Electricity, Money, and Diversion

 For over a decade Texas and the rest of the world has been suffering record high temperatures in June, July, and August with more frequency. Across the globe we see Arctic sea ice at unusually low levels. In some parts of the world continued dissipation of glaciers have revealed bodies of early humans and extinct animals that were once encased in hundreds of feet. In the United States and elsewhere, there have been both massive wildfires spreading heavy smoke over thousands of square miles and torrential rains that caused rivers to overflow destroying homes and lives. Hurricanes have already struck both California and Florida and there are two more very powerful storms out there, Lee in the Atlantic and Jova in the Pacific off Baja California.

Here in Texas a few weeks ago we came within a hairs breadth of the rolling blackouts to prevent the entire grid from shutting down. One of the ways that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) avoided such drastic action was to pay nearly $32 million to Riot Platforms, a Bitcoin miner to “voluntarily curtail its energy consumption”. In other words they powered down most of the computers they have running all day every day making calculations that run the crypto-currency exchanges. What’s really disgusting is that $32 million which we’re paying as part of our electric bills is nearly 4 times what Riot Platforms would have earned had they left the computers running. Riot Platforms isn’t the only crypto-currency mining operation in Texas with this kind of sweetheart deal it’s just the one that announced receiving such excessive payments in a press release.

Rather than take action to address the increasing demand for electric power in Texas by helping homeowners improve insulation or provide incentives to install solar panels and batteries the state legislature pass SB 2627 which a low interest load program funded by the state for companies that build or upgrade power plants and pay a bonus for getting them connected quickly. The program will not provide loans for battery storage facilities even though they could serve to provide significant buffers during high use periods like 5pm when temperatures are highest and people are getting home from work and turning on their air conditioners.

All this is just more proof that the Republican controlled Texas legislature is more concerned with enriching their friends in the fossil fuel industry than addressing the very real threat of global climate change. Coffee production in Columbia, corn and soy beans in Argentina, as well as other crops throughout South American has been hurt by a multi-year drought. Here in Texas, corn and sorghum production is down and cattle ranchers are selling of parts of their herds due the ongoing drought in much of the state.

To divert voter attention from their 20+ year failure to actually make the lives of Texans better the governor and legislature spend their time fighting faux villains like trans-gender athletes and drag queens. It’s up to independent voters that lean conservative to recognize that they’re being conned into voting for those who only want to enrich their already very wealthy friends while exercising power over women, those of other faiths, and people who don’t fit in easy gender classifications.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - September 13, 2023