I’m a Dem here in Texas. Our wind turbines froze.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Solar panels on the space station and the mars lander seem to do fine. So do the wind turbines in Antartica.

I don't think it is the technology.

Yea, typical weather in Texas is just like Antartica, orbital space, and Mars.

Would it kill you to just admit that Texas cheaped out and hasn’t properly prepared for the extreme weather events that accompany climate change? They ignored previous recommendations to proactively fortify infrastructure.

It’s just going to get worse. Responses like your’s are like an ostrich with its head in the sand. This will happen again....and again.

Well, that's not for me to decide, I don't pay taxes in Texas. I am not sure if I want to pay every year to prepare for an event that may happen every 50 years. If the tax payers in Texas believe it's a good use of their funds to be constantly prepared for snow and prolonged freezing weather, then that's their business.

It would be a small fee attached to the electricity bill. The entire rest of the country, including you, already pays it. The alternative is thousand dollar electric bills, no heat and frozen pipes once every 5-10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Solar panels on the space station and the mars lander seem to do fine. So do the wind turbines in Antartica.

I don't think it is the technology.

Yea, typical weather in Texas is just like Antartica, orbital space, and Mars.

Would it kill you to just admit that Texas cheaped out and hasn’t properly prepared for the extreme weather events that accompany climate change? They ignored previous recommendations to proactively fortify infrastructure.

It’s just going to get worse. Responses like your’s are like an ostrich with its head in the sand. This will happen again....and again.

Well, that's not for me to decide, I don't pay taxes in Texas. I am not sure if I want to pay every year to prepare for an event that may happen every 50 years. If the tax payers in Texas believe it's a good use of their funds to be constantly prepared for snow and prolonged freezing weather, then that's their business.

It would be a small fee attached to the electricity bill. The entire rest of the country, including you, already pays it. The alternative is thousand dollar electric bills, no heat and frozen pipes once every 5-10 years.

Agreed. These events are becoming much more frequent. I believe Texas had a similar winter freeze in the 80s. Then in 2011. Now in 2021. What's next - 2025?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey Republicans - Texas is a red state from the Governor down to the County Dog Catcher. What are you doing to help your people? Their homes are destroyed, they're out of clean water, power is still intermittent, and they're facing 1,000s in electricity bills.

Step up you cowards.

So now we are going to see a bunch of Twitter sob story lies

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

I'm still mulling over that great knee-slapper, "The most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

I personally think watching your child freeze to death while oil companies' profits soar is actually worse, but what do I know. I just like kids, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Republicans - Texas is a red state from the Governor down to the County Dog Catcher. What are you doing to help your people? Their homes are destroyed, they're out of clean water, power is still intermittent, and they're facing 1,000s in electricity bills.

Step up you cowards.

So now we are going to see a bunch of Twitter sob story lies

I do feel bad for them. But on the other hand, have they voted for this all these years? Did they love the deregulation and did they agree that it’s a business’s patriotic duty to make as much money as they can, no matter who gets hurt?

[Anonymous]

God knows, you wouldn't want the government to step in and help, amirite?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm still mulling over that great knee-slapper, "The most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

I personally think watching your child freeze to death while oil companies' profits soar is actually worse, but what do I know. I just like kids, I guess.

The total intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the GOP political philosophy (if you can call it a political philosophy; it’s basically anarchy) keeps getting exposed, but “good” Republicans keep shutting their eyes to the truth.

[Anonymous]

But they'll hold their noses to accept the bailout.

Real consistent there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But they'll hold their noses to accept the bailout.

Real consistent there.

Everyone in Texas is a Welfare Queen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Solar panels on the space station and the mars lander seem to do fine. So do the wind turbines in Antartica.

I don't think it is the technology.

Yea, typical weather in Texas is just like Antartica, orbital space, and Mars.

Would it kill you to just admit that Texas cheaped out and hasn’t properly prepared for the extreme weather events that accompany climate change? They ignored previous recommendations to proactively fortify infrastructure.

It’s just going to get worse. Responses like your’s are like an ostrich with its head in the sand. This will happen again....and again.

Well, that's not for me to decide, I don't pay taxes in Texas. I am not sure if I want to pay every year to prepare for an event that may happen every 50 years. If the tax payers in Texas believe it's a good use of their funds to be constantly prepared for snow and prolonged freezing weather, then that's their business.

