Thread by @AlexPetrovnia

The electrical grid failures in Texas are a direct result of ERCOT, Texas' electrical grid manager, operating on a uniquely hypercapitalist, isolationist model. Public goods being traded publicly will kill, always.
A brief 🧵 on the issue.

ERCOT is the ISO for Texas, or Independent System Operator. This is an organization that monitors electrical grids and sets electricity pricing based on its monitoring.

This is critically important, because electrical companies (ones producing electricity) will only turn on their power plants and produce electricity when they can make profit. So if the price is too low, a power plant won't produce. Low prices create low supply.

Theoretically, the opposite should also be true, that when prices are high, power companies should want to produce MORE, so that they can sell that power to consumers and make profit. However, this economic hypothesis ignores many tangible factors that can impact this.

Power plants are massive and require huge amounts of planning, construction, and time to construct. So when demand suddenly jumps in only a few years -- due to population increase, the mining of cryptocurrency, or climactic changes -- the supply cannot keep up.

In most areas in North America, if a specific region of the country suddenly undergoes a massive demand spike (such as from a heat wave or cold snap), electricity can be imported from other regions. Sure, it costs money to transport electricity across power lines, but that's ok.

As long as the demand is high enough, power companies from further away are willing to chip in and assist power.
Texas is different. It is an island, with no access to larger power grids by design.

But why would someone do this?
Profit. If you can't import power from other areas, then when electricity prices rise, the only option is for them to continue rising.
This is called scarcity pricing, and it is hugely profitable for electricity companies within the Texas range.

There's another nefarious thing about scarcity pricing: it actively encourages fewer electrical producing facilities to be built. The less competition there is within the bubble, the more each power producer gets paid for the same amount of electricity. Profit margins increase.

So this means that the total possible power is *not* increasing, and increasing demands push Texas closer, and closer to a blackout risk.
Blackout means death.
Because outside of spreadsheets, real human beings rely on power to survive.

In most regions, the ISO's primary responsibility is to monitor and control electricity prices to ensure that this does not happen, at all costs. Most electricity markets have laws and regulations making sure that this profit seeking behavior won't cause catastrophe.

The Texas power grid operates on a deregulated market structure. Private corporate interests are the determining force behind power prices, and this has devastating impacts on the citizens living there.

Climate change is here. The electrical grid that so many depend on is only going to rise in demand. Private industry is not going to save anyone but themselves, and it is long past time we stopped buying into the myth of the compassionate corporation.

This thread is a highly simplified introduction to these issues. For more reading about how the privatization of Texas' electric grid and its refusal to invest in renewable energy is having deadly consequences, I would recommend starting here:
jacobinmag.com/2021/02/texas-…

TLDR: The privatization of goods and services essential for life will always be weaponized against marginalized groups, and will always be fatal for these groups. Climate change will only increase this disparity. We must do better.

Found a better graphic to illustrate this.