Re: I hope that was the fake Bob2? Meanwhile... Yeah, it's Texas and these attempts have mostly failed.
Alamo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BOB2- Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Commenter Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Even my wimpy 11 panels on the roof produces
> a
> > > surplus of over a MW-hr per year after
> powering
> > my
> > > all electric house.
> > >
> > > It helps to have a totally insulated house in
> > > coastal California.
> >
> > My friend in Texas told me that so many folks
> in
> > his part of Texas are so sick of the overpriced
> > and unreliable Texas electric utilities, that
> many
> > folks he knows are "going off of the grid".
> Part
> > of this is that the state allowed Texas
> utilities
> > to impose and "Enron" style peak pricing
> scheme,
> > that sends consumer bills through the roof,
> when
> > the utilities themselves turn off the power
> plants
> > and reduce supply. Folks going "off of the
> grid"
> > is such a threat, that the Texas monopoly
> > utilities are trying to lobby the Texas State
> > Legislature with campaign contributions (aka
> legal
> > "bribes") to make "going off of the grid" in
> Texas
> > illegal.
> >
> > Monopolies when threatened with competition,
> seem
> > to love to have the "gubmint" protect their
> > monopoly over consumers from actual free market
> > capitalist competition.
> >
> > How would this impact trains?
> >
> > In theory, coal train movements to Texas would
> > benefit from restricting free market
> competition,
> > if Texas were to make it illegal to generate
> your
> > own electricity and use it yourself, though.
> >
> > Meanwhile, speaking of trains in Texas... I
> had
> > me wondering with these tariff shenanigans, I
> was
> > watching this morning, if this was part of some
> > sort of short selling scam that was targeting
> > things like CPKC stock. Which went down like a
> > rock and then shot back up like a roller
> coaster
> > with the weird games this morning.
>
>
> Texas has competition at the retail level. So many
> choices that the state set up a website for
> consumers to compare options.
> [
www.powertochoose.org]
>
> Random zip code 77493 had 38 companies offering
> 127 fixed rate plans and 13 variable rate plans.
> You can pick what percent you want to come from
> renewables, up to 100%.
>
> I've lived in 5 states and Texas didn't feel
> overpriced. Only major outage was the one unusual
> winter storm. Which like a major wreck was a
> confluence of many rare factors where too much
> went wrong at once. Some summer or winter warnings
> on extreme days asking to conserve but I never
> lost power in those. With so much population and
> industry growth that is not bad. The variable
> pricing is at the wholesale level. Meant to reduce
> teh chances of outages in high demand.
>
> Of course many choose to try home solar. Like in
> every state. Biggest reason may be the federal
> goverment subsidies. Many companies sprung up
> offering reduced or no cost installation.
> Especially the poor and elderly. Including the
> shysters that did lousy install, took the govt
> checks, and disappeared.
>
> What state doesn't have a large utility lobbying
> legislators for more favorable conditions and
> reduced competition? If that state has
> competition. Has any proposed bill that banned
> personal home solar actually made it into law?
> I've never heard of such.
>
> Your friend sounds like a person with a political
> agenda.
My friend served in Viet Nam and is an American so he does have a political agenda, freedom.
Texas still has some pretty steep utility rates, although the Legislature did prohibit wholesale costs from being passed on to m, with that Enron pricing scheme, after the 2021 disaster.
Ironically, Texas is the leading state for investments in battery storage, which is being done as a "business" decision by the monopoly distributing utilities and wholesale producers.
The monopoly distribution model utilities and the power wholesalers have tried unsuccessfully in the Texas Legislature to push legislative schemes to stifle residential and commercial solar installation (while investing tens millions in wholesale solar themselves).
A slew of new bills have just been introduced in this session of the Texas Legislature, mostly to add fees and local obstacles, to permitting solar and battery installations. Much of the solar "harassment" and regulation "abuse" aimed at residential solar installations has come from some of the local "gubmints" in Texas.
But since this is Texas, folks have not really fallen for this anti free market competitive capitalist "political agenda" to keep the customers "hooked" on monopolies.