‘Help me get through the winter,’ the Governor reportedly told crypto miners in the state
edit: Companion article ‘A deep freeze is coming to Texas, and no one knows if the power grid is ready’ - https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/02/a-deep-freeze-is-coming-to-texas-and-no-one-knows-if-the-power-grid-is-ready/
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an egg with a big crack in the middle?
Abbott literally invited crypto miners into Texas, thinking the increased demand for electricity would spur a free market™ increase in supply. Now we’ve been fucked because there’s no extra electricity, and we’ll be fucked by another winter storm.
Well if another flash freeze hits and they keep running their rigs they’ll get charged thousands an hour for mining crypto, just like the people trying to heat their homes. See? The system works.
the market said :bugs-no:
Pretty sure they’ve done nothing to fix their power grid since last winter. Stay warm and stock up in advance, Texas comrades.
It wouldn’t be profitable, so they have no reason to. They are meeting capacity like 360 days of the year, they’re not going to build more plants until there’s a profit motive for it, and I’d wager we are quite a ways off from that happening.
Who would have thought that privately run, unregulated, for-profit utilities are a bad idea?