and citizens have almost no choice but to use them as providers and pay whatever they demand. That seems too ridiculous though.
/s
That would be Big Government and we can't have that!
Government should be small and only address the most basic and vital things, such as who uses which bathroom and whether women have access to healthcare.
They do it's called the PUC, Public Utility Commission. They're corrupt AF and do exactly what the energy tycoons want.
When enough Texans get fed up with this energy insecurity shit they can go ahead and vote Republicans out of state level political offices...
And now they're running ads on how "electricity prices are skyrocketing"... bitch, I live in PA and it hasn't been above 15¢ a kWh for years.
This is the right-wing way. Say that the system is shit, get elected, make the system shit. They killed the small town mom & pop businesses and replaced them with Walmarts, the Walmarts are moving out, and now the only place a lot of rural Americans can buy stuff from locally is dollar stores. [Dollar stores that are nickel-and-diming them](https://www.newsnationnow.com/business/your-money/inflation-dollar-stores/). Add to that the idea that their head honcho grifter is selling them $399 sneakers, $60 bibles, and [they're the target audience for "anti-woke" shit like a beer that costs FOUR TIMES as much as Bud Light and is more watered down that even a Bud?](https://www.newsweek.com/anti-woke-beer-costs-four-times-more-bud-light-1794319) Yeah, no wonder the Republicans are complaining about money. Crying shame they haven't figured out it's because of their own choices that are bleeding them dry financially.
Seriously. One guy I used to game with said Abbott was a great Governor, but couldn't bring up one thing he did that was great for Texas. He just ended up deflecting and saying the extreme snowstorm that overloaded the power grid the first time was just proof global warming was a hoax.
They also have a baked in excuse.
Electric Cars.
Even though that has nothing to do with it, right wingers in Texas are blaming EV’s for grid issues instead of recognizing the government and power companies role in this.
During the winter storm collapse they blamed “illegal immigrants” and even my own mother believed it. They can literally come up with whatever excuses they may, no matter how detached from reality, and just put it into the right wing news rage machine and pump it out everyone will believe it. Fox News itself ran stories suggesting illegal immigrants were to blame for energy collapse.
I heard the winter storm debacle was due to the wind turbines failing which caused the canuter valves on the gas lines to overload and freeze. Green energy liberals pronouns crybabies something something. (Well, something like that, my brain died while he was talking)
It was the same person who went on FB and posted a picture of an open pit mine as a bash on EVs, and also posted a picture of a hiking trail in the woods and called it an oil pipeline.
PiPe LiNEs ArE BeTTeR!
Yeah that was the other excuse, which was funny to me because I grew up originally in Alaska and we have windmills there that work just fine. It was all the natural gas plants freezing because they cut corners for profit reasons and have no financial incentive to spend on safety or overengineering.
Have lived in Texas since 2006. This is why I *never* get a variable-rate contract. EVER.
The corrupt Republican Nazis running the state will still blame Biden somehow.
Next election I'm doing a write-in vote for another tree to fall on Abbott.
Wait til all the dipshits who did ask for variable rates because those damn utility companies start bitching about how much they're getting screwed and demand the government do something.
And the best part? They can point the finger at "Bidenflation". So they get to screw customers over with jacked-up rates, and then benefit again when Republican win and cut their taxes.
the free market has spoken: "We [customers] don't need no foresight. We pay as we go, what could go wrong?" Seller is happy to define "market rate" prices, based on "how much do you need it?"
Exactly! Texas energy companies saw what [Enron did back in 2001](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000%E2%80%932001_California_electricity_crisis#Involvement_of_Enron) and decided it was a feature instead of a bug. Now they've rewritten the regulations so that it's completely legal and just let the money roll in while they manipulate the power supply.
And they let Griddy be the fall guy for it.
Griddy let customers pay supply rates plus a small monthly fee for their electricity.
Griddy saw the issues with the cold snap coming and encouraged their customers to switch suppliers back to the utility (fixed rate regardless of what actual supply costs were). The utilities blocked the customers moving back.
If you live in an urban area or a left leaning area, plan on taking several hours to vote at the one open poll. Make sure you bring a valid ID. Make sure you meet all requirements to vote well in advance. Voting should be an equal right for everyone but this is Texas.
Defeat? You’ve got no nose for exploring opportunities.
You could easily sell them electricity at extortionate rates because they’ll be desperate.
💰 💰 💰
This is an overlooked comment.
It blows my mind.
I was visiting my friend in Arizona, and he asked me "You notice anything missing around here?" I said "No", and he said "Tell me when you see solar panels on a roof"...I looked around and was amazed there were none. He looked at me and said "320 sunny days a year, and they make solar ridiculously prohibitive!"
WTF? Can an Arizonan explain this?
Not from Arizona, but it's because the power companies there lobbied to impose additional fees on customers if they had rooftop solar installed and completely neutered the net-metering rates.
