TL;DR - de-regulation.
Basically companies don’t want to pay to make shit freeze-proof, or provide ample surplus to cover when emergency conditions spike demand… so they don’t.
Their unchecked ability to do cost-cutting / profit-maxing with inadequate infrastructure minimums set by government oversight = consumers bearing the consequences.
I like your summary. I hate what it means.
Was the reason freedumb?
I’m betting on freedumb.
The reason is American capitalism, where the state covers the bill and private individuals keep the profits.
… power outages actually cost energy corporations very little money — maybe a few days’ revenue. Hardening energy infrastructure, on the other hand, is very expensive and entirely paid for by the energy corporations. This cuts into their profits and stock price.
The grid is weak and unready for the future. The cost to fix it is high and makes no money. But if it breaks during a disaster, federal relief money comes in and covers the cost. What the fed doesn’t cover is passed on to the customers as a price hike.
The article is about changing laws to make companies harden their infra instead of stock buybacks or other budget fuckery.
It sounds like a good idea but doesn’t stop the companies from forcing customers to pay for that too instead. What should happen is a portion of profits need to be diverted into a maintenance fund that is independently audited for infrastructure upgrading and hardening.
But it’s Texas. Laws are for The People, not for people, and corporations are people in R land.
What I don’t understand is why a system as broken as that is allowed federal aid for it, if insurance companies are allowed to cherry pick, I feel the feds should be able to as well. but I don’t really understand the state system lol
Corporate greed sold as freedom.
So… yeah.
Greedy is an inherent feature of corporations. It’s on people to elect officials willing to curb it for the public good
Unfortunately being greedy also applies to elected individuals, and the two party system has everything so messed up that it’s legal to bribe them.
Corporations own (or can heavily influence) the politicians that create all the rules. It is legal because of Citizens United. Meanwhile our two party system is also controlled by this flood of money, and they decide who can be voted for. They have also made it so another party can’t emerge or participate in real politics.
I don’t know what to say, but the whole thing seems unfixable to me. I will keep voting for the blue ties and cross my fingers, but I have doubts about things getting better in my lifetime.
That’s not the fault of two parties. One party still lets it’s members be prosecuted for bribery
Also the corruption. But yeah and yeah.
Love how Abbot and Patrick were so mad at the power companies when they enabled those companies to become what they are.
