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It turns out that was ordinary fraud[1] not a flaw in the physical plant. States with functional regulatory bodies don't have this problem. At most you get a si

• mannykannot 2y ago
  I see this is developing news, and interesting in its own right, though without a clear resolution yet. Regardless, one only needs the outcome of the event to be aware of the possibility of a common-mode failure disrupting both electrical and pipelined natural gas supplies at the same time.
  • jmbwell 2y ago
    As long as the flow of money isn’t disrupted, the system works as designed. The most significant laws Texas enacted after the freeze — HB 3 and 5, SB 1015 and 2627 - mainly establish new funding for gas-fired plant construction, cut funding for renewable construction, and allow energy companies to raise rates on customers more frequently. Observers will note that gas fired plants had the most unplanned outages, while renewable sources had the fewest. In any case, what matters is that the $9/kWh costs are duly distributed to the customers and tax payers, to the benefit of energy traders.
• bob1029 2y ago
  I recall the spot price of natural gas going through the roof leading up to the crisis. I would be less shocked to find out this was an intentional winding down of capacity for economic reasons.