In Texas, some deaths are real and some, I guess, are not

Those folks who lost power in Texas in the recent winter storms?^[1] They were the lucky ones, it turns out.

We have all had a good laugh at the gloriously unhinged Facebook post by the now-former mayor of Colorado City, Texas, who—writing as if he were one of the first Anglo-Texan frontiersmen—told Texans to fend for themselves. “Only the strong will survive,” he thundered, “and the weak will parish [sic].”^[2]

As you might figure for fucking capitalist libertarians, “strong” means being so filthy fucking rich that you won’t bat an eye at a power bill in the thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. Which is just what some Texans are getting.^[3] But you know, they’re strong. They’re tough. They’ll just write a check.

The steep electric bills in Texas are in part a result of the state’s uniquely unregulated energy market, which allows customers to pick their electricity providers among about 220 retailers in an entirely market-driven system.

Under some of the plans, when demand increases, prices rise. The goal, architects of the system say, is to balance the market by encouraging consumers to reduce their usage and power suppliers to create more electricity.

But when last week’s crisis hit and power systems faltered, the state’s Public Utilities Commission ordered that the price cap be raised to its maximum limit of $9 per kilowatt-hour, easily pushing many customers’ daily electric costs above $100. And in some cases, like Mr. [Scott] Willoughby’s, bills rose by more than 50 times the normal cost.^[4]

Scott Willoughby’s bill was $16,752. But you know, that’s what credit cards are for, right? He’s strong. He’s tough. And putting it on his credit card is just what he did.^[5] Or maybe not:

“My savings is gone,” said Scott Willoughby, a 63-year-old Army veteran who lives on Social Security payments in a Dallas suburb. He said he had nearly emptied his savings account so that he would be able to pay the $16,752 electric bill charged to his credit card — 70 times what he usually pays for all of his utilities combined. “There’s nothing I can do about it, but it’s broken me.”^[6]

Whiner! Oh, but we’re supposed to pity poor Texas, where at least 32 people (58 nationally) died in the storms.^[7] That’d be against 42,321 deaths from COVID-19 in Texas^[8] and 498,650 nationally,^[9] but where they think that COVID-19 is a hoax and that money is infinitely more important than human health.^[10]

Sorry, but this one’s just too much for me to swallow.

1. ^[1]Will Englund, Steven Mufson, and Dino Grandoni, “Texas, the go-it-alone state, is rattled by the failure to keep the lights on,” Washington Post, February 18, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/18/texas-electric-grid-failure/; Andrew Exum, “I’m Freezing Cold and Burning Mad in Texas,” Atlantic, February 17, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/freezing-cold-and-burning-mad-texas/618048/; Greg Sargent, “The latest GOP nonsense on Texas shows us the future Republicans want,” Washington Post, February 18, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/18/texas-republicans-abbott-power-shortages/↩
2. ^[2]Andrew Exum, “I’m Freezing Cold and Burning Mad in Texas,” Atlantic, February 17, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/freezing-cold-and-burning-mad-texas/618048/↩
3. ^[3]Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, and Ivan Penn, “His Lights Stayed on During Texas’ Storm. Now He Owes $16,752,” New York Times, February 20, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/us/texas-storm-electric-bills.html↩
4. ^[4]Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, and Ivan Penn, “His Lights Stayed on During Texas’ Storm. Now He Owes $16,752,” New York Times, February 20, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/us/texas-storm-electric-bills.html↩
5. ^[5]Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, and Ivan Penn, “His Lights Stayed on During Texas’ Storm. Now He Owes $16,752,” New York Times, February 20, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/us/texas-storm-electric-bills.html↩
6. ^[6]Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, and Ivan Penn, “His Lights Stayed on During Texas’ Storm. Now He Owes $16,752,” New York Times, February 20, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/us/texas-storm-electric-bills.html↩
7. ^[7]Reis Thebault, Paulina Firozi, and Brittany Shammas, “58 people died in last week’s frigid weather. Some of them were just trying to stay warm,” Washington Post, February 21, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/18/winter-storm-deaths/↩
8. ^[8]New York Times, “Texas Coronavirus Map and Case Count,” February 22, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/texas-coronavirus-cases.html↩
9. ^[9]New York Times, “Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count,” February 22, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html↩
10. ^[10]Ashley Bartholomew, [Twitter thread], Thread Reader App, November 16, 2020, https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1328378945172074499.html; Sophie Novack, “How We Got Here,” Texas Observer, November 9, 2020, https://www.texasobserver.org/covid-19-texas-coronavirus/↩