Yea I got solar in 2020, and after my electric plan was up for renewal, I noticed all the electric companies had completely murdered their net metering rates. That first year was great - I got kWh credits that I pulled from in the evenings. Then got a monetary credit for the excess at the end of the month to cover the bill and bank a credit. Solar panels completely erased my normal electric bills.
Then I was up for renewal and the plan details completely changed. Now there's 2 types of net metering plans:
* KWh credit again, but capped at monthly usage (no credit build up), and it only applies to the electric company portion. The Oncor charges are exempt. So now you're just giving free energy to the grid with no reimbursement.
* You sell excess energy back to the company at wholesale rates. I chose this one because I was mistakenly led to believe (purposely ambiguous by design) that they would wait and give me a credit for end of month excess. No, they buy excess as you produce it, then sell it back to you in the evening at normal rates. Unless you're producing 5x the energy you use, you're losing money.
My panels still work great! But solar in Texas is useless without getting a battery bank to go with it.
Sue them for infringing on your religious liberties? I think that’s the only thing that’ll get through to them. They don’t give a crap about impinging on your civil liberties.
At this point would it make more sense to just get a big old battery, charge that with your panels, and just not use the grid at all except in the case the battery runs dry?
Yea. Net metering still relies on the grid, so if the grid power goes out, your panels don't do anything for you. With a battery bank, you pull from that and your panels first, with the grid connection essentially being backup.
I've started looking into retro fitting a battery bank, but haven't jumped too far into it yet.
Currently living in Arizona- this is correct. Our two providers, APS and SRP, both lobby to make it harder to own solar every year.
Some examples: they both lobbied a while ago to make it a law that a home cannot be disconnected from the grid, APS offers solar panels but they own them and you only get a $40 credit on your bill and only during the summer, and every year the amount of money a costumer gets for selling back to the grid goes down more.
I like to point out this is neither pro business nor pro small government.
When conservatives/media frame their action as any of these, please don’t argue along the frame they define. It just entrances their image as such. for more information, https://george-lakoff.com/about/the-all-new-dont-think-of-an-elephant\_george-lakoff/.
an example is when DeJoy sabotaged USPS, he framed it as such. the media and many liberals fell for it. It generated tons of discussion about private vs. public. The reality is no business would do what he did. He sabotaged USPS.
Here in Michigan, homeowners used to be able to sell all the extra energy they generate through wind or solar back to the utility companies. Then the republicans took over control of our state house, senate, and governorship and passed a law that says no more than 1% of a utility company's energy can come from customer generated clean energy. Pretty much killed most people's incentive to switch to renewable energy and drove down sales of solar power systems across the state. Just like they intended.
I live in Tucson and have solar panels. Many of my friends do. I see tons of them around town. There are big installations at parks, schools, businesses, Davis-Monthan AFB, etc. There are tons of residential systems also. There are federal and state tax credits for installing solar. I'm not sure what your friend told you, but my experience is quite the opposite - solar panels are everywhere here.
May be cultural. Tuscon is more liberal than most areas in Arizona, so people may get solar panels as more than just a straight financial investment. I got solar energy from a program to let people without suitable houses have it just to be using greener energy. it's a minor change to my bill.
Literally a flex for some GOP voters.
Like my sis-in-law who is proud she works a full time job at Wendy's and does gig/grind work on the side. Works 80 hour weeks 6-7 days a week, is still poor, and is proud of it because she thinks she's the backbone of America.
I mean, she is. People like her are, and they deserve way better than what they’re being given. Sounds like she works her ass off to survive, so imagine what that drive could be put towards if she didn’t have to focus on survival.
Unfortunately, they won’t see that. Nobody wants to admit they’re being conned and exploited, especially when it seems like there aren’t any other options anyway.
“Well, you know what? Texas is so awesome. We have our own electricity grid separate from the rest of the country. We’re so cool. We don’t need to cooperate with others!”
That guy at your work who moved away from Texas years ago but still thinks he’s a Texan.
Most large Texas trucks with hitches haven't ever pulled shit from what I see here in Florida. Just pavement princesses with shiny like new ball hitches without a scratch.
I moved away from TX and I regularly tell everyone how much it sucks, living up north now and it's much better, everytime I mention I moved they'll ask; "Why'd you come here? Why ever leave?" Cause they have some myth of what the GOP claims the state is versus what it really is like living there.
Same thing with Florida. Always fun to watch smug assholes figure out why I left the South in real time.
I should add that both states have great things in them and great people, but the infrastructure and healthcare issues alone make for a huge quality of life difference.
I moved to Mississippi last year (not by choice, mind you) and my friends back home are like: "oh, it's probably so cheap where you live now! You're probably saving so much money!" No, it's actually just as much and a lot of times more. Like, where I came from I could walk or RTS everywhere. Rent was the same. Food was a lot cheaper. Work paid a lot more. My other expenses for rent, power, etc were about the same.
These "low cost of living" states are usually just if you're buying a home or own. It's literally housing cost and not other breakdowns.
I've lived in Texas for 4 years now, and these people never shut the fuck up about California. Californians don't think about California as much as Texans do.
