It is almost like natural monopolies, such as primary power generation and supply, should be under the control of the Government and not private individuals.

Texans must love the abuse, they keep voting for it.

Three cheers for privatization of public utilities! /s

As an aside, I am gutted by 250+ people losing their lives because Texan politicians can't get their act together to hold companies responsible. Legislation works ... and politicians can, and should, make the laws.

Remember when conservatives blamed "windmills" for this? All while conservatives in charge of Texas raked in millions of dollars in campaign donations from ERCOT members. Conservatives will gleefully watch your family die for fun or profit.

A conservative is incapable of empathy or remorse. Be very careful in your dealings with them. They do not value the lives of others the way normal people do.

Hot take: The ruling is accurate.

Vote for candidates who privatize utilities. Get what you vote for.

Only sucks for those that can't leave and are stuck with a system they can't correct.

Cops don't have to serve and protect or abide by the law. Power companies don't have to supply power. People who sell you things can deny you access to them.

Hey this is fun, let's do more!

Corporations are people, my friend. Just people with all the rights and no responsibilities.

The whole social contract thing in the USA is giving off an EULA vibe these days.

Better pull up those bootstraps and start finding your own individual source of power. Maybe you can drill for oil in your backyard?

The more and more I hear about these terrible decisions made in Texas, no exception abortion (even if medically deemed necessary) and now this, the more and more I am grateful I don't live in that trainwreck state.

I hate this fucking state so much.

Deregulating the electricity industry has been a complete and utter disaster.

#fuckyourdividends

First world, third world, and Texas.

Phew. Worried this could lead to overturning that cops have no duty to protect you.

If you don’t like the service you’re getting then just vote in new leaders who can change things /s

The free market solution would allow communities to negotiate contracts that DID hold the provider liable and allow competitors to emerge that would focus on different aspects like reliability, renewable production or integration with other grids.

If you aren't aware of the story of Central and Southwest Corporation (a Texas power company) and thr "midnight connection", it's the type of story that I'm sure is nearing the top of Netflix's documentary todo list.

On May 4, 1976, a power company based in Texas sent electricity from a substation in Vernon, Texas, to Altus, Okla. By doing so, they were breaking a deal among power companies in Texas to keep electricity within state borders.

https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2022-09-08/texas-energy-island-the-disconnect-vernon-midnight-connection

If what Texas has with ERCOT is neither free market nor a public utility, what is it?

In the opinion, Justice Adams noted that, when designing the Texas energy market, state lawmakers “could have codified the retail customers’ asserted duty of continuous electricity on the part of wholesale power generators into law.”

Wow, so helpful to say that 20 years after the fact

Let me guess, if I don't like it I'm free to start my own power generation company, in a city that's had only one provider for over 60 years.

Rich people's electricity stayed on, I'm just saying...

People seem surprised that the face-eating leopards who said that everything was going to be fine if you just allow deregulation of the market, proceeded to then eat the faces of the poors (but not those of the rich, at least whenever it could be avoided).

I'm not even kidding - see no /s - but in Texas, this isn't a bug, it's a feature. This is what "lower taxes" means, bc you don't get something for nothing; and when you pay less, you necessarily get less in return (even though the converse is not always true) - in this case lower robustness to perturbations of the system.

Texas power plants have no responsibility to ~~provide electricity~~ save lives in emergencies, judges rule <- FTFY

After all, why should they care if you suffer or die? There's plenty more where you came from.