Only In Texas....

[sunday]

15 minutes ago, Ivanhoe said:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/days-before-blackouts-one-texas-power-giant-sounded-the-alarm/ar-BB1dT0pW
 

 

That stinks to high heaven - not the way a electrical power network should be handled in a first-world country.

[Steven P Allen]

15 hours ago, Josh said:

As for variable rate plans...that seems like a dangerous game to play. The equivalent of shorting a stock, where if you get squeezed, there isn't really an upper limit to how screwed you can be. It doesn't seem like fair way to run a basic utility, but that is the free market way of doing it.

Not quite:  it is the incompetent way of doing it.  Not providing for the range of realistic possibilities is not free market:  it is irresponsibility.

[Ivanhoe]

According to opensecrets.org, the CEO of ERCOT, Bill Magness, is a reliable donor to Dems. I'm gonna guess that isn't going to hit the news cycle.

https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=bill+magness

[Josh]

2 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

According to opensecrets.org, the CEO of ERCOT, Bill Magness, is a reliable donor to Dems. I'm gonna guess that isn't going to hit the news cycle.

https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=bill+magness

I'm not really grokking how that's relevant. Ironic, yes, but not super relevant.

[Ivanhoe]

Just now, Josh said:

I'm not really grokking how that's relevant. Ironic, yes, but not super relevant.

Given the megawatts of juice required to transmit all the news articles and opinion pieces saying this is the fault of Texas Rs, it seems pretty relevant to me.

[Josh]

2 hours ago, Steven P Allen said:

Not quite:  it is the incompetent way of doing it.  Not providing for the range of realistic possibilities is not free market:  it is irresponsibility.

I beg to differ, it's simply what happens when you take deregulation as far as Texas has taken it. Markets are not responsible to anyone, they merely react to demand if they are sufficiently elastic enough to do so. If the results seem like irresponsibility, it sounds like perhaps that level of free market/deregulation isn't a good solution for this particular industry, at least at this scale.

[Josh]

1 minute ago, Ivanhoe said:

Given the megawatts of juice required to transmit all the news articles and opinion pieces saying this is the fault of Texas Rs, it seems pretty relevant to me.

One particular guy is a dem donor. That doesn't seem to correct for the fact that the GOP has run Texas for decades and that presumably the current model is their desired outcome.

I'm not even criticizing them; these temperatures rarely occur in Texas. Whether Texans want to continue with this power generation arrangement is up to them; they aren't connected to my grid so it isn't my problem.

[rmgill]

RE the power demand exceeding forecast supply, I wonder how many heat pumps were in emergency, resistive heating mode and were thus HIGHLY inefficient from an energy use perspective...

[Steven P Allen]

43 minutes ago, Josh said:

I beg to differ, it's simply what happens when you take deregulation as far as Texas has taken it. Markets are not responsible to anyone, they merely react to demand if they are sufficiently elastic enough to do so. If the results seem like irresponsibility, it sounds like perhaps that level of free market/deregulation isn't a good solution for this particular industry, at least at this scale.

Beg away.  Organizations are responsible to their investors and to their future health.  An outcome such as this one is deleterious to their future.

[Josh]

3 hours ago, Steven P Allen said:

Beg away.  Organizations are responsible to their investors and to their future health.  An outcome such as this one is deleterious to their future.

Not in this type of industry/market. What are Texans going to do, move out? The market doesn't have to react in any way. It didn't in 2011 and it won't now.

EDIT: unless Texas voters simply vote the system out of existence, which seems exceedingly unlikely.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Josh

[Ivanhoe]

5 hours ago, rmgill said:

RE the power demand exceeding forecast supply, I wonder how many heat pumps were in emergency, resistive heating mode and were thus HIGHLY inefficient from an energy use perspective...

Most of them, and in fact most older  and lower-value homes only have an A/C with resistance strips.

[Steven P Allen]

16 hours ago, Josh said:

Not in this type of industry/market. What are Texans going to do, move out? The market doesn't have to react in any way. It didn't in 2011 and it won't now.

EDIT: unless Texas voters simply vote the system out of existence, which seems exceedingly unlikely.

Especially in this type of industry/market if for no other reason than that egregious blunders might lead to re-regulation, particularly in the current political climate.

