[seventytwo]

But I was told the free market solves everything and that anything run by the government is impossibly inept and corrupt!

To be clear, the emergent system that comes from a free-ish market is an amazing thing and works very well in most cases. ... Just not well for critical infrastructure.

[clairity]

to be clear, free markets are myths of yore. no one wants to participate in a true free market, as evidenced by griddy and its customers bowing out after having only gotten a taste of it. this term is typically used when an entity wants a particular regulation changed to suit their own advantage.

what we should all want are fair markets, where each participant is widely informed and not under coercion by other participants. regulations should only be used for the purpose of ensuring the fair market for all, including and especially individual consumers, not advantaging any particular entity as is often the case now.

[geofft]

ERCOT also successfully claims sovereign immunity, despite being an industry association and explicitly not a part of the government: https://abc13.com/10362037/

The reason appears to basically be what you say - they are critical infrastructure, and if they are sued out of existence, there won't be an electrical utility. It's not like a normal market where customers can just buy wooden toys from someone else.

It must be nice to have all the rewards of being a private business with all the risk of being a sovereign government.

[whatever1]

ERCOT does not produce a single watt hour of electricity. Their sole role is to coordinate the producers to ensure the reliability of the grid. So yes sue ERCOT to bankruptcy. Will not be missed.

[seibelj]

I wouldn’t call this a “free market” despite being so-called deregulated compared to other states. A wonky system with arbitrary gatekeepers and bureaucrats that is interspersed with market elements.

[gurleen_s]

Nor food, nor housing, etc... we need a different system for people’s necessities.