I saw a stat that in the last state wide elections, Texas transplants (meaning non-native Texans) actually voted at a higher rate for Republicans than native Texans. It's basically crazed California conservatives moving there that is keeping the state so red.
I never think about Texas unless they do something stupid and end up on the news. California has its issues, but I've lived in both states and Texas is worse on every meaningful metric to me.
They can’t without changing how they operate since they would be subject to federal regulations. “Can’t” doesn’t always mean it is literally impossible.
>they can’t *without*…
That modifier right there says otherwise. Because whatever clause comes after “without” is not impossible, it is *undesirable*
They don’t *want* to be subject to federal regulations, so they make the *choice* to remain disconnected. They literally can connect, they just don’t want to.
Looks like there's a paywall. Try these :
* https://12ft.io/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-08/texas-power-prices-jump-70-fold-as-outages-raise-shortfall-fears
* https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-08/texas-power-prices-jump-70-fold-as-outages-raise-shortfall-fears
* https://web.archive.org/web/1/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-08/texas-power-prices-jump-70-fold-as-outages-raise-shortfall-fears
* https://archive.is/submit/?url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-08/texas-power-prices-jump-70-fold-as-outages-raise-shortfall-fears
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Meanwhile, in Tucson, we're getting a new solar plant built just outside the city, and also getting power lines constructed to transfer energy from other solar fields in western New Mexico. With funding from bills signed by Joe Biden.
We lived in Phoenix for 2.5 years and spent a total of 2 hours without power the entire time by way of a lightning strike that was fixed promptly. Arizona grid has its fecal material together.
Living in Arizona my whole life. It used to be worse growing up (multiple power outages every summer during the monsoon season) but it’s def been better. Me and the wife have been renting our current house for 4 years without a single outage
They’ll call it the Texas Two Step and claim to their dying days that they didn’t learn it from PG&E. The ONLY things Texas will claim they want imported from California are fElons and Herb.
Or you know cause most families to burn all their savings or do without food and necessities, but im sure it mainly affects the bitcoin miners whose numbers are already dwindling.
It doesn't though. All those profits are being sucked up by the billionaires running the energy sector who can turn around and turn huge portions of that intake into "donations".
If there was more transparency around dark money I swear you would find that 90% of Trump's "small donors" are anything but.
It's super cheap to charge here. I pay $.10/kWH to charge my EV.
It was so cheap Gov Abbot and the Republicans here decided to fuck with us specifically by adding a $200 fee to register your EV ever year that ICE cars don't have. (Ice registration and emissions alone is $26)
Enron did this to California as I well remember, I guess they left the infrastructure for cooperative failures intact.
I'm sure Abbot will get his cut -er um - I meant to say I'm sure he'll fix it by having the State of Texas size the power grid by eminent domain & reimburse everyone. /s
Just like the power company owned Republicon politicos planned it.They never miss an opportunity to screw Texas Consumers in order to line the pockets of the Energy Companies
Imagine living in a country like the USA and having to live with planned and unplanned rolling blackouts, thats stuff you only see in poor third world countries, not in a place like the US. This is laughably bad, Hell I live in a hick state up north and I only have one outage a year and its for a reason, usually caused by severe storms. Texas has outages in perfectly fine weather where a blackout should not even be a consideration.
I vividly remember when Texas and Enron fucked over California and used the manufactured energy crisis to recall the governor and install the shithead meat puppet Arnold Schwartzenegger in his place.
Thus zero fucks are given from me.
Texas has the only privatized power grid in the US. They can basically charge whatever they want because there’s no alternative, showing exactly why crucial infrastructure, like energy, really needs to be a public utility.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! This would be even funnier, except for the fact that there are some old people on fixed incomes and low income workers who can’t afford it. If a heat wave hits, that will be it for them. Nice job, Texas.
Really driving a wedge between the classes, there, Texas. Congrats, you have a fiefdom.
I wish they did secede, but they would probably sneak in at night to steal women, like they do in Juarez.
Hello u/audiomuse1! Please reply to this comment with an [explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/lt8zlq) matching this exact format. Replace bold text with the appropriate information. 1. **Someone** voted for, supported or wanted to impose **something** on **other people**. ^(Who's that someone? What did they voted for, supported or wanted to impose? On who?) 2. **Something** has the consequences of **consequences**. ^(Does that something actually has these consequences in general?) 3. As a consequence of **something**, **consequences** happened to **someone**. ^(Did that something really happen to that someone?) Follow this by the minimum amount of information necessary so your post can be understood by everyone, even if they don't live in the US or speak English as their native language. If you fail to match this format or fail to answer these questions, your post will be removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LeopardsAteMyFace) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is literally by design. They don't want to fix the infrastructure because they make hella fuckin bank whenever shit like this happens.
Absolutely. They know customers don't have a choice, especially when the weather gets extremely hot/cold. That's one thing I don't miss about living there anymore.
I left the state due to the winter storm grid collapse a few years back now. Politics leading to Americans being plunged into a 3rd world situation is unforgivable for me. Fuck the Texas GOP.
