There is a point to which this is true, and there is a point at which this is no longer true because everyone is already doing everything they already can.

Texas was quite obviously well beyond that second point during this crisis.

Moreover that only excuses the people who actually had those extra expenses of charging more. The rest of the producers of electricity are morally (and under normal circumstances legally) obligated to not also raise their prices just because they can.

> There is a point to which this is true, and there is a point at which this is no longer true because everyone is already doing everything they already can.

Are they? I'm sure if the electricity rate was high enough it'd be worth it to airlift diesel generators across the country to make up the shortfall. Hell, you can probably fly in temp workers from europe/asia to do the necessary fixes.

> it'd be worth it to airlift diesel generators across the country to make up the shortfall. Hell, you can probably fly in temp workers from europe/asia to do the necessary fixes.

This event lasted 3 days. You think these private entities had the ability to coordinate airlifting generators (for what it's worth, IIRC fuel was the problem, not generators), and bringing in foreign skilled labor, to address a situation that will last a couple days?

If your next argument is going to be "The US Government/Military can do it" expect my response to be "If the US government can solve this problem for it's citizens during a crisis, it should be doing so whether the set price of electricity is >$9/kWh or not"

Someone did this in the aftermath of hurricane Rita I believe. They rented a uhaul and bought some generators, and drove halfway across the country to sell them to people the very next day. Then they got charged with price gouging.

Restricting them to a maximum 25 percent markup for all that effort (i.e. making them eat a loss) will obviously prevent people doing it. It's still just another example of the economic rule that price fixing creates shortages.

Price gouging is when you're you're trying to maximize value extraction for minimum effect.

People can deal with propping up a profit for someone going out of their way to get something done as cheaply as they can. Where they get annoyed is when you have the help there, but hold it hostage because you aren't feeling like people are willing to pay you enough. Not once on showing justifiable expenses has anyone ever argued at me being unreasonable.

Further, there's a point of diminishing returns where individual action is best avoided or at least organized to increase effectiveness.

Have your town pool money to hire tankers to run down instead of filling your pickup with gas cans. Force multipliers.

Price gouging laws are there to hedge civic stability. You can't organize people to solve a problem peacefully and efficiently if they're taking up torches amd pitch forks against those greedy haves. Everyone has to still be set, plus a bit extra to give to get community driven force multiplication.