Didn't ERCOT allow the Texas energy resellers to "recoup" the winterstorm losses (running into billions) from their customers over a decade? That increase was not primarily driven by inflation, but by good old socialization of losses while privatizing profits.
And energy price inflation drives inflation in other sectors, again, irrespective of what is driving the energy price inflation itself.
Yes, but I never argued it's not inflation.
Most suppliers lean on the crutch that costs have gone up for them (due to supply constraints or inflation) so it can get recursive: some consumer price increases are driven by inflation - the most obvious being inflation of fuel increasing the price of shipping.
The price increases on the Texas energy market deserves a special call-out because it's a hypocritical corporate bailout with public money on a so-called open energy market, without fixing the root cause. Throw in once-a-century storms happening every decade, and you got a stew going.
Texas generates more wind energy than any other state (in gigawatthours). I'm unsure if any other state has a higher percentage of their total production in wind. Texas is around 20% of total in wind on ongoing basis (and another few percent in solar).
During recent heatwave solar and wind provided nearly 40%, " Several experts told CNN that it's owed in large part to strong performances from wind and solar, which generated 27 gigawatts of electricity during Sunday's peak demand -- close to 40% of the total needed."
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/14/us/texas-energy-record-solar-...
I had solar installed on our house last year - just before supply chain issues got really bad - and so far this summer, it's generated enough to power our house every day. Of course, not every circuit is connected to it though, so I get to deal with the bs of "net billing" but the capacity is there.
This also tracks with my experience. I know tons of conservative people who are leasing their farms out to build windmills or installing their own solar panels.
Not only is Texas installing massive amounts of solar, wind, and battery storage, it's also mostly going into rural areas that are more politically conservative.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertbryce/2022/01/27/backlash...
Republican approval of renewable energy is also dropping year over year and is down 15% from 5 years ago.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/06/08/most-americ...
It seems there is a pretty clear divide in partisan and urban / rural support.
Declining support for renewable energy seems to be a result of team politics.