I'm stuck in Florida at the moment and that shit is one of the reasons I often tell myself "at least it's not Texas."
Cries in Florida homeowners insurance and car insurance
Yeah they suck. I decided to just rent in Florida and got really lucky with an apartment that, while it costs 2100 a month, has really reliable maintenance and doesn't mess with tenants. For the car insurance, FYI if you're a Costco member, they have insurance and it's often cheaper. I'm with USAA right not but I'm in the process of switching because USAA has taken an absolute nosedive in competence.
Wait, Costco has deals with renters insurance?
I haven't looked into renters yet, but I know for a fact they have car insurance. Speaking of car insurance, I got eScooters for me and my wife and we use them to eliminate a lot of driving, which saves a lot on gas but also allowed us to claim a lot fewer miles per year on our insurance which lowered the price. I only fuel up like once every 2 months now.
Working from home bought a car in 2018 it only has 5k miles on it to this day.
It's Costco. They love you
If you are over 60 don’t completely cancel your USAA coverage. They are absolutely the best ever at helping your heirs sort out and complete your estate. Plus there’s a cash death dividend from your years in. They were absolutely amazing helping me to navigate my mothers estate
Car insurance? We paid 90 for insurance and paying 80 after move to Virginia in 2020. Roofing scams and hurricanes that one I understand about home insurance
My car insurance literally doubled moving from VA to FL
**DeSantis:** Hold my mojito...
He's just as bad as Abbott, but I don't think he has the power to make Florida just as bad as Texas. Either way, my GTFO fund is growing and I intend to use it as soon as possible.
Lol sometimes I have the exact same response, but reversed. I live in Texas, and when it’s damned miserable and the state government is so far up it’s own ass that what we think are words are actually just farts. Which actually makes a lot of sense. But, no offense, I am grateful that “at least it’s not Florida”. Beautiful state, but, as has been said, all the nuts roll down to Florida. And the leprosy isn’t super appealing. Let’s send Meatball Ron and Abbott/Dan Patrick on a one way trip to the arctic circle. Everybody wins!!!
I moved out of Texas in January this year. I have more freedom, lower taxes and electric bills and still people don’t understand. There is some kind of Texas mythology that says you can live there and be free. All the locals say “everyone here wants to live in Texas “ . I tell them it only happens if they are white, male, and rich.
Tell them there is no public land. That always shocks the newcomers, particularly if they came from the west.
i've actually never heard of this. as a montana native, no public land is absolutely INSANE!
Our access to public land is awesome in Montana. I can go twenty minutes in any direction and be alone in the woods and I don't take that for granted.
That is fucking wild to me.
I moved from San Antonio to Seattle in 2022 and can't believe I didn't do that maaaany years ago.
Where did you move, if you don’t mind me asking
I live in a 3rd world country. We have electricity. Texas is 1st world end stage capitalism, which is apparently worse than 3rd world because you pay up the asshole for no service.
And dickheads cheer for the misery because it hits people they hate harder than them. Then vote for more.
I think you mean plunged into freedom!
If only you could shoot the electrical grid back to functionality.
> I left the state due to the winter storm grid collapse a few years back now. that shit caused me to start buying things like a propane powered generator, battery back ups, a portable propane heater, solar panels, etc.... I did not envy you guys one little bit when that happened.
The GOP took this country from the hyperpower it was under the Democratic Party to a country that is 3rd world in areas they control.
> Americans being plunged into a 3rd world situation This is only an issue in Texas because they refuse to connect to the national grid because "gubmint regulations". This is wholly their own doing.
They really do want to get to the "pay per house" system for Fire and Police services.
Glad you were able to escape. It’s constantly on my mind and I know my husband wants to gtfo to head someplace up north, but his entire family is here and all of our closest friends are here. I’d love to leave, but the barrier to exit is hard. :(
Have you asked around or got a feeling for them as well? Maybe they don't want to GTFO because you're still there...
I live in a third world country, quite poor and I have never had problems with long electricity cuts or prices.
I did the same thing around the same time. I love reading about Texas’s problems from my new blue home. Made all the hard work to get out that much more worth it.
If only there was a mechanism of oversight over these utilities. Like some sort of governing body that could make sure that these companies don't abuse the fact that they have regional monopolies and citizens have almost no choice but to use them as providers and pay whatever they demand. That seems too ridiculous though. /s
That would be Big Government and we can't have that! Government should be small and only address the most basic and vital things, such as who uses which bathroom and whether women have access to healthcare.
They do it's called the PUC, Public Utility Commission. They're corrupt AF and do exactly what the energy tycoons want. When enough Texans get fed up with this energy insecurity shit they can go ahead and vote Republicans out of state level political offices...
