Texas' winter power woes are due largely to deregulation

Thomas Veil

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You want to know who to blame for Texas, in the middle of a horrible winter cold snap, being unable to keep its energy grid going? Well, I suppose you could start with Reagan.


While stating that it's harder to get natural gas in the winter because it's in such high demand, the story also states:

The problems are exacerbated because Texas, the largest energy producer and consumer in the United States, is the only state to use its own power grid. That frees it from federal regulations, including ones that could have required it to be better prepared for a freak cold snap, said Peter Fox-Penner, the founder of Boston University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy.
“Texas’ deregulatory philosophy has caused them to put much less stringent rules on generators and system operators to be prepared for cold weather than other systems, where extreme cold is more common,” he said in an interview.

Hoisted on their own deregulatory petard.

Their own power grid? Are they kidding?

You've gotta love it. Hooray for small government!

Hey Texas! Still thinking of seceding and going off on your own?
 

SuperMatt

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You want to know who to blame for Texas, in the middle of a horrible winter cold snap, being unable to keep its energy grid going? Well, I suppose you could start with Reagan.


While stating that it's harder to get natural gas in the winter because it's in such high demand, the story also states:




Hoisted on their own deregulatory petard.

Their own power grid? Are they kidding?

You've gotta love it. Hooray for small government!

Hey Texas! Still thinking of seceding and going off on your own?
Greg Abbott tells Minnesota how to run things on Feb 14:

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1361086360065617926/

But on Feb 15:
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1361398774216744967/

Maybe you want to ask Minnesota how they handle it being cold for months? Texas couldn‘t even handle it for a couple days. People knew this was coming, but the idiot governor is busy hate-tweeting Minnesota instead of making sure the power grid would be ready. And now he‘s blaming everybody but himself for the failure. He and DeSantis are fighting for “worst Governor” and it’s going to be a tough one…
 

Scepticalscribe

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You want to know who to blame for Texas, in the middle of a horrible winter cold snap, being unable to keep its energy grid going? Well, I suppose you could start with Reagan.


While stating that it's harder to get natural gas in the winter because it's in such high demand, the story also states:




Hoisted on their own deregulatory petard.

Their own power grid? Are they kidding?

You've gotta love it. Hooray for small government!

Hey Texas! Still thinking of seceding and going off on your own?

I read an article to this effect - that Texas is the only state to use (only) its own power grid - earlier today; absolutely unbelievable.
 

JayMysteri0

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It can seem like Texas ( at least their administration responsible for the current woes of their citizenry ), but it's be expected when design things more around political philosophies & catering to large interests, over what's best for your people.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1361847434884878338/

Seemingly according to this political official the utility people pay into, owes them nothing & they should suck it up. That's an innovative take on how free markets work. I'm sure this guy is a darling to businesses, but not so much for his constituents.

Wonder if this official has power? :unsure:

Update:
People voted THIS guy in. 👀

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1361893166471802883/
 
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fooferdoggie

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do we need a better description of Texas?
sorry-were-a-little-slow-hell-sort-of-froze-over-in-texas-1.jpg
 

SuperMatt

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It can seem like Texas ( at least their administration responsible for the current woes of their citizenry ), but it's be expected when design things more around political philosophies & catering to large interests, over what's best for your people.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1361847434884878338/

Seemingly according to this political official the utility people pay into, owes them nothing & they should suck it up. That's an innovative take on how free markets work. I'm sure this guy is a darling to businesses, but not so much for his constituents.

Wonder if this official has power? :unsure:

Update:

People voted THIS guy in. 👀

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1361893166471802883/
I was wondering why a state that is traditionally heavily Republican almost flipped to the Democrats in 2020. Seeing things like this, I am starting to see why. The ideology has become more important than the results. When people actually start suffering from the ideology, they consider voting in somebody else. Party loyalty only goes so far.
 

JayMysteri0

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I was wondering why a state that is traditionally heavily Republican almost flipped to the Democrats in 2020. Seeing things like this, I am starting to see why. The ideology has become more important than the results. When people actually start suffering from the ideology, they consider voting in somebody else. Party loyalty only goes so far.
Well, now you know why Musk wanted to move there so bad. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

iLunar

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Judging from the CA whiners in PRSI, I don't think it was ALL liberals.

I'm certainly not believing liberals embrace an independent power grid made to placate the markets over people, as well.

