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If you had told people in Texas that it’s going to cost $200 per hour to run their heat, people would have responded by dramatically cutting consumption and the blackouts would not have been required.

Now that said, having an electric system where this is necessary is itself a market failure.




They did: https://abc11.com/griddy-gridy-texas-power-bills-what-is-ene...

They couldn't.

Either people still got hit by massive bills (thousands or tens of thousands of dollars), or they cut usage (voluntarily or otherwise) and froze to death or poisoned themselves trying not to.

Municipal water and sewerage perations couldn't function. Pipes froze and burst. Massive damage precipitated by underprovisioning, risk-shifting to the most vulnerable, and a gamble that lost.

Life ain't textbook neat.




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