This might belong in the WTF thread as well, but there are accounts going around of Texans being charged thousands of dollars for routine days-worth of electricity amidst last weeks power cuts.
Apparently Texas has a race-to-the-bottom, ultra-capitalist electricity supply system, with hundreds of companies getting in on the act.
One of the options is that you can buy at variable rates, just like a mortgage. Which works fine if wholesale prices are low.
However, when the wholesale prices go through the roof, as happened last week when the supply dried up, those on the variable rate plan are screwed as the costs are passed on directly.
The guy in the headline ended up paying 16 grand!
And of course now the Republican Texas government is demanding answers to how their free-market, regulation-free, dreamland ended up biting so many of their constituents in the arse!
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/us/texas-storm-electric-bills.html
