ERCOT, PUC, and deregulation got us here

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

3 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

This is ABSOLUTELY right.

And those of us who are supportive of green energy understand that at present, it does have constraints.  But those can be overcome in the next 5-10 years.  It just takes research and ingenuity, and that means big $$$ as the industry expands.  What the Trumptards and the GQP pedal is fear, plain and simple.

FYI, Oil and Gas isn't going away immediately in any case.  We still have to have them for things like production of plastic and chemicals (they are working on totally green processes, but they are done on a small scale, and so far are not able to be ramped up to larger items).  Not being completely dependent on oil and gas isn't a bad thing, and the biggest oil and gas companies see that and are moving in that direction.  The gaslighting by the GQP and its sycophants pisses me off.

I am not close to being an expert in the energy sector but I wonder, how much money in subsidies do we give Oil and Gas and could that money be used for better purposes.  For example, if we took that money and moved it to solar panels on everybody’s homes or buildings would that be better for the country?  I really don’t know the answer and I know only using solar isn’t the answer but at the same time if the US could get the cost down of solar for homeowners from the $5OK it costs then wouldn’t that help our energy situation as a country?

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,142]

Just now, Cacti said:

If Texas were connected to the national grid during this particular nation-wide storm, would other states have enough excess electricity to help Texas in a substantial way?

Yes.  This storm hasn't made it up to the Northeast.  Hell, yesterday, I almost turned on my AC it was so warm (up to 57 in the city in places).  Plus, our heat in the city is largely Heating Oil, not electric.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,142]

Just now, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

I am not close to being an expert in the energy sector but I wonder, how much money in subsidies do we give Oil and Gas and could that money be used for better purposes.  For example, if we took that money and moved it to solar panels on everybody’s homes or buildings would that be better for the country?  I really don’t know the answer and I know only using solar isn’t the answer but at the same time if the US could get the cost down of solar for homeowners from the $5OK it costs then wouldn’t that help our energy situation as a country?

The biggest subsidiary oil and gas gets is tax write offs, but ultimately, what they get to do is instead of amortizing dry well costs over time (like 30 years), they can take the write off all up front once the well is determined to be dry.  Over time, they would take the same amount in write offs, but they basically get the deduction up front.  

I would also say that land leases on federal lands (They are not paying that much) as well as the federal gasoline tax being so small (It has not gone up in YEARS), are other ways we are "subsidizing" them. 

There are other green subsidies with biofuels, etc..., but all green and renewable energy have those, so I am going to stay silent on that.

[Pato del Muerto 52,596]

That half of Texas runs electric heating is also a mystery.  Gas is cheaper and more efficient, and houses have natural gas plumbed because many have gas stoves. 

[FondrenRoad 4,378]

2 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Yes.  This storm hasn't made it up to the Northeast.  Hell, yesterday, I almost turned on my AC it was so warm (up to 57 in the city in places).  Plus, our heat in the city is largely Heating Oil, not electric.

Yeah, summer strains our grid in the northeast a lot more than winter.  And I'm just about ready for summer now instead of more snow. 

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

Just now, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

The biggest subsidiary oil and gas gets is tax write offs, but ultimately, what they get to do is instead of amortizing dry well costs over time (like 30 years), they can take the write off all up front once the well is determined to be dry.  Over time, they would take the same amount in write offs, but they basically get the deduction up front.  

I would also say that land leases on federal lands (They are not paying that much) as well as the federal gasoline tax being so small (It has not gone up in YEARS), are other ways we are "subsidizing" them. 

There are other green subsidies with biofuels, etc..., but all green and renewable energy have those, so I am going to stay silent on that.

I guess my point is even if its not subsidies but straight investment via a infrastructure bill, would it be in our best interest to have every home in TX, AZ, NM, CA, FL, etc... using solar panels and feeding it back into the grid? Maybe the cost is to high, I really don’t know.  

[FondrenRoad 4,378]

Just now, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

I guess my point is even if its not subsidies but straight investment via a infrastructure bill, would it be in our best interest to have every home in TX, AZ, NM, CA, FL, etc... using solar panels and feeding it back into the grid? Maybe the cost is to high, I really don’t know.  

Whatever happens, when the federal government sends in FEMA and starts bailing out Texas, they better attach strings and bring the Texas grid into the federal regulatory scope. 

