Earlier this month, as temperatures topped 100 degrees and homeowners and businesses cranked up their air conditioning, Texas’ grid struggled to cope with the record demand for electricity. The heat wave was compounded by a loss of power from thousands of wind turbines that couldn’t function on days when not so much as a breeze was blowing. Predictably, energy costs skyrocketed in the Lone Star State.

In Houston, as peak electricity demand climbed to record levels, wholesale power prices spiked virtually overnight by an astounding 49,000% (to $9,000 per megawatt-hour). The operator of the electric grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), warned that reserve margins were so dangerously low that it might have to institute rolling blackouts. ERCOT called for the construction of more gas-powered generating plants.