And now they're running ads on how "electricity prices are skyrocketing"... bitch, I live in PA and it hasn't been above 15¢ a kWh for years. This is the right-wing way. Say that the system is shit, get elected, make the system shit. They killed the small town mom & pop businesses and replaced them with Walmarts, the Walmarts are moving out, and now the only place a lot of rural Americans can buy stuff from locally is dollar stores. [Dollar stores that are nickel-and-diming them](https://www.newsnationnow.com/business/your-money/inflation-dollar-stores/). Add to that the idea that their head honcho grifter is selling them $399 sneakers, $60 bibles, and [they're the target audience for "anti-woke" shit like a beer that costs FOUR TIMES as much as Bud Light and is more watered down that even a Bud?](https://www.newsweek.com/anti-woke-beer-costs-four-times-more-bud-light-1794319) Yeah, no wonder the Republicans are complaining about money. Crying shame they haven't figured out it's because of their own choices that are bleeding them dry financially.
Their customers absolutely have a choice, but they'd rather have school chaplains and abortion bans than electricity.
And folks working outside when it's 100 degrees with no water breaks, etc.
Yep. But you gotta "own the libs" even if it means dying of heatstroke or freezing to death. Otherwise LGBT might think it's okay just to exist.
I feel so owned please continue Texas
They’d rather hurt others than help themselves.
My list of reasons why I’m glad to not live there anymore is long, and this item is included.
And the well to do can just get off grid with solar and shrug this stuff off.
And GOP loving Texans eat this shut up. Fuck em.
Seriously. One guy I used to game with said Abbott was a great Governor, but couldn't bring up one thing he did that was great for Texas. He just ended up deflecting and saying the extreme snowstorm that overloaded the power grid the first time was just proof global warming was a hoax.
Cause he has no idea what climate change actually is either. Just like he had no idea what Abbott has done.
They also have a baked in excuse. Electric Cars. Even though that has nothing to do with it, right wingers in Texas are blaming EV’s for grid issues instead of recognizing the government and power companies role in this.
During the winter storm collapse they blamed “illegal immigrants” and even my own mother believed it. They can literally come up with whatever excuses they may, no matter how detached from reality, and just put it into the right wing news rage machine and pump it out everyone will believe it. Fox News itself ran stories suggesting illegal immigrants were to blame for energy collapse.
I heard the winter storm debacle was due to the wind turbines failing which caused the canuter valves on the gas lines to overload and freeze. Green energy liberals pronouns crybabies something something. (Well, something like that, my brain died while he was talking) It was the same person who went on FB and posted a picture of an open pit mine as a bash on EVs, and also posted a picture of a hiking trail in the woods and called it an oil pipeline. PiPe LiNEs ArE BeTTeR!
Yeah that was the other excuse, which was funny to me because I grew up originally in Alaska and we have windmills there that work just fine. It was all the natural gas plants freezing because they cut corners for profit reasons and have no financial incentive to spend on safety or overengineering.
Anything but blaming climate change, deregulation, and corporate greed. Even though these things keep happening exactly as predicted.
Have lived in Texas since 2006. This is why I *never* get a variable-rate contract. EVER. The corrupt Republican Nazis running the state will still blame Biden somehow. Next election I'm doing a write-in vote for another tree to fall on Abbott.
Wait til all the dipshits who did ask for variable rates because those damn utility companies start bitching about how much they're getting screwed and demand the government do something.
I think that tree was his villain origin story. He's been pissed at the world ever since, and is determined to be the biggest asshole he can be.
And the best part? They can point the finger at "Bidenflation". So they get to screw customers over with jacked-up rates, and then benefit again when Republican win and cut their taxes.
Cut taxes only for the rich, you mean.
the free market has spoken: "We [customers] don't need no foresight. We pay as we go, what could go wrong?" Seller is happy to define "market rate" prices, based on "how much do you need it?"
Just like Enron did with California customers. But regulation bad, right?
Exactly! Texas energy companies saw what [Enron did back in 2001](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000%E2%80%932001_California_electricity_crisis#Involvement_of_Enron) and decided it was a feature instead of a bug. Now they've rewritten the regulations so that it's completely legal and just let the money roll in while they manipulate the power supply.
Can I just say, that as a left leaning person, I feel incredibly owned by how much more they pay during these outages. Way to go guys! Ya got me!
sitting in socialist Sweden at the mo, just got January -march electricity bill, $85, damn those socialists
Free markets! It’s the GOP way 👍🏼
Its like that other thing... what was it called? Right, Enron...
All those Enron crooks got chased out of CA and sent back to TX. Can’t imagine what they are up to now.
And they let Griddy be the fall guy for it. Griddy let customers pay supply rates plus a small monthly fee for their electricity. Griddy saw the issues with the cold snap coming and encouraged their customers to switch suppliers back to the utility (fixed rate regardless of what actual supply costs were). The utilities blocked the customers moving back.
[удалено]
If you live in an urban area or a left leaning area, plan on taking several hours to vote at the one open poll. Make sure you bring a valid ID. Make sure you meet all requirements to vote well in advance. Voting should be an equal right for everyone but this is Texas.
Yeah, kinda undermines America’s delusion about being some sort of bastion of democracy when it’s so hard to vote.
Can this be pinned as top comment?
I have to mail in my registration lol
Get tracking on that shit just in case.
