We should have seen it coming. The $16 billion (or more) of electricity overcharges in Texas seem to have caught everyone by surprise, but the truth is they had been in the works for years. For the last decade or so, the Texas Legislature and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) have treated the…
Posts
The Liberty Café 32: Is Texas Government Descending into California-style Chaos?
After a year of the Texas government destroying businesses and jobs and harming millions of people, Texas’ leadership is doubling down on this dictatorial approach to dealing with pandemics. But this only follows years of Texas government defying rational thought and conservative principles, leading to events like the Texas blackouts. This week on the Liberty…
The Downfall of the Texas Electric Grid (Guest: Bill Peacock)
I recently was a guest on the Heartland Institute’s podcast hosted by H. Sterling Burnett. Here it is: Politicians interference in energy markets led to the failure of Texas’ energy grid during the polar vortex. Bill Peacock explains what went wrong. Texas politicians and regulators interference in energy markets resulted in the closure of baseload…
The Texas Electricity Market Never Had a Chance to Work During the Blackouts
If the theory that politicians are full of hot air is true, it is a wonder that the dome of the Texas capitol did not fly off into orbit last week. During hearings in both the Texas House and Senate last Thursday questioning electricity market regulators and participants about the Texas blackouts, most–though not all–legislators…
What the Bible Can Tell Us About the Texas Blackouts
The Bible may not have been the first place you turned to over the last couple of weeks to look for information about the Texas blackouts. This may be in part because some in the church today teach us that the Bible and Christianity are not really appropriate for the public square, that if we…
The Numbers Point to the Causes of the Texas Blackouts
There has been a lot of debate about why Texas had rolling blackouts last week in the midst of the historic winter storm. Poor winterization, lack of integration with the national grid, bureaucrats, deregulation, Enron’s Ken Lay, and frozen natural gas pipelines are frequent targets of politicians and media pundits for the blame. However, the…
Progressives’ Coordinated Cover-Up for Renewables
Have you ever noticed that the mainstream media and liberal politicians almost always say the exact same thing when something goes wrong with their narrative that only progressivism can save America? Leaving aside for another time how they coordinate so well, they are at it again when it comes to trying to absolve renewable energy…
The Liberty Café 31: Why Texas Couldn’t Keep the Lights On
Mainstream media and liberal politicians almost always coordinate their response when something goes wrong with their progressive narrative. Well, they are at it again when it comes to trying to absolve big government and corporate cronyism from the blame for last week’s Texas blackouts. This week on the Liberty Café, we take a look at…
Are California’s Blackouts a Glimpse of Texas’ Future?
This was originally published in August 2020. Many Californians are alarmed as each new day brings the prospect of more rolling blackouts. Despite warnings from the California Public Utilities Commission that blackouts could affect millions, so far about only 600,000 homes and businesses have lost power. Yet the blame game has started. “These blackouts ……
Only Free Market Reforms Can Repair the Damage of the Texas Blackouts
Well, that didn’t take long. The same day Texas started experiencing blackouts in the midst of an unprecedented winter storm, critics started pointing to markets as the problem. Monday’s Dallas Morning News ran a Bloomberg Wire story that claimed “The extreme cold appears to have caught Texas’s highly decentralized electricity market by surprise.” Yes, Texas has…