[Pato del Muerto 52,596]

3 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

I guess my point is even if its not subsidies but straight investment via a infrastructure bill, would it be in our best interest to have every home in TX, AZ, NM, CA, FL, etc... using solar panels and feeding it back into the grid? Maybe the cost is to high, I really don’t know.  

But if we did that, the energy companies wouldn’t make much money because demand for their power generation would be low to naught most days of the year. Even worse, solar companies would profit.  Can’t be having that. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,142]

2 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

I guess my point is even if its not subsidies but straight investment via a infrastructure bill, would it be in our best interest to have every home in TX, AZ, NM, CA, FL, etc... using solar panels and feeding it back into the grid? Maybe the cost is to high, I really don’t know.  

There are already subsidies for folks that invest in solar panels for their house.  They get a federal tax credit.  

My folks are researching panels augmented with the Tesla storage wall.  That being said, they have never lost power in this (they are close to the Corps of Engineer at Stillhouse Dam, so I think they lucked out).

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,142]

4 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

I guess my point is even if its not subsidies but straight investment via a infrastructure bill, would it be in our best interest to have every home in TX, AZ, NM, CA, FL, etc... using solar panels and feeding it back into the grid? Maybe the cost is to high, I really don’t know.  

And the cost is high.  My parents live in a 2700 Sq Ft house, and I think the estimate for their house is 40-50k and that is after the tax credit is deducted.  Granted, they have no more electric bills, so over time, it pays for itself.

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

1 minute ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

There are already subsidies for folks that invest in solar panels for their house.  They get a federal tax credit.  

My folks are researching panels augmented with the Tesla storage wall.  That being said, they have never lost power in this (they are close to the Corps of Engineer at Stillhouse Dam, so I think they lucked out).

While there is a tax credit it really doesn’t bring the cost down to a reasonable point for most people which is the issue.  

[Brisketexan 105,328]

In the end, just remember this: given a choice between a system that puts profits in the hands of their richest donors, or a system that protects human life and safety....it’s not a choice at all.

Texas’ leadership will kill Texans for money. We know they will, because they already have.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,142]

1 minute ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

While there is a tax credit it really doesn’t bring the cost down to a reasonable point for most people which is the issue.  

And not all houses are equipped to have it due to tree cover, orientation, etc...

I think it is a sound investment to make, and I see more and more people doing it.  My dad tried a few years ago, and they were not doing it in Belton.  They are now, finally. 

[washparkhorn 9,939]

4 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

If you don't understand the product you signed up for (i.e. wholesale power), maybe you shouldn't have signed them up for it.

Disagree with the conclusion (suggested edit), but your argument is principled under law, custom, and code.

Hook 'em  

[washparkhorn 9,939]

Hang in their Texans and anyone in harm's way. That was a bitch of a polar vortex. Every state's knees would have buckled with that whack (and problems with your energy supply chain during a pandemic). Most states are preparing for these anomalies. Big states are experiencing them. Strengthen the grid. It's worth it. 

Be safe and warm. 

Hook 'em

[Updawg 2,286]

I get that the people who signed up for Griddy and didn’t change get what they got, but if nobody else would take them on then that’s kind of fucked

Pedernales coop here so I don’t know how it works

[27-25 2,055]

1 hour ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Per Dan Crenshaw on Facebook:

The push to decommission baseload power sources like natural gas would be disastrous when trying to keep the lights on in Texas.

Did I miss the concerted push to shut down natural gas plants?  Oh wait.  It's just total bullshit.  That's right.  Silly me.

[Brisketexan 105,328]

This.  I have heard some people saying things about Abbott that I’ve never heard them say about him or any other sufficiently party-line Republicans before.  I don’t expect them to vote Democrat or even know that it will necessarily last, but this is pissing people off who should be in his wheelhouse in a way that not even Covid or anything else has before.   It might not be a political sea change for the state in general, but Greg Abbott is in trouble right now.  
And it very well may become a big political moment in general once it’s clear how much damage has been done.   How fucking long is it going to take to fix all the burst pipes alone?   We can’t have anywhere near enough plumbers. Shit is going to be borked for months.

They’ll come back around. They ain’t gonna vote for no socialist!

