Freeze sends Texas electricity prices up 10,000%

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Tonight: A deep freeze causes electricity prices in Texas to skyrocket by 10,000%; Citibank cannot settle $ 500 million; and vegan KitKats are now a thing. Let’s get into it.

Electricity prices rose more than 10,000% when the winter storm fell this week. There are blackouts across the state. More than 4 million jeans were without electricity early Tuesday.

SAYING POINTS

While some try to attribute the blame to one fuel source or another, the reality is that Arctic temperatures are causing fossil fuels and renewable energy alike, explains my colleague Matt Egan.

Surprisingly, these power outages are occurring in the mighty Texas, America’s power plant. Some context:

  • Texas produces more electricity than any other state in the United States, generating almost twice as much as Florida, the next closest, according to federal statistics.
  • Texas is the No. 1 state in both crude and natural gas.
  • Wind power is also growing in Texas, which produced about 28% of all U.S. electricity in 2019.

WHAT HAPPENED?

So how did this power plant get so disconnected?

We may not know the ultimate reason for a while, but some things are clear:

  • Viously, obviously, Texas winters are not usually that cold. The state’s infrastructure is simply not ready for a deep freeze.
  • Critics of renewables will try to blame wind turbines, but experts note that wind power accounts for a small portion of Texas energy consumption.
  • It’s also worth noting that many colder places have wind turbines that don’t take off in the cold: hello, Iowa; hey hey, Denmark: They just need to be overwintered, according to an expert Texas has skipped.
  • The Lone Star State is … all alone. Texas made a conscious decision to isolate its power grid from the rest of the country. This means that when things run smoothly, you can’t export excess energy to neighboring states. And in the current crisis, energy cannot matter either.

In other words, “When it comes to electricity, what happens in Texas stays in Texas,” said Dan Cohan, an associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University. “That has really bitten us again.”

RELATED: Ford closes its Kansas City assembly plant, making it the best-selling F-150 pickup, due to natural gas shortages caused by severe winter weather hitting much of the country.

APPOINTMENT OF THE DAY

To believe that Citibank, one of the world’s most sophisticated financial institutions, had made a mistake that had never happened before, worth nearly $ 1 billion, would have been an irrational limit.

– Jesse Furman, U.S. District Court Judge

Citi just lost an offer to fix a major problem. Last year, the bank paid $ 900 million to lenders at cosmetics company Revlon. Some lenders returned the wrong funds, but others refused, prompting Citi to sue for half a million dollars in recovery. On Tuesday, a federal judge said – and I paraphrase here – lol no.

THE FOOD BUSINESS

LARGE CHICKEN

Another day, another Chicken Sandwich Wars climb. Right now, you need to do something special to make your sandwich stand out, so McDonald’s is building a buzz for its three new sammie chicks with a $ 5 limited edition swag package, which includes a hooded sweatshirt, a vinyl recording of a custom song and, of course, a sandwich. (The star must be the hooded sweatshirt, which comes in a tone I can best describe as a “light fried chicken color”).

BIG VEGAN

Now basically the opposite of chicken sandwiches: we now have vegan KitKats. Instead of dairy products, KitKat V will use a rice-based alternative. Healthy? No. But more inclusive of people who eat vegetable diets? Yes!

DAY NUMBER

$ 50,000

Bitcoin hit an all-time high above $ 50,000 on Tuesday. This statement might sound like a joke a year ago, when cryptography cost $ 10,000. But bitcoin has skyrocketed during the pandemic thanks to low interest rates that have severely weakened the US dollar. This makes bitcoin a relatively attractive currency.

WHAT HAPPENS MORE

  • Come on, Robinhood, here comes Goldman Sachs. The investment bank unveiled Marcus Invest, a new robbery advisor geared towards the average investor.
  • Answer: Adidas sells Reebok, a major American fitness brand, as part of a strategic review.
  • Marriott International President and CEO Arne Sorenson died Monday after a nearly two-year battle with pancreatic cancer, the hotel chain announced Tuesday.

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