By now everyone in the US has some idea about the catastrophic failure of the Texas electric infrastructure…..we all have seen the pics of broken water pipes and freezing weather…..the deaths and the agony that it has produced……and the reports are that Texas was very very close to a meltdown completely…
Texas was “seconds and minutes” away from an even greater catastrophe when the decision was made to bring in what were supposed to be rolling blackouts, according to officials who operate the only standalone power grid in the lower 48. Officials at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Thursday that when a winter storm took more than half of its winter generating capacity offline early Monday just as demand was surging, operators had to act fast to prevent a worst-case scenario—equipment catching fire and substations blowing—that could have left many Texans without power for months, the Texas Tribune reports. ERCOT chief Bill Magness said that if operators hadn’t followed emergency procedures, the grid would have been overwhelmed, causing infrastructure damage that would have led to an “indeterminately long” crisis.
“The operators who took those actions to prevent a catastrophic blackout and much worse damage to our system, that was, I would say, the most difficult decision that had to be made throughout this whole event,” Magness said. He said a blackout where “we have to start the grid from scratch and power could be out for an indeterminate amount of time” is the “disaster scenario that’s our central job to avoid,” per BuzzFeed. So much power generation was knocked offline that the blackouts lasted far longer than expected. By Thursday, some 325,000 homes and businesses were without power, down from 3 million a day earlier, the AP reports. Senior ERCOT director Dan Woodfin, when asked how regulators could stop this from happening again, said one of the biggest problems was natural gas wellheads freezing up. (The cold weather has also caused a water crisis.)
This was a disaster of their own making.
You see the Texas infrastructure gurus decided that they would not be part of the nationwide electric grid…..so they did not have to follow federal regulations and the lack of concern in the past made this disaster possible…..plus they cannot borrow power from other states because they want to be self-sufficient (and how did that work out for these idiots?)
Texas seems to always have the idea of secession in the back of their politician’s narrow minds…….https://lobotero.com/2021/01/19/is-there-a-texit/
I see that conservatives are blaming clean energy for the problems in Texas…..7% of the energy comes from wind….BTW apparently they do not know that the energy in Antarctica comes from wind so that blows their idiot lie out of the water…..
Stupidity of deregulation and ill prepared is the problem….in other words the slugs in the state legislature.
Going it alone is not always the best idea…..just ask residents of Texas.
Then there is Se. Cruz that could have used this as a teaching moment for his kids to give them a sense of community instead they went to Mexico for a vacation.
And yet he will NOT be held accountable for his actions…..just like his butt buddy Trump is not held up.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo
This has made the news every day over here. I hope the Texans affected remember this fiasco the next time there is an election in their state.
Best wishes, Pete.
They will not chuq
While Texas tried to start repairs and clean-up, Biden wants to dump immigrants on them in loads!
By keeping them out will the electric infrastructure improve? chuq
I think it’s time to take care of the people we have right now (for a change.). We have millions of illegals here now that should be going through the so-called process he wants to give 25,000 more.
We do have a problem there but the stupidity of Texas caused this disaster not the immigrants. chuq
Yeah, they should learn to control the weather.
We already do that thanx to fossil fuels…..but that is not what you meant. chuq
Then it’s Texas’ fault they have the immigrants gathering at the border?
It is Texas fault for the failure….had nothing to do with immigrants it has everything to do with de-regulation…..chuq
But they don’t need immigrants increased to add to the problem.
Again the amount of immigrants did not cause this…..mismanagement did. chuq
And while Republicans scurry off to warm vacation spots, and blaming everything and everyone except themselves, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez raised 2 million for Texans.
I believe that AOC is closing in on $4 million raised…..while Gates went to Florida and Cruz jets off to Mexico. chuq
Good for her.
She gets my respect everyday. chuq
She has gone over $5 million. What has Cruz done for Texas? chuq
He’s handing out water instead of quarantining after returning from Cancun.
But he had a mask…like that can excuse his mindless crap chuq