after all thats the free market way.
this is written by a policy advisor to teh conservative heartland institute and a university of texas econ professor. in his view
Instead of rationing electricity via rolling blackouts, prices to consumers should have been drastically increased until the shortage was eliminated. Of equal importance, this should have been loudly communicated (through media and other channels) to all Texans. Unlike rationing, the market-based approach allows consumers to use energy as they see fit, accounting for the true costs of this use.
There are all sorts of ways for people to economize, which they won’t (or can’t) pursue unless they are made to bear the costs and benefits from such actions. For example, multiple families could gather in a single house or apartment, sharing the energy costs. This is not a good option, if all dwellings are going to be mostly without power. But this may be an excellent idea if it allows for a lot of heat in one dwelling and for the emergency guests to turn off most of their electricity.
yep just the ole free market at work. cant afford to pay $2000/month to keep the lights on in your 1B apartment you can just double or triple up with friends. wouldt want to have to inconvenience the millionaire who can afford the bill. Its his right to keep his house at 75 degrees in a blackout becasue he’s rich…
Econ professor wants freezing people to participate in a free-market experiment for electricity. What an embarrassment.
Here’s my economics suggestion: Upgrade the grid connect to the other states who actually prepare for cold weather. Cap rates to customers and force Texas providers to eat all the extra costs that come from buying out-of-state electricity when they drop the ball like this.
Behold! The Invisible Hand ofc the free market, after shaking off the shackles of regulation, using technology to shop the market for the best price for consumers.
I have heard stories about this. I checked my bill on line with TXU. No…it is running about at the usual rate. I expect people are victims of some of those too good to be true contracts they were offered.
Griddy is an app/service that allows Texas residents to take advantage of the free market, unregulated spot energy market. There’s no contract with an energy company. It hunts the best spot prices for its members, even when the best spot price is enough to buy a used Subaru.
Whatever the spot price is. I don’t know that it’s an outrageous deal, I’ve seen some people say they save a tob of money and some say meh.
I used to play the shop for the best deal, 3 -6 month contracts. All it takes is once to forget when it ends and end up with their premium pricing to make all those savings disappear. I finally signed up for a 2 year contract to just have some consistency.
The people who signed up for that probably had no idea this could happen. Now if there was a cap to how much you pay, should some people be allowed to do that if they agreed to go without electricity when the cap is reached?
If I were strapped for money I could see doing that since I have a gas fireplace and could make it through several days without electricity. Maybe it would be a good deal for someone with a generator.
Still, its too much like having the poor do all the sacrificing during a crisis, even if it is voluntary.
It will be interesting to see what happens. Someone else will be paying these energy bills besides consumers but I’m not sure who ends up holding the poopy end of that stick.
So there’s risk and reward. Like @DougBH said, this is the too good to be true part. They got the reward of playing the price game, now the pay part comes in and everyone’s crying foul.
No. It allowed them to pay a fraction of under contract price until demand went up. May have been just enough breathing room for them to get a leg up and away from sacrificing somewhere else in their lives.
Markets regulating themselves. People trying to shave some fractions off a penny on their electric rate, they’ll just have to take the swing when it’s a thousand bucks a day. Invisible Hand!
