Texas freezes over (while Ted Cruz flies to Cancún)

[Oexmelin]

[Valmy]

I don't understand the focus on where politicians are during a crisis.  It likely makes next to zero difference on people's water or power supply. 

You don't understand any attitude other than sucking them off and granting them absolute unfettered power over your life so I can understand why you might find this reaction confusing

Valmy sounds angry.

I have been better.

[Caliga]

One of my consultants is in Austin.  As of yesterday he still had no water, and every place he checked was out of bottled drinks, so he was starting to melt snow to drink.

This is some real fucking third world shit 

[Valmy]

My parents have had no power since Monday and our boiling water. They had been charging their cell phones in their cars but they are starting to run out of gas and oil.

Fortunately things should start melting tomorrow and the storm will pass tomorrow so I should be able to get to them soon.

Ridiculous and disgraceful. And we cannot even blame the Feds for it since we have jealously kept them out of having any influence over the Texas power grid.

[Caliga]

Ridiculous and disgraceful. And we cannot even blame the Feds for it since we have jealously kept them out of having any influence over the Texas power grid.

On the flip side, we purposely located one of our failover data centers in Dallas due to the separate power grid.

[DGuller]

One of my consultants is in Austin.  As of yesterday he still had no water, and every place he checked was out of bottled drinks, so he was starting to melt snow to drink.

This is some real fucking third world shit 

Finally This War of Mine experience is useful for something.

[The Larch]

Ridiculous and disgraceful. And we cannot even blame the Feds for it since we have jealously kept them out of having any influence over the Texas power grid.

Any opinion on Perry's statement about Texans happily enduring blackouts in order to keep the Feds out of their businesses?

[Valmy]

Ridiculous and disgraceful. And we cannot even blame the Feds for it since we have jealously kept them out of having any influence over the Texas power grid.

Any opinion on Perry's statement about Texans happily enduring blackouts in order to keep the Feds out of their businesses?

Well if they are "happily" enduring the blackout that will make Perry's successor very happy but I have my doubts there is much happy enduring going on out there. I don't know how much the average Texan knows or cares about our precious independent grid and how willing average joes and janes are to make sacrifices to preserve it. They just want power.

Funny enough I was about to get into a big spat with Sharyland Utilities about them building a huge DC Tie to export power and making Texas Rate Payers pay for it, well they probably have enough ammunition to get that into the rates now.

[Darth Wagtaros]

One of my consultants is in Austin.  As of yesterday he still had no water, and every place he checked was out of bottled drinks, so he was starting to melt snow to drink.

This is some real fucking third world shit 

Well they will be happy to live with it since they are not at the mercy of communism leftists.

[The Larch]

Ridiculous and disgraceful. And we cannot even blame the Feds for it since we have jealously kept them out of having any influence over the Texas power grid.

Any opinion on Perry's statement about Texans happily enduring blackouts in order to keep the Feds out of their businesses?

Well if they are "happily" enduring the blackout that will make Perry's successor very happy but I have my doubts there is much happy enduring going on out there. I don't know how much the average Texan knows or cares about our precious independent grid and how willing average joes and janes are to make sacrifices to preserve it. They just want power.

I was paraphrasing from an article I saw, here it is so you can get a better picture:

Rick Perry says Texans will endure blackouts 'to keep the government out of their business'
Former Texas governor says winter weather crisis should not be used as an opportunity for Democrats to advance energy policies

Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who became Donald Trump's energy secretary, has said that Texans would willingly endure longer periods of sub-freezing temperatures if it stymied Democrats' energy policy and efforts to combat the climate crisis.

"Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business," Perry was quoted saying in a blogpost published Wednesday on the website of the Republican congressman Kevin McCarthy.

The blogpost had asserted that those "watching on the left may see the situation in Texas as an opportunity to expand their top-down, radical proposals. Two phrases come to mind: don't mess with Texas, and don't let a crisis go to waste".

Perry's comments come as millions of Texas are struggling with a brutal winter storm, which created a surge in demand for electricity to warm up homes unaccustomed to such extreme lows, buckling the state's power grid and causing widespread blackouts. Frigid temperatures and snow have covered most of the central US this week, resulting in at least two dozen deaths, but Texas in particular has reeled because most of its power is on a state-run grid that has repeatedly been described as mismanaged.

Residents of the Lone Star state are lining up at grocery stores that are running out of food. Pipes have burst because of the cold, leaving residents without water to drink or prepare food. Many are scrambling to find shelter in buildings with electricity. Multiple municipalities have instituted "boil water" orders, as power outages have impacted water treatment facilities.

Meanwhile, many Texans slammed authorities for their handling of the crisis. The severe winter storm has, among some Republicans, been used to open up a new culture war around the expansion of renewable energy, which is a stated priority of the Biden administration in order to address the climate crisis.

Perry was among the many Republicans who falsely claimed that frozen wind turbines spurred the mass electricity shutdowns. In reality, the utility system's failure to prepare for perils presented by cold temperatures – such as frozen natural gas pipes – had a significantly larger role in this crisis.

Renewable energy sources such as wind did see failures; these lapses contributed to 13% of Texas' power outages, while generating approximately 25% of the state's winter energy. But sources such as coal, gas and nuclear power ceded nearly twice as many gigawatts of power due to the low temperatures.

Nonetheless Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, voiced anti-wind sentiments similar to Perry's.

"This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America," the Republican governor told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday. "Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10% of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis ... It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary."

Abbott's attack contradicts the operators of the Texas grid, which is overwhelmingly run on gas and oil, who have confirmed the plunging temperatures caused gas plants to seize up at the same time as a huge spike in demand for heating. Nevertheless, images of ice-covered wind turbines, taken in Sweden in 2014, were shared widely among conservatives on social media as proof of the frailty of clean energy.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congresswoman behind the Green New Deal platform, said that Abbott was "blaming policies he hasn't even implemented for his own failures" while the renewable energy industry also hit back.

"It is disgraceful to see the longtime antagonists of clean power engaging in a politically opportunistic charade misleading Americans," said Heather Zichal, the chief executive of the American Clean Power lobby group.

[Valmy]

Perry and Abbott's own policies were what led to the explosion of Wind in Texas. So blaming the left for that is impressive. Do they take their orders from the left? The whole reason we have the separate grid is so the Governor can dictate every aspect of our energy system. Any failures are ultimately 100% the responsibility of the governor. They can whine and cry all they want but that is the price of power.

And of course everything comes down to partisan politics, at least let's figure out what actually happened before we start spreading memes about Sweden on Social Media eh?

[The Brain]

Wait, what? Sweden?

[Valmy]

Wait, what? Sweden?

Nevertheless, images of ice-covered wind turbines, taken in Sweden in 2014, were shared widely among conservatives on social media as proof of the frailty of clean energy.

One of your wind turbines got covered in ice in 2014.

[Grey Fox]

Ridiculous and disgraceful. And we cannot even blame the Feds for it since we have jealously kept them out of having any influence over the Texas power grid.

On the flip side, we purposely located one of our failover data centers in Dallas due to the separate power grid.

Tell your boss to put it in Quebec. Seperate Power grid & actual government oversight.

[The Brain]

Ridiculous and disgraceful. And we cannot even blame the Feds for it since we have jealously kept them out of having any influence over the Texas power grid.

On the flip side, we purposely located one of our failover data centers in Dallas due to the separate power grid.

Tell your boss to put it in Quebec. Seperate Power grid & actual government oversight.

In Texas government is an oversight.