Clueless. You don't have to produce and pay for excess power every year, you just need to winterize your infrastructure so that it can function in freezing weather and you need to participate in a regional and/or national compact so you can buy power if your infrastructure fails. Those things are much less expensive than the costs of a massive failure of the power grid.

+1
The small increase in cost on the average Texan's bill amortized over a decade or a century to pay for winterization is nothing compared to the disaster that just happened. The lost productivity alone, not counting deaths, damage, etc - just the loss of man hours from people snowbound - would be in the billions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Solar panels on the space station and the mars lander seem to do fine. So do the wind turbines in Antartica.

I don't think it is the technology.

Yea, typical weather in Texas is just like Antartica, orbital space, and Mars.

Would it kill you to just admit that Texas cheaped out and hasn’t properly prepared for the extreme weather events that accompany climate change? They ignored previous recommendations to proactively fortify infrastructure.

It’s just going to get worse. Responses like your’s are like an ostrich with its head in the sand. This will happen again....and again.

Well, that's not for me to decide, I don't pay taxes in Texas. I am not sure if I want to pay every year to prepare for an event that may happen every 50 years. If the tax payers in Texas believe it's a good use of their funds to be constantly prepared for snow and prolonged freezing weather, then that's their business.

Clueless. You don't have to produce and pay for excess power every year, you just need to winterize your infrastructure so that it can function in freezing weather and you need to participate in a regional and/or national compact so you can buy power if your infrastructure fails. Those things are much less expensive than the costs of a massive failure of the power grid.

+1
The small increase in cost on the average Texan's bill amortized over a decade or a century to pay for winterization is nothing compared to the disaster that just happened. The lost productivity alone, not counting deaths, damage, etc - just the loss of man hours from people snowbound - would be in the billions.

instead, our federal disaster aid is going to pay for all the damage they incurred because they chose deregulation.

this is the same feeling i get when people rebuild their beach houses destroyed after hurricanes....which we will continue to enable by spending trillions on climate change mitigation "strategies."

[Anonymous]

It would ring even more true if the beach house owners were going on and one about their "freedom" and how they never want any help from anybody, because they are the Lone Star Houses, and how all the people living in "safe places" are shheeeeeeeeeeple ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Man the right wing fossil fuel sphere got out there with their message fast.
Democrats and progressives are always playing catch up.
Always trying to unring a bell.

It’s almost like that was the state government’s priority instead of telling citizens how to stay safe.

This happened ten years ago, FERC wrote a report with a ton of recommendations, mostly “winterize your power distribution capability, FFS,” and Texas did nothing. You might recall this because Dallas in particular was a total icy mess the whole week before hosting the Super Bowl for the first time. Here’s the report; of course Texas was not required to follow the recommendations because its power grid is not regulated by the federal government. https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/08-16-11-report.pdf

My husband worked on that report. Last night he kept telling me that TX knew.

Of course they knew. They actively chose this scenario. They prefferred cheaper short term electricity over long term reliability amd resiliency.

So basically the GOP builds infrastructure like China builds buildings. Does anyone remember that school that collapsed in China that was practically built with paper clips in place of rebar and sawdust in the cement? This is that. An avoidable tragedy in support of the party’s ideals.

Your 1% event has happened 3 times in the last 30 years. How many billions is this costing in aid and productivity? At some point, it is worth investing in the infrastructure so as to not have to pay these additional emergency costs.
Prelim data suggests this was a 4 standard deviation event. Not many systems in the world built to withstand those types of events.

It happened ten years ago and the lack of winterization was specifically pointed to as the cause by both federal and state investigators. This was forseen and the problems known ahead of time.

And power outages happen all over blue states with heat waves that would be called overnight lows in the Texas summer. Going into the 90s in July of 2019 had DMV officials worried about blackouts while most Texans would be grateful for 90s temps in July and their systems would perform just fine at that demand/operating environment. California had rolling blackouts last year over what Texas could handle as a relatively average summer. Some of this is policy choices and some of it is that nobody builds systems to withstand these kind of events. Whether you’re in TX or CA.

That's just not entirely true. DMV summers are notoriously brutal, even by Texas standards. 90+ degree brutally humid summer days with a heat index over 100 are the norm not the exception around here. We pay extra for an electrical system that has guaranteed backup supply and whose components are weatherized. Texas chose not to and is paying the proverbial piper.

No. DMV summers are not brutal but Texas standards. Not even close. You’re losing track of scale here. Average July temp/heat index in DC is 89/100.8. Average in Dallas 95.2/113.5. And that’s just Dallas. Heat index in Houston, San Antonio and Austin are all worse in July. And the DMV power grid is not built to withstand sustained Texas temps from both a demand and operating perspective.