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,142]

1 hour ago, washparkhorn said:

Disagree with the conclusion (suggested edit), but your argument is principled under law, custom, and code.

Hook 'em  

That is fair.  

[Hagbard Celine 10,923]

4 hours ago, Clintonaldo said:

Also, the no winterizing requirement is fucking stupid and I don’t understand why a company wouldn’t do that. It’s a small chance but major problem. Just a complete lack of ethics and sense to me. 

why: we are a for-profit and for-profit-only end-stage-capitalism failed state created and controlled by delusional lying sycophants.

next?

[Hagbard Celine 10,923]

4 hours ago, Updawg said:

The only investigating will be done by good reporters. I hope there are some ready to go down this shitshow

Spoiler

 

wapo paywall

Opinion by

Jennifer Rubin

Columnist

Feb. 17, 2021 at 5:39 p.m. UTC

Incompetence is not the purview of one party. But when you view politics as theater and grievance-mongering, chances are you are going to shortchange governance. Elect a president with no public-sector experience, no interest in learning, no desire to hire competent people and no ability to accept responsibility, and you get something like the covid-19 debacle. Moreover, if your party is hostile to government and exercising regulatory power because it is beholden to a donor class and right-wing ideologues, you will not be prepared for disasters when they strike.

And that brings us to Texas. The Post reports, “As millions of people across Texas struggled to stay warm Tuesday amid massive cold-weather power outages, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) directed his ire at one particular failure in the state’s independent energy grid: frozen wind turbines.” There is one problem: That is not remotely true (as you might have guessed from a state with an enormous oil and gas sector). “The governor’s arguments were contradicted by his own energy department, which outlined how most of Texas’s energy losses came from failures to winterize the power-generating systems, including fossil fuel pipelines.”

In other words, rotten policy and management are to blame. “What has sent Texas reeling is not an engineering problem, nor is it the frozen wind turbines blamed by prominent Republicans,” The Post reports. “It is a financial structure for power generation that offers no incentives to power plant operators to prepare for winter. In the name of deregulation and free markets, critics say, Texas has created an electric grid that puts an emphasis on cheap prices over reliable service.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who had declared during last summer’s wildfires that California is “unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity,” had to eat crow: (tweet did not load from gcache)

Not good?! One might hope that instead of spending time on right-wing media and engaging in the politics of White resentment, the senator and the state’s dominant political party would show greater concern for providing essential services to its people, especially as they face a pattern of natural disasters stemming from climate change, the highest rate of uninsured residents in the country, double the national average in child poverty and unemployment higher than the national average (7.2 percent vs. 6.7 percent).

Mayors from Texas cities — including Arlington, Austin, Beaumont, Brownsville, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Plano and Port Arthur — are begging for passage of the Biden administration’s rescue package. In a joint letter with the Conference of Mayors to congressional leaders, they write: “The lack of adequate support has resulted in budget cuts, service reductions, and job losses. Sadly, nearly one million local government jobs have already been lost during the pandemic. … The $350 billion in direct relief to state and local governments included in President Elect Biden’s American Rescue Plan would allow cities to preserve critical public sector jobs and help drive our economic recovery.” Cruz is part of the crowd that opposes “blue-state bailouts” (though he had no problem taking relief for Hurricane Harvey). He was also one of six senators to vote against the December stimulus package.

Instead of working on getting rescue funds to his state, Cruz will certainly oppose the Biden plan (although once again, he might be all for emergency disaster relief). He spends his time ginning up the base. He led the charge to overturn the election results, a quest that resulted in the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, and he voted to acquit the instigator in chief.

Republicans such as Cruz need to stop looking for ways to disenfranchise voters, engaging in climate change denial, fanning the flames of anti-immigrant hysteria and sustaining an economic environment that puts millions of his constituents in peril year after year. Abbott needs to take responsibility for a natural disaster made worse by a governing fiasco. Right now, Texas is not looking good. If only someone there could step up and govern.

 

 

[Hagbard Celine 10,923]

i'm awake and can't sleep because of the suffering going on out there.  i feel a disturbance in the force.  rage scrolling surl at 3am when i'm totally exhausted.

the texarctic21 humanitarian crisis slays my soul and i want justice.

