Texas Pays the Price of the Culture War

[DonViejo]

Instead of focusing on governance, Republican politicians in the Lone Star State spent their time inflaming grievances.

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

Adam Serwer
Staff writer at The Atlantic

SAN ANTONIO—The power gave out last Monday night. When we woke up on Tuesday morning, the temperature in the house was dipping below 50 degrees. We bundled our toddler in her warm jammies and tiny bubble coat. The gas and water were still on, so we huddled in front of the stove, boiling water for tea, hoping to raise the temperature a bit.

We were among the millions of Texans who lost power when a massive winter storm brought the temperature down to the single digits. In Houston, a woman and child accidentally suffocated themselves with carbon monoxide trying to stay warm in their car. Two people in Austin died in a fire that likely resulted from an attempt to stay warm. Here in San Antonio, a man in his 70s was found dead, apparently from exposure. Many Texans were without power, water, or both for days, left to choose between the risk of contracting COVID-19 at a shelter and the danger of freezing in their home.

I consider us fortunate. The second night, after the power went out again, we were sleeping with our daughter between us to make sure she stayed warm. We awoke to a soft roar, like the inside of a seashell, and realized that our pipes had burst and the nearby bathroom was filling with water. My wife woke up first and turned the water off before our home flooded. Our roof did not collapse. Our home did not catch fire and burn down, as nearby firefighters struggled with empty fire hydrants. We did not run out of food. We were lucky.

Nevertheless, as I stood in front of the heating element that morning, waiting for water to boil, I couldn’t help thinking: This is all so incredibly stupid.

more
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/texas-pays-price-culture-war/618107

[magicarpet]

1. But we taught thems Libs a lesson in frugal governance....

... don't mess with Texas,... the Fascists are fucking things up just fine.

[Make7]

2. Success of TX energy is no accident: it was built over many years on principles of free enterprise..

Success of TX energy is no accident: it was built over many years on principles of free enterprise & low regulation w more jobs & opportunities as the constant goal. We work to export this recipe for success to more & more states so that all Americans enjoy the same prosperity.

Link to tweet

[KS Toronado]

3. Read somewhere on DU that Texas energy costs run 10/12% higher than national average

How you explain that fact away Ted Qruz?

[Make7]

9. Multiple analyses have found Texans paid more after deregulating their electrical grid.

Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation

Competition in the electricity-supply business promised reliable power at a more affordable cost

Feb. 24, 2021

Texas’s deregulated electricity market, which was supposed to provide reliable power at a lower price, left millions in the dark last week. For two decades, its customers have paid more for electricity than state residents who are served by traditional utilities, a Wall Street Journal analysis has found.

Nearly 20 years ago, Texas shifted from using full-service regulated utilities to generate power and deliver it to consumers. The state deregulated power generation, creating the system that failed last week. And it required nearly 60% of consumers to buy their electricity from one of many retail power companies, rather than a local utility.

Those deregulated Texas residential consumers paid $28 billion more for their power since 2004 than they would have paid at the rates charged to the customers of the state’s traditional utilities, according to the Journal’s analysis of data from the federal Energy Information Administration.

...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-electric-bills-were-28-billion-higher-under-deregulation-11614162780

An older one:

Texas consumers pay more in deregulated electricity markets, study says

June 8, 2016

The average cost of electricity for Texans in Houston and other parts of the state with deregulated power markets exceeded the national average in 2014 for the first time in three years, according to a report released Wednesday.

The 85 percent of Texans who live in deregulated service areas also paid about 15 percent more than residents in communities with municipal utilities, such as San Antonio and Austin, according to the annual report by the nonprofit Texas Coalition for Affordable Power, which represents more than 165 Texas cities and political subdivisions across the state.

...

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Texas-consumers-pay-more-in-deregulated-7972017.php

[ancianita]

12. Looks like TX has proven that deregulation is a tool for raising profits. Typical of a corporate run

state or government.

[Make7]

15. Higher prices, less service.

It's a common result when one looks at the history of privatization of utilities (water, electricity, etc.), especially in developing countries.

"Instead of focusing on governance...", begins the tag line of the article in the OP, but this disaster in Texas is exactly what Republican governance is. The goal is less governance — deregulation and lower taxes are their ideal solution for most issues.

"The best government is that which governs least."

Even when that kills you, your loved ones, or neighbors.

[ancianita]

16. Yep. You can bet that Republican dogma came from their corporate owners.

[KS Toronado]

24. "TX has proven that deregulation is a tool for raising profits"

That's a very insightful observation how the Qpublicans operate. I'll remember this fact.

