What those huge Texas power bills and Bitcoin mining have in common

Texans are being hit with massive electric bills after last week’s winter storm knocked out much of the state’s grid, which is primarily powered by natural gas. Turns out, many of the data centers mining for cryptocurrency in this country also run on natural gas. On today’s Whadda Ya Wanna Know Wednesday, we’re digging into Texas’ unregulated energy market and Bitcoin’s carbon footprint. Plus, your questions about stock trading and stonktails.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “Can Texans protect themselves from their sky-high energy bills?” from Marketplace
• “Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation” from The Wall Street Journal
• “GameStop Mania Highlights Shift to Dark Trading” from The Wall Street Journal
• “Tesla’s $1.5 billion bitcoin purchase clashes with its environmental aspirations” from The Verge
• Treasury Secretary. Janet Yellen on her Bitcoin doubts
• A couple pieces on Bitcoin and natural gas
• “We try your “GameStonk”-inspired cocktails” from “Make Me Smart”

Finally: We need your voice memos! Tell us what you think of the show or ask a question for Kai Ryssdal and Molly Wood to answer! Here’s how to do it.

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