[Hagbard Celine 10,923]

5 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

The funny thing about this, there are a LOT of people who work in this industry that know better.  They all need to call them out loudly and often for lying.  

there are tons of PE people on this board.  how many will side with the hate engine?  how many will stand up for humanity over greed?

show yourselves, stand up, and be counted.

[Hagbard Celine 10,923]

From: Media <0000002ed0ffd167-dmarc-request@lists.ercot.com>

To: "news_bulletins@lists.ercot.com" <news_bulletins@lists.ercot.com>

Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2021, 7:04:27 PM CST

Subject: Grid operator continues to restore power, electric companies continue to bring generation back online

 

Grid operator continues to restore power

Electric companies continue to bring generation back online

 

AUSTIN, TX, Feb. 17, 2021 – The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) continues to make progress on restoring power to the electric system.

 

“We are working around the clock to restore power to Texans,” said ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness. “We made progress today, but it will not be good enough until every person has their power back.”

 

Since this morning, ERCOT has been able to restore approximately 8,000 MW, which is about 1.6 million households. This afternoon, there was sufficient generation available to begin restoring 1,000 MW every hour.

 

“We’re at a point in the restoration where we’re going to keep energizing circuits as fast as we safely can until we run out of available generation,” said ERCOT Senior Director of System Operations Dan Woodfin. “We hope to make significant progress overnight.”

 

It is possible that by morning, as load increases, local utilities may be able to go back to rotating outages versus keeping power off for extended periods of time.

 

As of 6 p.m., approximately 43,000 MW of generation has been forced off the system during this extreme winter weather event. Of that, 26,500 MW is thermal and nearly 17,000 MW is wind and solar.

 

###

 

ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers, representing about 90 percent of the state's electric load. As the Independent System Operator for the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects more than 46,500 miles of transmission lines and 680+ generation units. ERCOT also performs financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for more than 8 million premises in competitive choice areas. ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature.

 

Media Contact:

Leslie Sopko, leslie.sopko@ercot.com

 

Subscribe to the News_Bulletins distribution list

Unsubscribe  to the News_Bulletins distribution list

[JohnLocke 115]

6 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

This is ABSOLUTELY right.

And those of us who are supportive of green energy understand that at present, it does have constraints.  But those can be overcome in the next 5-10 years.  It just takes research and ingenuity, and that means big $$$ as the industry expands.  What the Trumptards and the GQP pedal is fear, plain and simple.

 

I've been hearing that for at least ten years.  I like cheap energy.  Wind is already more expensive.  Storage will add to that cost, even if we come up with technology that makes it feasible.  We now have a less reliable power mix, and we haven't even started to pay for insurance against this type of event happening again. Wind has been tried in a lot of places. The result is always higher prices to consumers and a less reliable grid.  And it's probably not a good idea to be 55% natural gas either.  We need more baseline nuclear. If France can do it, how hard can it be, really?

[956 Worldwide 34,769]

For those of you without power and heat, this TexAgs user and many like him are letting their red-hot hatred of refugees take over. That’s the real take-away from all this— refugees are bad.

[DigglerontheHoof 21,235]

2 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

For those of you without power and heat, this TexAgs user and many like him are letting their red-hot hatred of refugees take over. That’s the real take-away from all this— refugees are bad.

So "3rd world country" refugees are running ERCOT? 

[cactusflinthead 27,602]

2 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

i'm awake and can't sleep because of the suffering going on out there.  i feel a disturbance in the force.  rage scrolling surl at 3am when i'm totally exhausted.

the texarctic21 humanitarian crisis slays my soul and i want justice.

When I stop long enough to look around there are so many things that enrage me.

Yet, there are people defending Cruz this morning and last night and I expect they will tomorrow.

Right here on the surl we have aggressively stubbornly stupid takes.

It makes me wanna holler. So I do.

Then I find a candidate or a group dedicated to helping people or at the very least shows some signs of having a clue and I give them money.

Because Hawley just had a helluva fundraising month.

[gmr548 16,614]

Greg Abbott is in trouble right now.

