This is John Bacheler.

I ask my colleague, Bud Weinstein, writing in the messenger,

Buds in Dallas, Texas.

What the prospects are for Texas, the biggest consumer

of electricity of all the 50 states.

What the prospects are of getting through this next summer,

which promises to be alineo.

That means very warm and very dry.

Here's Bud and the prospects are not positive.

We're skating on pretty thin ice,

according to the Public Utility Commission,

according to the Power Grid operator.

Texas is somewhat unique in two ways.

Number one, we're one of the few states

where the demand for power is growing,

and that's because our population and our industrial base

are expanding so rapidly.

A second late Texas has its own grid.

We have relatively few interconnects with other states.

There's one small interconnect with Mexico.

So we need to have lots of reserve

in order to maintain grid stability.

...