But you seem to labor under the misapprehension that an optimal free market means screw the public.  The perfect market is the one that provides the best price for the most people with the best return on investment with minimum intrusion.  Anything else is irresponsible on the part of one party or another.

[Josh]

I merely am of the opinion "responsible" never enters the equation in the direct sense of the word. A market isn't responsible for anything; it provides goods and services at whatever price the seller can get away with. I'd argue that power generation isn't an industry where the customer has much power over the product compared to say a car purchase or hand soap on Amazon. To some extent, they are a captive market to a fairly small subset of sellers with no outside competition (only generation within the Texas Interconnection). I've no idea how many power companies there are but I'm willing to bet they have some kind of lobby organization that loosely binds them together in terms of "best practices".

[Ivanhoe]

2020 was just the beta version;

https://www.foxnews.com/us/train-texas-18-wheeler-explosion
 

Quote

 

A Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) train collided with an 18-wheeler outside Cameron, Texas, on Tuesday morning, police confirmed to Fox News.

An explosion occurred as a result of the crash, and authorities have labeled the collision a hazmat situation, according to the Cameron Police Department.

The BNSF train was carrying mixed freight and derailed near Hoyte. The train was struck by a semi-truck, "which impacted a [train] car carrying gasoline," BNSF Railways Senior Director of External Communications Courtney Wallace confirmed to Fox News. 

 

So, unlike the usual train/truck rodeo, this time the truck hit the middle of the train, just perfectly so that it busted a tanker car carrying gasoline. If Hollywood wrote that scenario into a movie script, everyone would ridicule them for eternity.

 

 

[Ivanhoe]

Dems being Dems;

https://hotair.com/archives/karen-townsend/2021/02/23/biden-kicks-texas-curb-denies-statewide-major-disaster-declaration-request/

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/02/20/biden-signs-major-disaster-declaration-for-77-texas-counties-but-abbott-asked-for-all-254/

(behind a paywall, but there are ways...)
 

Quote

 

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden declared a major disaster for only 77 of Texas’ 254 counties in order to focus on the “hardest hit” parts of the state, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday.

Gov. Greg Abbott had asked for a declaration that covered the entire state, as Texans reel from a winter storm that knocked out power and heat across the state, and left millions without safe drinking water.

The declaration Biden signed late Friday covers much of the Texas population, including Dallas and neighboring counties, and the counties that include Houston, San Antonio and Austin. But it falls far short of what Texas officials sought. The assistance can include grants for temporary housing, home repairs, and low-cost loans.

 

 

Quote

“We do want all 254 counties added,” Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said at an Saturday afternoon news conference in Austin. “What we will have to do is to get information from all 254 counties to show damages. We will have to show county by county, dollar by dollar. I don’t think we will have a county that doesn’t meet this threshold.”

 

Quote

The counties included in the major disaster declaration are Angelina, Aransas, Bastrop, Bee, Bell, Bexar, Blanco, Brazoria, Brazos, Brown, Burleson, Caldwell, Calhoun, Cameron, Chambers, Collin, Comal, Comanche, Cooke, Coryell, Dallas, Denton, DeWitt, Ellis, Falls, Fort Bend, Galveston, Gillespie, Grimes, Guadalupe, Hardin, Harris, Hays, Henderson, Hidalgo, Hood, Jasper, Jefferson, Johnson, Kaufman, Kendall, Lavaca, Liberty, Madison, Matagorda, Maverick, McLennan, Montague, Montgomery, Nacogdoches, Nueces, Orange, Palo Pinto, Panola, Parker, Polk, Rockwall, Sabine, San Jacinto, San Patricio, Scurry, Shelby, Smith, Stephens, Tarrant, Travis, Tyler, Upshur, Van Zandt, Victoria, Walker, Waller, Wharton, Wichita, Williamson, Wilson and Wise.

Rural counties in TX are already getting screwed w.r.t. COVID-19 vaccine, its not helpful to deny them post-storm help.

Quote

“FEMA is already there and providing support — generators, diesel fuel, water, blankets, and other supplies,” the president said Friday, adding that he has directed the departments of housing, health and human services, USDA and defense to identify resources that could help Texas.

