Texas Cold Snaps ERCOT

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MeDotOrg
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Texas Cold Snaps ERCOT

Post by MeDotOrg »

The town of Texarkana straddles the border of Texas and Arkansas. Guess which side of the street is Texas:
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The state of Texas owns 700 snow plows. The CITY of New York has over 2,000. Gotta love those low taxes, huh? Freedom!

The Lone Star State also goes its own way with respect to its electrical grid. Texas is not part of the Eastern or Western U.S. electrical grids. The Texas interconnect is run by ERCOT, the ironically named Energy Reliability Council Of Texas.
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Power Act, which charged the Federal Power Commission with overseeing interstate electricity sales. By not crossing state lines, Texas utilities avoided being subjected to federal rules. “Freedom from federal regulation was a cherished goal — more so because Texas had no regulation until the 1970s,” writes Richard D. Cudahy in a 1995 article, “The Second Battle of the Alamo: The Midnight Connection.”
So history does provide context for Rick Perry's take on the situation:
Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business.
Yes, Texans will happily die for energy independence from the rest of the United States. What is it about Texas? Remember in the early days of Covid, when then 69 year old Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said “as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?’ And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in.”

So old people should die so the state can reopen, and the rest of you freeze to death happily so Texas energy independence can live.

In the past few days, we've seen Conservatives try to make ERCOT's grid something other than the love child of deregulation and the Texas oil industry. A reliable electrical grid is a prerequisite for modern civilization. What millions of Texans have experienced this week is what life was like before electricity in a cold that can kill. This was not an abstract fear. This was a visceral experience for millions of people. They are going to want answers, and frantically waving at the green energy boogeyman ain't going to cut it. The short answer is the pain of living with a poorly designed and maintained power grid will push the ideology of at least some Texans to accept a little more regulation in exchange for a little more heat. In short, this experience will move Texas to the left.
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Doctor CamNC4Me
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Re: Texas Cold Snaps ERCOT

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Some Schmo
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Re: Texas Cold Snaps ERCOT

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I've been hearing for years that Texas boasts one of the lowest costs of living in the US, and I always wondered why. Now we know. I had considered moving to Austin for a few months, but luckily, my family made it clear they didn't want to move to Texas.

You get what you pay for.

ETA: by the way, where we did move has been suffering through the same cold snap, but wow... we have electricity, snow plows and salt here. Life goes on as normal. What a concept. And yeah, it's a blue state.
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Some Schmo
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Re: Texas Cold Snaps ERCOT

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The governor of Texas is trying to tell people the problem is with the Green New Deal, which has never actually been implemented. He's trying to say frozen windmills, which make up about 15% of Texas' energy are to blame, when the real problem is frozen natural gas pipes. So somehow, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez infiltrated Texas several decades ago and turned it green, against the wishes of all those GOP governors over the years.

This is a fact: GOP politicians and pundits believe in their gut that their base consists of damned morons. It's hard to argue against that idea, given the base keeps voting for the GOP.
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Re: Texas Cold Snaps ERCOT

Post by Gunnar »

Some Schmo wrote:
Fri Feb 19, 2021 3:15 pm
I've been hearing for years that Texas boasts one of the lowest costs of living in the US, and I always wondered why. Now we know. I had considered moving to Austin for a few months, but luckily, my family made it clear they didn't want to move to Texas.

You get what you pay for.

ETA: by the way, where we did move has been suffering through the same cold snap, but wow... we have electricity, snow plows and salt here. Life goes on as normal. What a concept. And yeah, it's a blue state.
I spent about several years of my life living in Austin while stationed at Bergstrom AFB in the Air Force. I liked Austin, while I was there, and actually seriously considered the idea of settling there after retiring from the Air Force. Boy am I glad I didn't!
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Moksha
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Re: Texas Cold Snaps ERCOT

Post by Moksha »

Moksha wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:35 pm
When danger reared its ugly head, Ted bravely turned his tail and fled.
To Cancun.
Hear what Heidi Cruz was texting neighbors before the trip to Cancun:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... -BB1dOA36?

Texas went from $30 per megawatt-hour to $9000 per megawatt-hour; the joys of deregulation and price gouging.


President Biden will help Texas, although most Texas Republicans will oppose the national stimulus package. The Texas Governor claims the Green New Deal caused the electric problem in Texas. If the Green New Deal legislation, ever comes out in bill form, the Texas Governor could come to Washington to tell that story. It would be a funny story for the evening news. We could all chuckle at those benighted Texans who think something that has not happened yet is the cause of their problems.
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Some Schmo
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Re: Texas Cold Snaps ERCOT

Post by Some Schmo »

I'm having another one of those days where I'm struck by the disconnect between the GOP base claiming to hate being considered stupid and the fact that their GOP leaders treat them like damned morons.
Religion is for people whose existential fear is greater than their common sense.

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Meadowchik
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Re: Texas Cold Snaps ERCOT

Post by Meadowchik »

Moksha wrote:
Sat Feb 20, 2021 4:34 am
Moksha wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:35 pm
When danger reared its ugly head, Ted bravely turned his tail and fled.
To Cancun.
Hear what Heidi Cruz was texting neighbors before the trip to Cancun:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... -BB1dOA36?

Texas went from $30 per megawatt-hour to $9000 per megawatt-hour; the joys of deregulation and price gouging.


President Biden will help Texas, although most Texas Republicans will oppose the national stimulus package. The Texas Governor claims the Green New Deal caused the electric problem in Texas. If the Green New Deal legislation, ever comes out in bill form, the Texas Governor could come to Washington to tell that story. It would be a funny story for the evening news. We could all chuckle at those benighted Texans who think something that has not happened yet is the cause of their problems.
And to think, 9K is the cap.
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Re: Texas Cold Snaps ERCOT

Post by Brack »

Tucker Carlson and a few other FOX hosts have been blaming the mass Texas blackouts on their windmills and the green new deal having come to that Republican run state. But that is absolutely false.
As nearly 3 million Texans languished without electricity Wednesday afternoon amid the ongoing fallout from Winter Storm Uri, Republicans and Fox News have teamed up to turn the disaster into a culture-war wedge issue.

As Vox’s Umair Irfan explained, the blackouts happened when the winter storm created a sudden spike in energy demand and hamstrung production of natural gas, coal, nuclear, and wind energy. The root problems (climate change aside) involve the state’s failure to winterize energy facilities and infrastructure in a region not accustomed to sustained freezing weather.


https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2021/2 ... ty-carlson

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c0cMtBA8lLg
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Bret Ripley
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Re: Texas Cold Snaps ERCOT

Post by Bret Ripley »

Last month the Texas House introduced a bill to secede from the US; this month Texas needs federal assistance. In a nation divided, we need to see this as an opportunity for unity and insist on the formation of a bipartisan congressional committee to determine precisely when Texas became the 'crazy ex' in this relationship.
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