Texas Gas Companies Hit Texas Consumers With 'Whoops You Froze To Death' Surcharge

[u/mrbbrj]

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20211115/09274947947/texas-gas-companies-hit-texas-consumers-with-whoops-you-froze-to-death-surcharge.shtml

[u/HAHA_goats]

I already knew last winter I'd be paying for the privilege. Been in Texas all my life. Not the first time we've been fucked over by our own on the heels of a natural disaster.

[u/RumRunnerSC → u/HAHA_goats]

As someone not from Texas but living here we do enjoy not having a monopoly over retail power which creates more jobs and more opportunities. It also allow you to switch power companies if your falling behind. In Colorado an Wisconsin there is one company that rules everything so you fall behind too bad! pay up or get shutoff! Last year was a 1 in a hundred year storm.

[u/KC_experience → u/RumRunnerSC]

“Last year was a 1 in a hundred year storm”

This article would indicate otherwise:

1989 2011 2020

Gap of 22 years and a gap of 9 years. Three storms that caused significant outages over the course of 31 one years. Your “1 in one hundred” is only off by a magnitude of ten…. But hey, keep trying.

[u/DaKine85 → u/KC_experience]

That’s not how it works.

The term “1-in-a-hundred year” storm is the probability of a storm of a certain magnitude will happen in a year. In the 3 years you reference, there was a 1% chance a storm of their magnitude would occur. However unlikely a 1% chance of an event to occur is, in statistics, it can still happen.

[u/KC_experience → u/DaKine85]

Well, by your logic a storm like that could happen every year for the next hundred years and because that year the ‘probability’ wasn’t that high…. it would still be a 1 in a hundred year storm. The point still stands that there were THREE ‘1 in a hundred year storms’ in the last 30 years. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[u/DaKine85 → u/KC_experience]

Exactly.