The laws of supply and demand are at play when it comes to electricity just like most everything else, and these days the demand is high but the supply is not.
Just as companies, cities and nations around the world began to pledge energy goals of "net zero" (meaning no carbon emissions), the need for more electricity for data centers, crypto coin miners and artificial intelligence began to demand more electricity than can be easily generated, forcing those carbon 00environmental goals onto the back burner.
As an example, the tech giant Meta (owners of Facebook) wants to install a data center at El Paso in far west Texas, and local leaders are happy to have them if the company will commit to using solar power, since the city has abundant sunshine.
But Meta has decided it wants to create energy using natural gas, and El Paso leaders have already pledged to making the city "80% carbon-free" by 2035.
"Carbon-free" means zero emissions of carbon such as those produced by so-called fossil fuels like oil and gas and especially coal, all of which are used in the state of Texas.
The producer of a ground-breaking documentary about the growing inferiority of the US electricity infrastructure, "Grid Down Power Up," says the data center/crypto mining controversy is needlessly complicated.
It's about balance. "Renewables make sense but if it's too dominant it becomes a problem because there's always a need for dispatchable power," David Tice says.
"Dispatchable" meaning quick-starting, readily-available power for emergencies such as the one recently suffered nationwide, during which solar and wind are not as dependable as natural gas, coal, nuclear and battery power.
His film is a frightening factual account of how the United States has allowed its power infrastructure to start falling apart, a documentary narrated by native Texan, actor Dennis Quaid.
Most people aren't aware that in the State of Texas power-hungry data centers are required to de-couple from the power grid when needed during emergencies and then turn to using backup power from generators.
"So being able to shut down bitcoin mining [as happened in Texas on Sunday by request of the US Department of Energy and ERCOT] or shut down reliance on grid power for data centers is a good thing, then," Tice adds.
But it all comes down to one problem -- our national leaders have failed us for decades, and until the recent "Big Beautiful Bill" big money was going into solar and wind power, which will not help solve America's quick-start need to keep the power grid working during winter and summer emergencies.
It's not just a Texas problem. The other power grids in the United States are also being taxed to the max and were starting to fail in some cases over this past weekend.
American is just falling behind in updating it's electrical power system.
"China has spent a lot more money building their grid, but our grid is very old and needs a whole lot of work," he says.
In fact, the Chinese Communist Party has built up its electrical power availability to about ten times what it had available 20 years ago, while the US has been growing in tiny increments.
It's only now that the Trump administration appears to have turned toward building dispatchable electric power that could help save the grid -- if there's time.