[gmr548 16,614]

I've been hearing that for at least ten years.  I like cheap energy.  Wind is already more expensive.  Storage will add to that cost, even if we come up with technology that makes it feasible.  We now have a less reliable power mix, and we haven't even started to pay for insurance against this type of event happening again. Wind has been tried in a lot of places. The result is always higher prices to consumers and a less reliable grid.  And it's probably not a good idea to be 55% natural gas either.  We need more baseline nuclear. If France can do it, how hard can it be, really?

Shut the fuck up, troll.

[DigglerontheHoof 21,235]

11 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

Yep.  The only trouble Hot Wheels is in, is being taken out in the primary by a Q-level trumper.  

[Biff Tannen 45,733]

1 hour ago, 956 Worldwide said:

For those of you without power and heat, this TexAgs user and many like him are letting their red-hot hatred of refugees take over. That’s the real take-away from all this— refugees are bad.

Jesus.  This person is just living in a flawed reality.  The immediate pivot to blaming others for something that doesn't exist is just astounding.

[kevwun 15,887]

A Democrat hasn't won a statewide election in Texas since 1994, but somehow this is all because of socialism. 

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

2 hours ago, JohnLocke said:

I've been hearing that for at least ten years.  I like cheap energy.  Wind is already more expensive.  Storage will add to that cost, even if we come up with technology that makes it feasible.  We now have a less reliable power mix, and we haven't even started to pay for insurance against this type of event happening again. Wind has been tried in a lot of places. The result is always higher prices to consumers and a less reliable grid.  And it's probably not a good idea to be 55% natural gas either.  We need more baseline nuclear. If France can do it, how hard can it be, really?

Lol you are going to compare us to France? I know it's fashionable to consider them a bunch of nancyboys and slackers but I don't think you want to compare our education level to theirs, nor the ability to pull off big infrastructure projects. 

[Sawbonz 27,587]

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1532550526937380&id=337380446454400

 

if someone knows how to embed the post please do. Very succinct explanation by Clay Jenkins of the failure of state agencies that led to this cluster

Edited February 18, 2021 by Sawbonz

[Francisco 2.0 32,428]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-gov-greg-abbott-shows-where-his-loyalties-lie-amid-crippling-power-outages?ref=home?ref=home

 

Quote

Forget the Alamo!

Remember the frozen sensors and pumps and pipes in the Texas power grid!

Those were the major causes of the last big power outages in the Lone Star State, on Super Bowl Sunday in 2011.

And they seem to be a big part of the problem in the current outages, the end of which Gov. Greg Abbott was unable to predict at a press briefing on Wednesday night.

 

Quote

Abbott did say that he has sought and received federal disaster aid and assistance from FEMA—and he sounded as if he were glad to have the feds as partners. Never mind that just three weeks ago he was down in Odessa talking as if he were declaring war on Washington, D.C.

If the battle cry of the Alamo was “Come and take it!” Abbott goes by “Come and fake it!”

In videos of yesterday’s briefing in Austin and of the Jan. 28 event in Odessa, Abbott is wearing what seems to be the same blue-grey zippered jacket with a governor’s emblem on the breast.

 

Quote

But in Odessa, Abbott may as well have been wearing a logo for the gas industry as he sought to demonstrate that the millions the energy industry has poured into his campaigns over the years was money well spent.

“Texas is going to protect the oil and gas industry from any type of hostile attack launched from Washington, D.C.,” Abbott declared. “President Biden’s embrace of the Green New Deal is a job-killer in Texas.”

He was sitting in an oil company facility with an oversized oil truck serving as a backdrop. He produced and signed an executive order embossed with a big gold seal. He read the text aloud:

 

Spoiler

“By the authority invested in me as governor by the constitutional laws of the state of Texas, I direct every state agency to use all lawful powers and tools to challenge any federal action that threatens the continued strength, vitality, and independence of the energy industry.”

His last major executive order had been a mask mandate that he finally implemented only after thousands had died of COVID-19. He was now mandating that the many facets of state government challenge federal efforts to regulate oil and gas interests in Texas.

“Each state agency should work to identify potential litigation, notice and comment opportunities and any other means of preventing federal overreach within the law,” he said, adding “That will arm Texas to be prepared to fight back."

He was clearly seeking to sound as if he were championing Texas freedom rather than just shilling for the industry that has long considered the state its fiefdom.

“We will not let cities use political correctness to dictate which energy source you use,” Abbott said.