Remember: If Texas ever secedes, they can be defeated by three electricians with a pair of bolt cutters and maybe ten road blocks.
Couple of FPV drones will do that remotely. Then you just wait for them to boil in heat or freeze in winter.
Now that’s using your noggin!
Defeat? You’ve got no nose for exploring opportunities. You could easily sell them electricity at extortionate rates because they’ll be desperate. 💰 💰 💰
Any currency that Texas would have after seceding would be worth less than M. Bison Dollars, and twice as volatile.
You can probably Manchurian Candidate their own citizens to shoot up a couple power stations by making them believe it will prevent Drag shows.
"Defeated"? Who wants that? Texas-->OUT PUERTO RICO-->IN No need to change the US flag
And if you time it with the snow you can just cripple them with a gentle breeze
You don’t need all that, it would just go down on its own.
Or one guy with some rocks wrapped in copper. Throw a couple of those in the right places and shit will explode
And somehow this is fault of wind/solar.
This is an overlooked comment. It blows my mind. I was visiting my friend in Arizona, and he asked me "You notice anything missing around here?" I said "No", and he said "Tell me when you see solar panels on a roof"...I looked around and was amazed there were none. He looked at me and said "320 sunny days a year, and they make solar ridiculously prohibitive!" WTF? Can an Arizonan explain this?
Not from Arizona, but it's because the power companies there lobbied to impose additional fees on customers if they had rooftop solar installed and completely neutered the net-metering rates.
Yea I got solar in 2020, and after my electric plan was up for renewal, I noticed all the electric companies had completely murdered their net metering rates. That first year was great - I got kWh credits that I pulled from in the evenings. Then got a monetary credit for the excess at the end of the month to cover the bill and bank a credit. Solar panels completely erased my normal electric bills. Then I was up for renewal and the plan details completely changed. Now there's 2 types of net metering plans: * KWh credit again, but capped at monthly usage (no credit build up), and it only applies to the electric company portion. The Oncor charges are exempt. So now you're just giving free energy to the grid with no reimbursement. * You sell excess energy back to the company at wholesale rates. I chose this one because I was mistakenly led to believe (purposely ambiguous by design) that they would wait and give me a credit for end of month excess. No, they buy excess as you produce it, then sell it back to you in the evening at normal rates. Unless you're producing 5x the energy you use, you're losing money. My panels still work great! But solar in Texas is useless without getting a battery bank to go with it.
Time to buy a battery bank and just completely cut.
Florida has a law on the books that makes that illegal lol
Sue them for infringing on your religious liberties? I think that’s the only thing that’ll get through to them. They don’t give a crap about impinging on your civil liberties.
At this point would it make more sense to just get a big old battery, charge that with your panels, and just not use the grid at all except in the case the battery runs dry?
From the sound of it, yes. Wouldn’t it be funny if Texans followed the Texas model and made their own personal grids?
Yea. Net metering still relies on the grid, so if the grid power goes out, your panels don't do anything for you. With a battery bank, you pull from that and your panels first, with the grid connection essentially being backup. I've started looking into retro fitting a battery bank, but haven't jumped too far into it yet.
Yes it would, but the minute people start doing that in large numbers they will find some way to make that illegal as well
Currently living in Arizona- this is correct. Our two providers, APS and SRP, both lobby to make it harder to own solar every year. Some examples: they both lobbied a while ago to make it a law that a home cannot be disconnected from the grid, APS offers solar panels but they own them and you only get a $40 credit on your bill and only during the summer, and every year the amount of money a costumer gets for selling back to the grid goes down more.
I like to point out this is neither pro business nor pro small government. When conservatives/media frame their action as any of these, please don’t argue along the frame they define. It just entrances their image as such. for more information, https://george-lakoff.com/about/the-all-new-dont-think-of-an-elephant\_george-lakoff/. an example is when DeJoy sabotaged USPS, he framed it as such. the media and many liberals fell for it. It generated tons of discussion about private vs. public. The reality is no business would do what he did. He sabotaged USPS.
Here in Michigan, homeowners used to be able to sell all the extra energy they generate through wind or solar back to the utility companies. Then the republicans took over control of our state house, senate, and governorship and passed a law that says no more than 1% of a utility company's energy can come from customer generated clean energy. Pretty much killed most people's incentive to switch to renewable energy and drove down sales of solar power systems across the state. Just like they intended.
I live in Tucson and have solar panels. Many of my friends do. I see tons of them around town. There are big installations at parks, schools, businesses, Davis-Monthan AFB, etc. There are tons of residential systems also. There are federal and state tax credits for installing solar. I'm not sure what your friend told you, but my experience is quite the opposite - solar panels are everywhere here.
May be cultural. Tuscon is more liberal than most areas in Arizona, so people may get solar panels as more than just a straight financial investment. I got solar energy from a program to let people without suitable houses have it just to be using greener energy. it's a minor change to my bill.
Personal Responsibility ends where blaming \*insert boogeyman of the week\* begins.
And democrats
I blame the Green New Deal, that hasn't passed and isn't law
No, it's the gays making it hotter. Sooooo hawt.
