Tuesday, March 2, 2021

You Had This Coming

 


Sometimes you have to learn to laugh at yourself. I can help you with that. ;)

11 comments:

Bear Claw Chris Lapp said...

Spoken early on something not right with TX and OK being net power exporters for over 20 years.

Then bidet and his dept. of energy screwed the pooch but nobody talking about that.

Also questioned the billing estimates, knew something wasn't right there either. Then I read about the resellers who duped customers to opt for their variable rate plan just like the mortgage people duped Americans for their variable rate plan. You sign the line you pay the dime.

My guess would be a large percentage of broke dick yutes went for the pennies only to spend the dimes would like to know the breakdown.

Bear Claw Chris Lapp said...

Meh, probably mostly Beto voters so good on them.

Aesop said...

Oh, it's all kinds of fishy, and someone's getting strung up before it's over, but it's still fun to laugh and point.

P.T. Barnum never went broke overestimating the number of suckers in the world.

Nick Flandrey said...

They didn't realize they were gambling... and the house always wins in the long run.

Maybe they should have put the money they "saved" for 4 years somewhere safe so they could pay the higher rates when they came....


I'm hoping the contracts were ironclad, and the language explicitly warns that high rates are possible somewhere in it. I'm tired of smarmy bastards thinking they're getting something for free and then crying when it turns out they're wrong.

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch people. If the deal didn't have any 'gotcha's' EVERYONE would be signed up for the deal. That should have been the first of many clues.

tweell said...

You don't get power bills like that because Arizonans are honest and won't rip off others, even Californians!

Aesop said...

Thanks, but no.
Doesn't matter whether Arizonans are honest or crooked; I don't get power bills like that because they can't be billed to anyone here at that rate, by anyone, neither by hook nor crook.

Texans always cock-a-doodle-doo about how everything is bigger in Texas.

It's funny now to see them proven right about their power bills.

Funnier yet because a decade or two back when CA utility companies did get shafted over power costs by energy flim-flam artists, the companies doing the shafting, IIRC, were located in Texas.

The sight of all those freedom-loving folks crying for the government to "save us from ourselves!" shows how deep some of their convictions run. Dollars to donuts they all crawfish on the contracts they signed, and even the ones who don't succeed will surely try to.

At any rate, they're good for a little epicaricacy.

Robert said...

"crawfish"? Back out?

Aesop said...

Precisely.

FredLewers said...

I've got no pity for any of them. They were penny wise and pound foolish. PT Barnum was right. The nice thing about Texas is the lack of government interference in private affairs. Oh we've got meddlesome politicians and progressives, but we try to keep them somewhat in check.
Probably don't see massive bills in other states because of government regulations. Down here it's more of a 'live your own life and don't be looking for people to save you from your stupid.

Reltney McFee said...

I try, myself, to be humble enough to laugh at myself.

My Darling Wife assists me in this, by laughing, herself.

JustinR said...

I've lived in Texas for over a decade now. By law, the companies that provide electrical service over the lines in your area (not the same entity that maintains the lines) have to put their available contracts up on a web site (powertochoose.com) and are required to provide all the fine print, apples to apples comparison data, and ability to sign up through the site. It makes it incredibly easy as a consumer to get both the best rate, and understand what you are buying. I have had anything between a 6 month to 2 year contract depending on what the best rate was, how volatile I felt energy prices would be, and how well the company handled billing. But I took the time to follow the axiom "buyer beware" and actually read the contracts, and I NEVER signed up for a variable rate plan, always a fixed rate per kWh. When Griddy started advertising a few years ago about selling power directly from the wholesalers to the consumer at variable rates, I read through their web site and said oh HELL no. Sure, you save a few bucks most of the time, but you could get royally F-ed in just the scenario that played out for us last month. Consumers on "normal" variable rate plans are getting exactly what they signed up for, and that was to pay higher prices during peak demand. However, the abject failure of the power generation companies to winterize and maintain their shit, and lack of state oversight after they already knew where the weak areas and deficiencies in the grid were from previous studies absolutely screwed us. Oh, and the fact the wind turbines froze up because they were built without the de/anti-icing equipment ones up north have. People died, livestock and pets died, and millions (billions?) of damage from busted pipes resulted from their inability to simply keep the lights on for us in what I would have considered warm weather for my time in the frozen hellhole of North Dakota. It was a shit show of massive proportions.