On Feb. 15, millions of Texans suddenly had no energy source at all. Abbott’s initial response to the power outages that left so many in frigid darkness was reasonable enough.

“The ability of some companies that generate the power has been frozen,” he tweeted. “This includes the natural gas & coal generators. They are working to get generation back on line.”

But then he went on Sean Hannity’s show and signaled where his true loyalties lie. He was again his masters’ voice as he suggested that the failure of wind and solar energy sources are a major factor in the outages.

“So this shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Abbott said. “It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas, as well as other states, to make sure that we’ll be able to heat our homes in the wintertime and cool our homes in the summertime.”

During Wednesday’s briefing, an insistent reporter caused Abbott to back off the Hannity remarks, saying he had simply been asked about renewable energy on “one TV show.”

“I responded to that question,” he said.

He noted that he had given “two dozen or more” other interviews regarding the crisis.

“I have repeatedly talked about how every source of power that the state of Texas has has been compromised... because of either the ultra-colder temperature or because of equipment failures,” he said.

He reported that the legislature intends to begin investigating the outages next week.

“That will begin a process where we fully evaluate exactly what was done and maybe what was not done,” he said.

He indicated that the process will be much the same as the last time Texas experienced such outages, a decade ago.

“We want to undertake the same type of review that was done in 2011, maybe reevaluate some of the decisions that were made in 2011,” he said. “We want to make sure we are capable of ensuring the state will be able to withstand cold spells like this time.”

He did not seem to grasp that the very fact it had happened again meant they had not fully learned the lesson of the previous outages.

The legislature had indeed held hearings immediately after the outage of 2011. The result was Senate Bill 1133, which required power providers to periodically file winterization reports. The reports seem to have disappeared into the bureaucracy with little result.

A more intensive and extensive investigation was conducted by an agency that Abbott has spoken of as an enemy, the Federal Regulatory Administration. The results are contained in a report titled “Outages and Curtailments During the Southwest Cold Weather Event, February 1- 5, 2011.”

The federal report—which also covers events in neighboring states—indicates that sensors containing water were one of a number of significant factors in the loss of power sources in Texas. The continued presence of such sensors would be a good indication that Texas has been too much of a lone star. So would any of the other factors.

The rest of the 2011 report seems to constitute a recipe for preventing such outages in the future. But somehow the fiasco was repeated, only far worse.

One of the lesser factors was the failure of wind-driven turbines. Even here the report suggests a remedy.

“Although manufacturers offer a ‘cold weather package’ that allows a turbine to continue operating in colder temperatures, it does not appear that the package is used in the Southwest,” the report notes.

The first wind turbine tower went up in Texas in 1999, when the future champion of the Green New Deal, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, was 10 years old. The state had been the country's leading producer of wind energy for more than a decade when AOC arrived in Congress.

But wind still accounts for no more than 7 percent of the state’s power supply.

“Gov. Abbott needs to get off TV pointing fingers & start helping people,” AOC tweeted after Abbott faked it on Hannity. “After that, he needs to read a book on his own state’s energy supply.”

Or maybe he could read that August 2011 report by the feds.

 

[gmr548 16,614]

Lol you are going to compare us to France? I know it's fashionable to consider them a bunch of nancyboys and slackers but I don't think you want to compare our education level to theirs, nor the ability to pull off big infrastructure projects. 

We are not a peer of France in any meaningful quality of life metric. The comparison is laughable.

[SydneyCarton 48,169]

This industry is directly adjacent to my career of 20 years. I know more about the grid and the power than most folks. I will say that the title of this thread isn’t correct. I’m sure much of it has been covered here, and we’re just getting power restored after days without here in Houston. I’ll be happy to answer direct questions over time when I can, but I’ll sum this up quickly. 
 

20 things went wrong. This isn’t a deregulation issue or a PUC issue. This isn’t an ERCOT issue. This isn’t a federal oversight issue or preventing socialism. This is politics and greed, period. Texas’s grid wasn’t winterized after repeated fuckups this decade because politicians don’t hold companies accountable and fine them for failure. Companies don’t do it because they’re greedy and sick and do calculations like “how much will it cost to fix this versus pay off lawsuits?” That’s it. If this grid was winterized properly and protected, If resources brought online earlier, if pipes had been better insulated carrying gas, we’d be fine. Do we need to be connected to the other two major grids in the US? There’s pros and cons you can debate. But we could have survived this on our own if we’d taken the precautions. We didn’t. Because they’re expensive. 
 