Ive been in both and I prefer the dry heat. The point is that our systems are built to handle everything from 100+ to -0 because you cant assume that wont happen. We pay to have backup supply in case of an emergency. We pay for weatherization. We dont do this because we want to. We do this because if something happens we dont want a grid failure. Texas on the other hand chooses not to prepare.

No. Systems aren’t built “for anything” that can happen. They are built for ranges that cover 99% of what could happen. When the 1% hits, systems fail. That’s true everywhere in the country. And right now Texas is having the 1% event.

I don’t have time to look for DMV’s ISO right now, but most other ISOs manage to around a one day in 10 year standard (industry standard). So when you get hit with a one day in 50 year event (especially on a multi day period) like Texas is experiencing right now you can expect system failure. You should not expect that your power system will operate under a comparable 4 standard deviation event that hits the DMV.

No one said.anything that can happen. 0-100 degree weather is not a 1% event in either the DMV or DFW. Had the temps been -20 or 120 you'd have a point. But they weren't. This event was manageable, forseeable, and predicted. The weather front was not even sudden. They knew it was coming and didn't prepare.

Texas is experiencing a 1% event FOR TEXAS.

Figure out what a 1% event is FOR DMV. That event is the appropriate comparison for what is happening in Texas right now. Odds are that DMV has similar grid experience in the case of a 1% event for DMV as Texas is having for a 1% event FOR TEXAS.

No Texas is not. It is a 1 in 10 year event for Texas. Look it up. There are references that planners, engineers and designers use.

Yes, Texas the state is in a once in 50 year event. Look it up. Parts of Texas have experienced this. Even for DFW this is like a once in 10 year event, but for the entire state to be this frozen is a once in 50 year event. Had this vortex only hit DFW, the grid probably holds fine. If only the Nat gas producers in the panhandle had been impacted, the grid holds fine. Those are things that have happened in memory. But for demand to surge across the entire state like this a once in 50 year event. Had this weather only hit DFW and Houston, the grid probably holds fine. But for San Antonio and areas south of I-10 to also get impacted at the SAME TIME as Houston and DFW is a historical storm.

NYT is saying this Texas storm goes beyond historical conditions.

NYPost says it is without precedent.

San Antonio papers say San Antonio hasn’t seen anything like this in 30+ years.

Local meteorologists are saying this is the worst storm going back to 1950.

The combined temps in DFW, Austin, Houston and San Antonio are record shattering. I get looking at DFW and saying something like this has happened before. Same for Houston, San Antonio or even Galveston. But nothing like this across the entire state at the same time has been seen in 50+ years.

I dont think your points are in conflict from everyone elses.

This has been so catostrophic because it's a combination of separate failures across the state. Many of those failures were caused by a combination of bad decisions. Had some of these failures not happened or been prepared for this likely would not have been as bad as it is.

So, while Galveston area generators might deserve a pass DFW ones don't. There is an excuse for some parts of Texas to not have winterized but not for others. On the broader scale there is still no excuse for the lack of always on backup capacity.

That’s the point! Nobody has a system with 100% backup. What you have is reserve margin which acts as what you’re calling backup. The storm knocked out the reserve margin. There isn’t a system in the US is built to withstand a 4 standard deviation event. Everybody wants to act like you can just plan to this event, but it doesn’t work that way anywhere in the country.

You’re wrong. Every place but Texas pays for reserve margarine. Texas pays for power used only and actually disincentivizes carrying any reserve margin.

This is just not correct. Every system in the country is managed to “one day in ten year standard”. Texas has 84000 MW of installed capacity. Due to planned maintenance outages, with respect to the planned outages, ERCOT tried to manage to an extreme demand scenario about 67000 MW. Peak demand was just over 69000 MW. Obviously, the one day in ten year standard was woefully short here because this was a 50 year event for the state as a whole. But the reserve margin exists. I’m not telling you that Texas performed well here. I’m only telling you that every system in the country is susceptible to a similar event on a relative basis.

[Anonymous]

Did they really lose natural gas? I’ve had homes with it since the 1980s and have never had an outage. One time about ten years ago it was shut off for maintenance in my area but it was planned and we were warned. I can always cook and shower in a power outage. Unthinkable that the water system would go out too, or was that people failing to keep their pipes from freezing?

I’m skeptical that people have already gotten big power bills. It sounds like a GoFundMe scam.