My opinion? This is Enron 2.0. Enron manipulated California markets by artificially withholding or limiting generation capacity. Texas learned their lesson. The lesson wasn't "don't manipulate energy markets," what they learned was "change the rules so the market collapses to your advantage."

Energy markets are a little out of my experience, but I understand the market is supposed to pay the marginal price to everyone. If the market is humming along at $20/MWh and needs more power, it looks for the next cheapest available unit. Maybe that unit has bid in at $21/MWh. It get turned on and everyone gets paid $21 instead of $20. What I'd like to know is, what unit drove a $9000 price? Is that bid realistic?

In my part of the country we saw prices around $700-$800. A bargain against $9000 in ERCOT, sure, but much more than typical $20-$40.

Why the difference? Gas price. So, was selling $2/MMBTU gas for $500/MMBTU a real reflection of cost, or was it price gouging? I suspect gas market rules allow for this kind of gouging.

The markets need to change.

Using MMBTU also needs to change because has there ever been a more antiquated measurement system? MM is million because M is the Roman numeral for thousand, so MM is thousand-thousand.