Deregulation in Texas has created hundreds of thousands of jobs. You want to keep it. None of this is a problem if politicians hold companies accountable to standards and actually implement basic regulations. But we don’t because Texas. Laying blame anywhere other than our elected officials is wrong and a smokescreen, because we all know companies will sink to their lowest requirements because people are shitty. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by SydneyCarton

[TwiceHorn 31,535]

9 hours ago, Clintonaldo said:

Capacity payments as in they aren’t paid to hold shit for emergencies so they sell everything they can when they can?

In simple practical terms, in a capacity market, ERCOT would estimate energy requirements going out 3-5 years, i.e. capacity.  Generators bid to supply portions of that capacity over the term and get a "guaranteed cash flow," which incentivizes being ready to provide that capacity in the future.  There are interim auctions to "true up" the capacity requirements over the term of the initial 3-5 years.

[SydneyCarton 48,169]

22 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1532550526937380&id=337380446454400

 

if someone knows how to embed the post please do. Very succinct explanation by Clay Jenkins of the failure of state agencies that led to this cluster

This. This guy fucking gets it. This is absolutely the problem. 

[TwiceHorn 31,535]

10 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

This industry is directly adjacent to my career of 20 years. I know more about the grid and the power than most folks. I will say that the title of this thread isn’t correct. I’m sure much of it has been covered here, and we’re just getting power restored after days without here in Houston. I’ll be happy to answer direct questions over time when I can, but I’ll sum this up quickly. 
 

20 things went wrong. This isn’t a deregulation issue or a PUC issue. This isn’t an ERCOT issue. This isn’t a federal oversight issue or preventing socialism. This is politics and greed, period. Texas’s grid wasn’t winterized after repeated fuckups this decade because politicians don’t hold companies accountable and fine them for failure. Companies don’t do it because they’re greedy and sick and do calculations like “how much will it cost to fix this versus pay off lawsuits?” That’s it. I’d this grid was winterized properly and protected, I’d resources brought online earlier, I’d pipes had been better insulated carrying gas, we’d be fine. Do we need to be connected to the other two major grids in the US? There’s pros and cons you can debate. But we could have survived this on our own if we’d taken the precautions. We didn’t. Because they’re expensive. 
 

Deregulation in Texas has created hundreds of thousands of jobs. You want to keep it. None of this is a problem if politicians hold companies accountable to standards and actually implement basic regulations. But we don’t because Texas. Laying blame anywhere other than our elected officials is wrong and a smokescreen, because we all know companies will sink to their lowest requirements because people are shitty. 

Great post.

It's complicated.  Lots of parties bear blame for different things.  But a lot of it can be traced to a lax regulatory/oversight environment.

ERCOT may have fucked some forecasting up, but even if they had gotten it right, there was little they could do to rectify the coming problems.

Also interesting to note that most of the real energy experts admit that the Texas market works pretty damned well most of the time, but that these types of problems were foreseeable and not addressed, which again is a regulatory/oversight glitch.

Edited February 18, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

40 minutes ago, kevwun said:

A Democrat hasn't won a statewide election in Texas since 1994, but somehow this is all because of socialism. 

Well not just socialism.  Said Democrat will also take all your guns away, kill your unborn babies and maybe bake a cake for a gay person.  You add all that together and that is why so many “smart” Texans refuse to vote for a Democrat in this state.

[MC Fresh Breath 4,074]

16 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

 

 I was driving around just now, listening to NPR, and they called out Abbot for his bullshit. I believe the direct quote was something like "Governor Abbot falsely claimed renewable energy was the cause of the power outages in Texas."

 

Sidenote: The reason I was driving around was because the local federally subsidized apartment housing complex for the elderly and disabled doesn't have power. One of the tenants is a client of my wife. She called my wife and my wife found out her client was freezing in her crappy little apartment. My wife called the managers, who said there was nothing they could do, then she called the local police, who said there was nothing they could do but there was a "warming shelter" set up in the county fire house, so it fell to me to go pick up my wife's client and drive her to the warming shelter. When I got there, I learned that there were probably 20 additional old people who needed rides.

