Weather WTF

[Syt]

Meanwhile, your senator Ted Cruz seems to be serving his constituents in this dire situation by traveling to Cancun, Mexico

[HVC]

Don't you work for a utility?

No. I work for the Utility Commission hence my bemoaning this disgrace to it.

The next year or so at work should be fun.

commission? sound ominous. what does it actually do?

[Grey Fox]

Valmy, does ERCOT really only have 2 interconnection point?

[ulmont]

Valmy, does ERCOT really only have 2 interconnection point?

Not quite.  Two to the US but also three to Mexico.

ERCOT has three ties to Mexico and — as an outcome of the "Midnight Connection" battle — it also has two ties to the eastern U.S. grid, though they do not trigger federal regulation for ERCOT.

https://www.kvue.com/article/weather/texplainer-why-does-texas-have-its-own-power-grid/269-be61fb6f-11ce-4201-b2d2-4f40fd8ff510

[Grey Fox]

5 is still not a lot. Any of them set up for import or are they all exporting?

[FunkMonk]

Meanwhile, your senator Ted Cruz seems to be serving his constituents in this dire situation by traveling to Cancun, Mexico

If he did a press conference about this in Cancun on the beach with a margarita in hand, hell yeah. Mad props for owning it, Ted.

[Sheilbh]

Meanwhile, your senator Ted Cruz seems to be serving his constituents in this dire situation by traveling to Cancun, Mexico

If he did a press conference about this in Cancun on the beach with a margarita in hand, hell yeah. Mad props for owning it, Ted.

My favourite thing is that it looks like he got upgraded but left his family in economy

Edit: Is he flying now? From what I can see, I think he's flying now This reminds me of when Priti Patel was flying back from her holiday and everyone in the UK knew she was going to get fired, but she was on a plane

[Malthus]

Meanwhile, your senator Ted Cruz seems to be serving his constituents in this dire situation by traveling to Cancun, Mexico

If he did a press conference about this in Cancun on the beach with a margarita in hand, hell yeah. Mad props for owning it, Ted.

They ought to build a wall. 😄

[Syt]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/ted-cruz-cancun-texas-storm/2021/02/18/ff0fd950-71ea-11eb-93be-c10813e358a2_story.html

Texas Democrats call for Sen. Ted Cruz to resign after unverified photos purportedly show him traveling to Cancun

The Texas Democratic Party is calling on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) to resign after unverified photos surfaced on social media purportedly showing him traveling to Cancun, Mexico, as millions of Texas residents were without power amid blackouts from the freezing weather.

Cruz's office has not responded to requests about his whereabouts and whether such a trip took place.

"Texans are dying and you're on a flight to Cancun," the Texas Democrats said in a tweet late Wednesday night, adding the hashtag "#TedCruzRESIGN."

Photos that rapidly circulated on social media overnight showed a man who could be the senator at an airport and on an airplane. In some photos, a gray face mask was visible that appeared to be similar to one that Cruz was wearing at President Biden's inauguration.

According to the social media postings, Cruz appeared to be in the Houston airport, preparing to board a United Airlines flight from Houston to Fort Lauderdale with continuing service to Cancun.

In Texas, more than 3 million customers were still in the dark Wednesday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide. As of Thursday morning, that figure was about 500,000.

[Admiral Yi]

That's silly.  He's a US senator and has nothing to do with the power outage.

[crazy canuck]

That's silly.  He's a US senator and has nothing to do with the power outage.

or, at least I hope that was wit rather than a serious comment.

[Syt]

That's silly.  He's a US senator and has nothing to do with the power outage.

Something could be said to show/fake concern for his constituents, and flying somewhere warm while your voters are freezing to death seems a bit tone deaf. But I guess that's the GOP for you.

[Syt]

I guess he's realized it too:

[Malthus]

The strong survive, presumably by migrating to somewhere warm, while the weak and useless perish. Sounds legit to me. 

[Sheilbh]

That's silly.  He's a US senator and has nothing to do with the power outage.

Something could be said to show/fake concern for his constituents, and flying somewhere warm while your voters are freezing to death seems a bit tone deaf. But I guess that's the GOP for you.

Yeah - I mean he should resign from shame for being this bad at politics

I think there's probably stuff a US Senator can do - it'd be interesting to compare his schedule with Cornyn's to see if there's any difference. Even if there isn't, Cornyn's twitter feed certainly seems to be providing lots of information and directing people to useful resources. That's something that I've also seen Beto do with his volunteers and it seems like something a Senator could easily do with their office/team too. And it's not like as a US Senator you are siloed from your state party other party leaders, or bits of the federal government that may be able to help (if you're that way inclined).