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Will we run out of electricity?
By dwray in The nature of things
March 13, 2012

I was walking my dog this morning - i.e. urging her emphatically to hurry up and get things done because I needed coffee, stat - when I caught sight of some ridiculously beautiful purple flowers.

They sprang up overnight, coaxed out of the ground by all the rain we've been swamped with. And I was standing there, momentarily distracted from coffee-getting when I realized it was also already pretty warm and muggy outside - so, yeah, spring hasn't quite officially started but it sure seems that it's finally just about here. That means summer is just a few sweaty months away, when it will get even hotter and I'll likely respond to the heat by getting way too fond of using the AC.

My point, well a StateImpact article notes what a lot of people have been rumbling about for a while - namely that we may have a power supply problem when the temperatures shoot up and people crank the AC on down. Cheap natural gas has discouraged investment in new power plants, and there may not be enough of them to supply what the state of Texas is going to need.

You know that sickening feeling, when you snap on a light and nothing happens (because, yes, you've forgotten to pay the bill AGAIN)? Well, that could happen this summer, and it won't even be through any fault of your absentminded self.

Read the article here. It's food for thought.

Also, natural gas is super-cheap because of all of the supply coming up out of shale plays, leading lots of the stuff on the market. Fun fact.