[ancianita]

26. ...

[KPN]

4. That needs to be distributed far and wide. I'll have to come back here on my phone

so I can open and forward that particular tweet.

[jaxexpat]

6. "Free enterprise" is the same game as "king of the hill" and "feudalism".

When those same game rules are applied to social necessities most people end up, through no fault of their own, at or near the bottom. THAT (and Ted Cruz) is a stupid waste of resources.

[dchill]

27. +1,000,000! Great find!

[bronxiteforever]

5. Kick and recommend. Great article. The GOP can't govern.

It doesn’t believe in government. It never had a vaccine plan, a healthcare plan and on the state levels it’s only plan is to gerrrymand.

[paleotn]

10. Other than forcing their version of Judeo Christian values on us, they don't want to govern a all.

Governing is hard. They only like the easy part of telling us not to do things they don't like. Beyond that, they want to just rely on Adam Smith's fallacy "the invisible hand." It's easier that way and doesn't tax their brains.

[bronxiteforever]

25. Good points.

[Klondike Kat]

7. Mother Nature said "hold my beer"

and proceeded to mess with Texas, big-time.

[MFGsunny]

13. +1,000,000 WELL SAID. n/t

[DENVERPOPS]

19. Mother Nature is tired

of us abusing her planet in oh so many ways.

I think she has said: Screw with my planet, and I will screw with the weather, give you droughts and floods, extreme heat/cold, and how about a really nasty Virus, the likes of which you have never dealt with in modern times........

[roamer65]

29. Mother Nature is just warming up.

The big opera is coming in 10 to 20 years.

[paleotn]

8. Capitalism, like fire, can keep you warm. But it can also kill you.

Control is the issue. Repukes think it can be controlled by magical thinking and a grossly inaccurate view of human nature. Dems feel it should be controlled by government, i.e. in concrete ways by entities that actually fucking exist.

[ancianita]

14. When corporations buy Republicans as their wholly owned subsidiary, this is their PR campaign

-- con people into thinking corporations are better than non-profit government.
When people finally see that they believed that hype, this is how we get closer to winning the corporation vs democracy war in governing.

The corporate model lasts beyond generations, that fact is how they confound humans' understanding of how bad they are for humans. They've reached visibility now, and don't care if humans know, and don't like how corporations govern, because corps think humans are too late to be able to do anything about them.

Dems need to mobilize all future messaging around that fact.

[BobTheSubgenius]

11. If Texas is the center of the energy industry for the known universe...

...why is the cost per kwh in Texas almost twice what it is here...where it's owned by a peculiarly Canadian entity called a Crown Corporation? Peculiar in this hemisphere, at least.

It was sucked into the vortex of that awful, awful liberal god, socialism. Turned into a publicly-owned company in 1962, it's been stumbling and lurching along for almost 6 decades, its inefficiencies delivering an unreliable, intermittent and expensive supply of power to the province ever since.

No, it absolutely hasn't. We live on an island, and power outages, while not frequent, used to happen occasionally. Weather still creates the odd, localized one, but there hasn't been a general failure since the early 80's when Hydro put in a new undersea cable.

It does it at a pretty good price, too.

[dlk]

17. Toxic individualism is expensive

Texans are finding out just how expensive.

[Boomerproud]

23. They'll go their graves saying they were right.

[ZonkerHarris]

18. elections have consequences

[IronLionZion]

20. 5 million Texans voted for Biden

Trump got 52% of the vote in 2020 in Texas. We can use this issue to finally turn Texas into a purple state and then blue.

[keithbvadu2]

21. But it was warm in Cancun.

But it was warm in Cancun.

You should have gone with Rafael.

[ThatJustHappened]

22. The GOP hasn't been interested

in governance for over 40 years

circa Reagan, the game plan became
destroy governance and blame the Democrats

a lot of it is actually an ideological holdover from the Civil War
regressives would much rather burn it all down
than evolve into progressives along with the rest of humanity

in part because they don't believe in evolution : )
and in part because none of it matters anyway
since the only thing that really matters
is Imaginary Jebus
and self fulfilling the End Times

[CaliforniaPeggy]

30. Welcome to DU, ThatJustHappened!

And you have spoken the Truth so very clearly!

It's a great synopsis.

[dalton99a]

28. Kick

[Blue Owl]

31. Cancel Culture vs. Cancun Culture

As in your electricity is cancelled, while Ted Cruz goes to Cancun