By that time, my wife had called a few other people, so between the three of us, we got them all to the shelter in about an hour. After that I went to fill up on gas, and there were lines of cars at the gas station. I don't know if that is because of stupid people panicking, or because all the other gas stations not having power, or what.

 

And so it goes. Its the end times, fellas.

 

I'm not religious, but seriously,  bless you for this.  As a human, thank you for what you did.

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by MC Fresh Breath

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

1 hour ago, 956 Worldwide said:

For those of you without power and heat, this TexAgs user and many like him are letting their red-hot hatred of refugees take over. That’s the real take-away from all this— refugees are bad.

What’s even more insane about this post is that most of these refugees that come from socialist third world countries are the most capitalistic people in this country.  They are totally against socialism and want the opportunity to work and make money or build their own small business.  The most socialist people in this country are dumb white red necks who want their Medicaid but are too stupid to understand that what they want is actually socialism.  

[elfenix 34,332]

The biggest subsidiary oil and gas gets is tax write offs,

The biggest subsidy oil and gas gets is dumping its waste into public property without paying for it.

[956 Worldwide 34,769]

The other thing that is insane is that the Republican Party is the party that traffics most in dysfunctional, developing world political tropes. (These idiots do not understand that third world actually means).

- Unfettered, cutthroat, protection-free market for consumers (official R policy)

- Sweetheart deals for cronies and large enterprises (official R policy)

- “Privatization” of utilities and public services (official R policy)

- Government that is incapable by design and hampered by inadequate funding and investment (official R policy)

- Expansive funding only for the military and “power” agencies/ministries (official R policy)

- Grievance politics aimed at stoking fear among the majority (mega-dittos)

All this shit defines the developing world, most importantly the lack of a functioning regulatory and administrative state that is starved of resources and a “private sector” that unevenly provides things like roads, security, and utilities to those that can afford them. And of course, the ability to always find the funding to pay for a big military and heavily armed police. Turning the U.S into Pakistan is pretty much the GOP platform. 

[Js1 85,570]

17 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

What’s even more insane about this post is that most of these refugees that come from socialist third world countries are the most capitalistic people in this country.  They are totally against socialism and want the opportunity to work and make money or build their own small business.  The most socialist people in this country are dumb white red necks who want their Medicaid but are too stupid to understand that what they want is actually socialism.  

GET YOUR GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY HEALTHCARE, YOU COMMIECRAT

[FondrenRoad 4,378]

2 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

The other thing that is insane is that the Republican Party is the party that traffics most in dysfunctional, developing world political tropes. (These idiots do not understand that third world actually means).

- Unfettered, cutthroat, protection-free market for consumers (official R policy)

- Sweetheart deals for cronies and large enterprises (official R policy)

- “Privatization” of utilities and public services (official R policy)

- Government that is incapable by design and hampered by inadequate funding and investment (official R policy)

- Expansive funding only for the military and “power” agencies/ministries (official R policy)

- Grievance politics aimed at stoking fear among the majority (mega-dittos)

All this shit defines the developing world, most importantly the lack of a functioning regulatory and administrative state that is starved of resources and a “private sector” that unevenly provides things like roads, security, and utilities to those that can afford them. And of course, the ability to always find the funding to pay for a big military and heavily armed police. Turning the U.S into Pakistan is pretty much the GOP platform. 

Also, communist or socialist countries are second world. Third world countries were unaligned.   Most of them were poor, but the term doesn't mean poor. It definitely doesn't mean socialist. 

[956 Worldwide 34,769]

Just now, FondrenRoad said:

Also, communist or socialist countries are second world. Third world countries were unaligned.   Most of them were poor, but the term doesn't mean poor. It definitely doesn't mean socialist. 

Yep. Countries like India and much of the Middle East and Africa wanted to tout a “third way”’ and walk the tightrope between the West and East during the Cold War. Nothing to do with economic development although most of those “third way” nations lagged behind developmentally. 

[Pato del Muerto 52,596]

8 minutes ago, Js1 said:

GET YOUR GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY HEALTHCARE, YOU COMMIECRAT

Same folks have been demanding for a year to re-open the public school system, the most socialized program in the country.