The first official day of summer is a couple days away, and Texas’ power grid is already under strain. ERCOT, the operators of this strained power grid, asked Texans this week to set their thermostats at 78 degrees to help conserve electricity and prevent rolling blackouts. My sense of the Texan spirit is that, as a rule, we don’t enjoy being told what to do. I also think most of us really value a humming air conditioner in the summertime, when it’s 95 degrees outside with a heat index that wouldn’t seem out of place on the surface of the Sun. Throw in suspicions that the people running ERCOT aren’t joining in the collective sacrifice of sweating it out on behalf of our woeful infrastructure, and I’d imagine many of us aren’t too eager to comply with the agency’s suggestion.
But you tell me. Are you setting that thermostat to 82 degrees and cooling yourself with the knowledge that you’re doing your part to keep the lights on? Or are you letting that A/C rip at a frosty 72 and daring ERCOT and the state to fix this mess before summer really gets going?