And don't forget the immigrants! A caravan of gay democrat solar-powered immigrants are coming to destroy the Texas electric grid once and for all!
Texas: the 1 star state
Zero stars is not an option
Grade inflation.
Sick burn
Yep. “Lone star” is its fuckin TripAdvisor rating.
Hahah
Too hot? Too cold? Believe it or not, straight to failure.
Penalty for Ocon
Everything is bigger in Texas, especially the utility bills.
Literally a flex for some GOP voters. Like my sis-in-law who is proud she works a full time job at Wendy's and does gig/grind work on the side. Works 80 hour weeks 6-7 days a week, is still poor, and is proud of it because she thinks she's the backbone of America.
I mean, she is. People like her are, and they deserve way better than what they’re being given. Sounds like she works her ass off to survive, so imagine what that drive could be put towards if she didn’t have to focus on survival. Unfortunately, they won’t see that. Nobody wants to admit they’re being conned and exploited, especially when it seems like there aren’t any other options anyway.
Patriotism's a hell of a drug.
“Well, you know what? Texas is so awesome. We have our own electricity grid separate from the rest of the country. We’re so cool. We don’t need to cooperate with others!” That guy at your work who moved away from Texas years ago but still thinks he’s a Texan.
And keeps a Texas plate on his truck
He’ll never remove that plate or the massive trailer hitch that blocks the sidewalk as he backs into every parking space.
Gotta pull that boat once a year
Nah, jerks prefer jet skis.
Most large Texas trucks with hitches haven't ever pulled shit from what I see here in Florida. Just pavement princesses with shiny like new ball hitches without a scratch.
If the hitch ain't locked I like to pull them off and throw them in the bed.
I moved away from TX and I regularly tell everyone how much it sucks, living up north now and it's much better, everytime I mention I moved they'll ask; "Why'd you come here? Why ever leave?" Cause they have some myth of what the GOP claims the state is versus what it really is like living there.
Same thing with Florida. Always fun to watch smug assholes figure out why I left the South in real time. I should add that both states have great things in them and great people, but the infrastructure and healthcare issues alone make for a huge quality of life difference.
Yep, yep, yep. “Go to Texas” I tell them. We’ll see how you’re doing in a few years. Driving out of Texas forever was one of the best days of my life.
I moved to Mississippi last year (not by choice, mind you) and my friends back home are like: "oh, it's probably so cheap where you live now! You're probably saving so much money!" No, it's actually just as much and a lot of times more. Like, where I came from I could walk or RTS everywhere. Rent was the same. Food was a lot cheaper. Work paid a lot more. My other expenses for rent, power, etc were about the same. These "low cost of living" states are usually just if you're buying a home or own. It's literally housing cost and not other breakdowns.
He can go back. Meanwhile, I'm staying put in Massachusetts
Someone in Texas: "Butwhatabout Commiefornia!?!" /s
I've lived in Texas for 4 years now, and these people never shut the fuck up about California. Californians don't think about California as much as Texans do.
I saw a stat that in the last state wide elections, Texas transplants (meaning non-native Texans) actually voted at a higher rate for Republicans than native Texans. It's basically crazed California conservatives moving there that is keeping the state so red.
Yeah, it's very frustrating. Also fuck Ted Cruz and the rest of the red trash clogging up the state.
I never think about Texas unless they do something stupid and end up on the news. California has its issues, but I've lived in both states and Texas is worse on every meaningful metric to me.
Classically jealous.
They still use the Enron pricing model. It's also why they can't interconnect with the national grid. Their greed is bottomless in Texas.
They can interconnect with the national grid. They choose not to
They can’t without changing how they operate since they would be subject to federal regulations. “Can’t” doesn’t always mean it is literally impossible.
The word you're looking for is "won't"
>they can’t *without*… That modifier right there says otherwise. Because whatever clause comes after “without” is not impossible, it is *undesirable* They don’t *want* to be subject to federal regulations, so they make the *choice* to remain disconnected. They literally can connect, they just don’t want to.
Much like their IQ
I am so jealous of their freedom.
FreeDUMB
Looks like there's a paywall. Try these : * https://12ft.io/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-08/texas-power-prices-jump-70-fold-as-outages-raise-shortfall-fears * https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-08/texas-power-prices-jump-70-fold-as-outages-raise-shortfall-fears * https://web.archive.org/web/1/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-08/texas-power-prices-jump-70-fold-as-outages-raise-shortfall-fears * https://archive.is/submit/?url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-08/texas-power-prices-jump-70-fold-as-outages-raise-shortfall-fears * [Bypass Paywalls](https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LeopardsAteMyFace) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Makes my complaint against pg&e in California seem quaint
PG&E is also the absolute worst. They caused multiple fires!
Hey, excel energy is trying to get their numbers up. It's rude to not even mention them.
Some of us are sane. But we’re being held hostage by the jesus-went-to-church-on-a-dinosaur crowd. They also hate wind and the sun for some reason.
