Tonight: A freeze sends Texas’ electricity prices up 10,000%; Citibank cannot fix a $ 500 million option; and vegan KitKats are a thing now. Let’s go into it.
Electricity prices rose more than 10,000% when the winter storm hit this week. There are eclipses all over the state. More than 4 million Texans were without power early Tuesday.
INDICATORS
It is striking that these power outages occur in the mighty Texas, the energy power station of America. A little context:
- Texas produces more electricity than any other U.S. state and, according to federal statistics, produces nearly twice as much as Florida, the closest neighbor.
- Texas is the number 1 state in both crude oil and natural gas.
- Wind power is also booming in Texas, which in 2018 produced about 28% of all U.S. wind-powered electricity.
WHAT HAPPENED?
So, how did such a power station beat offline so thoroughly?
We may not know the definitive reason for a while, but a few things are clear:
- Clearly, the winters in Texas are usually not that cold. The state’s infrastructure is simply not prepared for deep freezing.
- Critics of renewable energy will try to blame wind turbines, but experts note that wind is a small part of Texas’ energy consumption.
- It’s also worth noting that many colder places have wind turbines that do not bend in the cold – hello, Iowa; hey hey, Denmark – they just need to be overwintered, experts said Texas has skipped.
- The Lone Star State is … completely alone. Texas has made a conscious decision to isolate its energy grid from the rest of the country. This means that when things go smoothly, it cannot export excess power to neighboring states. And in the current crisis, it can not import power either.
In other words, “When it comes to electricity, what’s happening in Texas remains in Texas,” said Dan Cohan, an associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University. “It really came back to bite us.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
It would have been irrational to believe that Citibank, one of the most sophisticated financial institutions in the world, had made a mistake that had never happened before, amounting to almost $ 1 billion.
– Judge Jesse Furman, U.S. District Court
THE FOOD BUSINESS
BIG CHICKEN
BIG VEGAN
NUMBER OF THE DAY
$ 50,000
WHAT OTHERS ARE GOING ON
- Go on, Robinhood, here comes Goldman Sachs. The investment bank unveils Marcus Invest, a new robo-adviser aimed at the average investor.
- See you again: Adidas is selling the struggling American fitness brand Reebok as part of a strategic overhaul.
- Marriott International hotel and CEO Arne Sorenson has died on Monday after a nearly two-year battle with abdominal cancer, the hotel chain announced on Tuesday.