In Texas the free market is expensive

We’ve learned a lot about Texas in the past few days. Their infrastructure is woefully inadequate, their governor hates government and their utilities are free from federal regulation so when demand rises, so do prices — without limits — even for necessities like heat and water.

But hey, that’s fine because in the words of Texan and former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business.”

That may be true of wealthy Texans, but it’s debatable whether the folks whose roofs caved in from burst water pipes and must now boil water (without any heat) would agree.

Last night on MSNBC the price of electricity was cited as under $30/megawatt-hour before the recent storm. It’s now over $9000/megawatt-hour. That is not a typo. People who haven’t yet frozen to death can now look forward to going bankrupt.

Those whose pipes froze can also expect hefty bills to clean up the mess from water spilling into electrical fixtures, causing ceilings to crash to the floor and ruining their personal belongings. If the utility company isn’t required to keep rates reasonable, we can only imagine what the water damage clean-up will cost. And let’s not be naïve about how much their insurance will cover.