I don't know where FEMA is, but it ain't around here. Blankets really aren't needed, today's high temp in my AO was 76F. What is needed in the short run is bottled water.

What is going to be needed is plumbing supplies, drywall, etc.

 

 

 

 

[Steven P Allen]

13 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

2020 was just the beta version;

https://www.foxnews.com/us/train-texas-18-wheeler-explosion
 

So, unlike the usual train/truck rodeo, this time the truck hit the middle of the train, just perfectly so that it busted a tanker car carrying gasoline. If Hollywood wrote that scenario into a movie script, everyone would ridicule them for eternity.

 

 

Actually, as I understand it, something like 20 - 25% of all grade crossing accidents involve a vehicle hitting the side of the train.  One of the problems these days is the horde of inexperienced and untrained truckers who spend more time looking at their GPSs than at the road.  Tish situation has been confirmed to me by numerous old hands in the field on both the truck and RR sides.

[EchoFiveMike]

It's just declining median IQ ie general competence and decision making ability directly correlated to the declining high function white fraction of American population.  IOW, there's more foreigners and the whites that are breeding are lower end of the IQ scale. 

You can't have 102 IQ society with 95IQ population.

Many truckers can barely read/write their native languages, let alone English.  The GPS fixation is a symptom, not a cause.  S/F....Ken M      

[Ivanhoe]

https://abc13.com/10374198/
 

Quote

 

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages Texas' power grid and has received massive backlash for their actions during last week's winter storm, has revoked electricity provider Griddy's rights to operate due to a "payment breach."

According to a notice issued by ERCOT on Friday, Griddy Energy must stop conducting activity under ERCOT protocols due to the breach.

After the unusual icy weather left millions of Texans without power, some reported seeing sky-high electricity bills. Many of those who have reported receiving large bills are customers of Griddy, which only operates in Texas.

 

Griddy is one of those sketchy power resellers with variable rates and a long list of gotchas in the contract.

Simple arithmetic; if your bills are half what they would be with a fixed-price contract, you are taking risks.

[Ivanhoe]

Not surprisingly, the CEO of ERCOT got the axe;

https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/ceo-of-texas-power-grid-operator-terminated-in-aftermath-of-winter-storm

 

 

[seahawk]

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/05/texas-greg-abbott-press-conference-social-media/

 

Texas standing up against the liberal tech companies in the fight for free speech

[Josh]

On 3/7/2021 at 6:03 AM, seahawk said:

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/05/texas-greg-abbott-press-conference-social-media/

 

Texas standing up against the liberal tech companies in the fight for free speech

That's a rather pointless a futile gesture.

[Mikel2]

Got to start somewhere.

[Josh]

23 minutes ago, Mikel2 said:

Got to start somewhere.

There's actually a fair amount of bipartisan support for regulating big tech in Congress, except that I don't think that the GOP in general or Mitch in particular will allow any successful legislation if they can help it. Presumably vice versa if the GOP takes the White House again.

[Ivanhoe]

Good luck wrapping your head around this one;

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2021/03/23/national-guard-convoy-carrying-covid-19-vaccines-ambushed-by-gunman-in-texas-police-say/
 

Quote

 

A Texas National Guard convoy transporting doses of the COVID-19 vaccine was ambushed and temporarily halted Monday morning by an armed man in west Texas, according to police.

The convoy was ambushed by Larry Lee Harris, 66, who started following three National Guard vans after they stopped at a gas station, and attempted to run their vehicles off the road multiple times, Idalou Police Chief Eric Williams said in a statement. The incident was first reported by The Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Monday afternoon.

 

Quote

 

After being detained, Harris told police that he followed the National Guard Soldiers from a Love’s gas station in Lubbock, claiming that the people in the vans had “kidnapped a woman and a child,” according to the police chief’s report.

Williams added that Harris appeared to be “mentally disturbed.”

Harris, who has an Arizona address, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful restraint of 11 National Guard soldiers, unlawful carrying of a weapon, impersonating a public servant and interference with Texas Military Forces, according to jail records. He is being held at the Lubbock County Jail on a federal hold with no bond set, according to jail records.

 

When I first saw the pic of the guy, my brain said "Saddam!!"

 

 

 

 

[Tim Sielbeck]