Houston is literally a swamp, consider looking at a random street view image of any residential part of the city at some point.

Vegetation doesn’t do anything for humidity, see: Southeast Asia, Subsaharan Africa.

Texas has zero alfalfa production, you’re imagining the desert southwest 1000+ miles away from Houston in an entirely different climate.

You're right, I haven't really read the article (paywall).

I didn't know that Houston has average 75% humidity (as high as 90% in summer afternoons). That can't be good.

One might consider the democratic elections of school boards and governments a form of competition, however antiquated it may be.

It’s normal, the sun goes down quite regularly.

But if you look at previous day's graphs, you see that solar tops out at 20%, whereas natural gas never drops below 50%.

Natural gas generation never drops below ~40% period in this state, the novelty here is its losses from heat were covered to the tune of 35% of the mix last Tuesday.

PV generation maxes out at ~12GW, the bulk of our renewable energy comes from wind but it isn’t blowing this week ergo outsized natgas generation before the sun is up.

I should hope not, that would be depressing waste of taxpayer money.

FTA the West is just significantly better at playing this game.

We are most certainly engaging in cyber attacks against states that we are antagonistic against. Here are a few of the more public operations:

* Stuxnet: In 2010, the Stuxnet worm was discovered, which targeted Iran's nuclear facilities. It was widely reported that the United States and Israel were behind this cyber attack. The attack aimed to disrupt Iran's nuclear program by targeting specific control systems. Source: The New York Times - "Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran"

* Regin: Regin is a sophisticated cyber espionage platform discovered in 2014. It is suspected to be a joint operation conducted by the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance, consisting of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Regin targeted various entities, including governments, research institutions, and telecommunications providers. Source: Symantec - "Regin: Top-tier espionage tool enables stealthy surveillance"

* Flame and Duqu: Flame and Duqu were sophisticated cyber espionage tools discovered in 2012, believed to be associated with state-sponsored actors. While attribution is challenging, it has been reported that these attacks were possibly conducted by the US and its allies. The primary targets were in the Middle East, including Iran. Source: Symantec - "Flame: Questions and Answers"

* Equation Group: The Equation Group, classified as an advanced persistent threat, is a highly sophisticated threat actor suspected of being tied to the Tailored Access Operations (TAO) unit of the United States National Security Agency (NSA). It was responsible for developing and deploying sophisticated malware and exploits. The group's activities spanned several years and targeted various countries worldwide. Source: Kaspersky - "Equation: The Death Star of Malware Galaxy"