It's an interesting dynamic with a lot of green liberals I know. A few of them are adamant about living off the grid because it helps promote solar/clean energy.

Did you ever see the show Home on Apple TV+? The first episode highlights a family who built a house off the grid in a really socialist country. I found it fascinating as his home was an environmental marvel in effort to reduce carbon emissions AND was absent big oil/shale being off the grid.

Energy independence is becoming a much bigger issue, especially now that solar & battery technology is advancing.
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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It's an interesting dynamic with a lot of green liberals I know. A few of them are adamant about living off the grid because it helps promote solar/clean energy.

Did you ever see the show Home on Apple TV+? The first episode highlights a family who built a house off the grid in a really socialist country. I found it fascinating as his home was an environmental marvel in effort to reduce carbon emissions AND was absent big oil/shale being off the grid.

Energy independence is becoming a much bigger issue, especially now that solar & battery technology is advancing.
My parents installed solar about a year ago and they (and I when I visit) still forget they don’t have to worry about power grid outages or high energy bills when using the heater or AC a lot.

I still laugh at the hypocrisy when Solyndra going under became the poster child for Obama’s failed green energy initiative. Solyndra said they got undercut by the Chinese. Nobody really cared or listened. Soon as Trump takes office it’s all “We’re getting screwed by the Chinese!” and everybody agrees.
 

SuperMatt

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Might want to invest in rooftop solar and large-capacity batteries. This is a great system for those that don’t know. Excess energy from the solar panels is stored in a large battery to be used when it’s dark (or stormy) out.

However, knowing how people are (not just Texans), what will actually happen is thousands of diesel generators will fly off the shelves instead.
 

SuperMatt

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Yoused

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do we need a better description of Texas?
View attachment 3575
I believe 'twas Bill T. Sherman who said, “If you gave me Hell and Texas, I'd sell Texas and live in Hell.

Of course, old Goodhair wants Texans to die to prevent regulation,

 

SuperMatt

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I believe 'twas Bill T. Sherman who said, “If you gave me Hell and Texas, I'd sell Texas and live in Hell.

Of course, old Goodhair wants Texans to die to prevent regulation,

That this idiot was the Secretary of Energy for my country makes me want to puke. Trump was bad enough, but the people he installed in key positions were true insults to America.
 

JayMysteri0

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I think one of the things we are seeing the result of all this, is the focus on Texas' decisions & why they were made.

As the crisis of rolling blackouts in Texas unfolds this week, some of the state’s loudest Republican politicians are falsely dragging “frozen wind turbines” as the cause. But behind every wind energy smear by a Texas politician is a dizzying amount of money contributed by the fossil fuel industry.

Earther looked at whose money is behind the loudest anti-wind voices this week. We used OpenSecrets data as well as individual political donations logged with the Federal Election Commission website to look at donations for Sen. Ted Cruz, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, and Sen. John Cornyn–three of the Texas politicians sitting in Washington, D.C., who have been most outspoken in their criticism of wind energy’s supposed “role” in the blackouts.

All three have continued to scapegoat renewables throughout the week, and looking at their donors, it’s no surprise. Federal campaign finance data shows more than 30 companies in the oil and gas industry, from multinational names like Exxon and Chevron to local power players like Texas Transeastern and Wildhorse Energy, gave tens of thousands of dollars to Cornyn, Cruz, and Crenshaw over the past year. That includes thousands from individuals employed by those companies as well as largesse from their corporate PACs.

When pols are more worried about blaming others then actually fixing shit & addressing future issues, you know where things are headed.

Further they desperate need to cry about wind turbines & renewable energy when 80% or more is because of your reliance on fossil fuels.

In the midst of a record cold snap where Texas’ grid has failed to meet demand, misinformation is running rampant. Among the most pernicious memes propagating online are that Texas’ wind turbines have frozen and that that has led to the blackout.

Conservatives have zoomed in on a particular idea that helicopters are being dispatched to de-ice turbines to “prove” wind turbines are not clean energy. The meme been shared everywhere from a prominent Texas oil and gas consultant who racked up more than 32,000 retweets as of Tuesday morning sharing an image of a helicopter de-icing a turbine and Rep. Lauren Boebert, the gun-wielding member of Congress from Colorado, who urged her half-million followers to “Keep that in mind when thinking how ‘green’ windmills are.” They are both, however, completely false and misleading.
 
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