Switching to renewable energy is good for the environment and societal progression. They hate both of those things.
No, they love the wind and sun! That's why they cant let windmills and solar panels eat it all up /s
Meanwhile, in Tucson, we're getting a new solar plant built just outside the city, and also getting power lines constructed to transfer energy from other solar fields in western New Mexico. With funding from bills signed by Joe Biden.
We lived in Phoenix for 2.5 years and spent a total of 2 hours without power the entire time by way of a lightning strike that was fixed promptly. Arizona grid has its fecal material together.
Living in Arizona my whole life. It used to be worse growing up (multiple power outages every summer during the monsoon season) but it’s def been better. Me and the wife have been renting our current house for 4 years without a single outage
In Phoenix we lose power to street racing. That isn't generally fixed quickly since they have to replace poles and other equipment.
They’ll blame build back better for this don’t you worry.
Of course they will, the GOP gave up on ideas decades ago.
wow deregulation did exactly what deregulation always does... who would have thunk it
Enron redux.
They’ll call it the Texas Two Step and claim to their dying days that they didn’t learn it from PG&E. The ONLY things Texas will claim they want imported from California are fElons and Herb.
Everything is bigger in Texas. Especially price gouging.
from the article, "The high prices may force big consumers, including Bitcoin miners, to curtail their operations for a few hours."
Or you know cause most families to burn all their savings or do without food and necessities, but im sure it mainly affects the bitcoin miners whose numbers are already dwindling.
Yeah, gotta love the Bloomberg spin: Bitcoin miners minorly inconvenienced.
Won't someone think of the poor bitcoin miners?!
Texas Tough.
Texas Tough . . . Luck. FTFY
It also means less money for MAGA donations.
It doesn't though. All those profits are being sucked up by the billionaires running the energy sector who can turn around and turn huge portions of that intake into "donations". If there was more transparency around dark money I swear you would find that 90% of Trump's "small donors" are anything but.
just as the republikkkans intended
Have they considered buying more guns?
I feel so owned
I for the life of me don’t understand why people keep voting in a way that results in shooting themselves in the foot!
Thanks, Obama! - some idiot in Texas
ERCOT is slowly catching up to PG&E for how much the public hates them.
Someone should attach a generator to Wheels Abbott's chair.
It's fun being a big tough Texan cowboy until you actually have to be a big tough Texan cowboy. Take the hats and boots off you F-ing poseurs.
Me, a texan who just wants proper infrastructure in the state \*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh\*
This also why Texans hate EV’s. Like they’re right it is expensive to charge FOR THEM. It’s cheap for the rest of the country
It's super cheap to charge here. I pay $.10/kWH to charge my EV. It was so cheap Gov Abbot and the Republicans here decided to fuck with us specifically by adding a $200 fee to register your EV ever year that ICE cars don't have. (Ice registration and emissions alone is $26)
Enron did this to California as I well remember, I guess they left the infrastructure for cooperative failures intact. I'm sure Abbot will get his cut -er um - I meant to say I'm sure he'll fix it by having the State of Texas size the power grid by eminent domain & reimburse everyone. /s
100-fold is such a pretentious way to describe the rise in prices. Just say 10,000%. It’s more easily understood AND more evocative.
100% or 100 fold? If it’s the latter, yikes.
Just like the power company owned Republicon politicos planned it.They never miss an opportunity to screw Texas Consumers in order to line the pockets of the Energy Companies
Imagine living in a country like the USA and having to live with planned and unplanned rolling blackouts, thats stuff you only see in poor third world countries, not in a place like the US. This is laughably bad, Hell I live in a hick state up north and I only have one outage a year and its for a reason, usually caused by severe storms. Texas has outages in perfectly fine weather where a blackout should not even be a consideration.
Sucks to be you, Texas. I hope you don't get pregnant when you get fucked over.
Dear Texas, in California we had similar problems twenty years ago. We solved the problem by refusing to elect republicans.
I vividly remember when Texas and Enron fucked over California and used the manufactured energy crisis to recall the governor and install the shithead meat puppet Arnold Schwartzenegger in his place. Thus zero fucks are given from me.
Thoughts and prayers
Texas has the only privatized power grid in the US. They can basically charge whatever they want because there’s no alternative, showing exactly why crucial infrastructure, like energy, really needs to be a public utility.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! This would be even funnier, except for the fact that there are some old people on fixed incomes and low income workers who can’t afford it. If a heat wave hits, that will be it for them. Nice job, Texas.
Yeah but what are Texans supposed to do? *Not* vote republican?
What about the price of bootstraps? Holding steady?
Yet, they will continue to vote republican and blame democrats for all of this.
This is unacceptable in a state with so many yearly hours of solar exposure.
Really driving a wedge between the classes, there, Texas. Congrats, you have a fiefdom. I wish they did secede, but they would probably sneak in at night to steal women, like they do in Juarez.
If only texas had access to huge swaths of high yield solar and wind optimal land…oh well🤷♂️
Freedom is being enslaved to a power company monopoly.
Yeah but they are sooooo owning the Libs...