This is a good time to note that the electrical grid in Texas was deregulated, privatized, and remov

[soothsayer]

Link to tweet

?s=21


Bryan William Jones
@BWJones
This is a good time to note that the electrical grid in Texas was deregulated, privatized, and removed from interconnected networks to avoid federal regulation and increase profits to a small number of wealthy individuals.
9:50 AM · Feb 16, 2021 from Salt Lake City, UT

[niyad]

1. KNR

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

[soothsayer]

4. He's such a turd

[Grokenstein]

11. Now, let's not go rubbing his nose in that tweet

Wouldn't be civil. Unity and all that, don'tchano.

[rickyhall]

15. Lying Ted can fuck himself.

That is all.

[orleans]

59. (when inspiration strikes...)

Link to tweet

[malaise]

3. Get thee to the greatest page

Trickle down is a piss poor philosophy - great post

[UpInArms]

5. Trickle down is shorthand for

Pee on me

[North Shore Chicago]

9. You used

the word trickle and piss in one sentence!

Hah!

[malaise]

21. They sure pissed over all of us

[Oldem]

16. Tom Harkin said

that trickle down economics is the theory that you feed the birds by giving more oats to the horse.

[malaise]

19. Perfect

[jaxexpat]

29. Reminds me of an experiment I heard about years ago.

The Ralson Purina company was looking into more efficient ways to feed hogs.

They housed a hog in a crate area with a slatted roof and housed another hog in a crate immediately above the first. The top hog received normal rations of shelled, un-milled corn. The bottom hog ate only what the top hog had passed through it's system. At the end of the experiment both hogs had gained identical weight over the time span. Additional savings was found in that feed milling costs were eliminated.

Republicans have applied this to their economic philosophy. I suppose they have a problem with millers making a decent living. They personally don't care what they're eating so long as their portion is served first.

[Celerity]

46. So basically ... 'Eat shit and fry'

[jaxexpat]

65. Or baked, with cloves and pineapples.

You can hardly taste what the pig eats at all.

[maxrandb]

49. Except there is no way

we're gaining an equal amount of weight as the people at the top shitting on us

[jaxexpat]

64. True, but you must appreciate how they've shaved the milling costs.

They don't even pretend its processed. They just run it out of the hose right onto the airwaves. 100% unadulterated pig shit, 24/7.

[Purrfessor]

68. It has since been renamed: tinkle down economics

[Oldem]

18. Tom Harkin said

that trickle down economics is the theory that you feed the birds by giving more oats to the horse. Oops! Posted twice. Maybe Harkin bears repeating.

[gab13by13]

26. It is actually called Horse and Sparrow economics.

[rurallib]

31. Or for the cruder crowd, Horse shit economics

[Budi]

6. John Cornyn

Last edited Tue Feb 16, 2021, 03:39 PM - Edit history (1)

Cornyn:

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

And here:






And more at Friedman's twitter link
https://mobile.twitter.com/BFriedmanDC/status/1361693012225650688
****

"...privatized, and removed from interconnected networks to avoid federal regulation and increase profits to a small number of wealthy individuals."

The entire corrupt GOP Tx Gov't is profiting from their own deregulation laws.
Because THAT IS WHAT REPUBLICANS DO.

Someone's making bank off this deadly storm. And they don't give a shit who lives, dies or suffers. People or animals.

[dalton99a]

12. +1

[Mr.Bill]

62. Cornyn doesn't even know what he is talking about.

California doesn't use "rolling blackouts" to mitigate wildfires. They used them last summer because of high demand caused by a heat wave.

To mitigate wildfire danger "public safety power shutoffs" are used and they are prolonged shutoffs in areas served by power lines that are in fire danger zones, usually by a combination of high winds, high temperatures and low humidity. These shutoffs are not "rolling", they are prolonged usually lasting anywhere from 2-7 days so far.

[OldBaldy1701E]

80. Someone makes bank

On just about every social or personal malfeasance in this country. Hell, in the world when you figure in the weapons makers. And, no they do not give a shit and I doubt they ever did. Greed is going to destroy everything around here... assuming it hasn't already and we just can't see it yet.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

7. First thing Texas Governor Abbot did was scream for help from the Soshlist nanny state

federal Gubmint headed by President Joe Biden, and run by them evil Democrat enviro-commies in Congress.

[soothsayer]

14. And the first thing Joe did was help. Did not make them grovel or beg

[33taw]

28. I wish he had told them to go rake their lawns.

[Celerity]

47. Or forests

Make America Rake Again: Finland baffled by Trump’s forest fire raking claim

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/19/make-america-rake-again-finland-trump-forest-fire

[Wellstone ruled]

8. So much of our National Power Grid is

owned by Hedge Funds filled with Foreign Money. And the Enron effect is now hitting Texas,Arkansas,Oklahoma and Louisiana.

Not surprised how Mother Nature has kicked these Right Wing States in the butt. This is what happens when one does not follow the Science and relies on some Mystical ideals.

[musette_sf]

10. Yep.

And when they did it they thought it was SO f'n funny to sing "Freeze A Yankee".

[bucolic_frolic]

13. I remember those 1970s bumper stickers

Drive 90 ... freeze a Yankee

Here's looking at you, Tex!

[RVN VET71]

24. Can't do schadenfreude on this one.

There’s just too many good, which is to say non Republican, human beings in Texas who are suffering because of the a-holes who voted-in Abbott and Patrick and Paxton and Cruz and Cornyn and all of the other grifting low-intelligence lower-life schemers who are to blame for this.

[Ferrets are Cool]

71. This

But, I can hate them for it.

[Leith]

34. I remember the ones that said

Let'em freeze in the dark

Well, that one didn't age well.

[Liberal In Texas]

17. So much winning with privatization.

And regulations, who needs that? We can put up windmills cheaper because they're not required to have the cold weather kit.

Also saw something today that we're getting people now saying we'd better build more nuclear plants. Because of some BS that it's clean energy.

[plimsoll]

39. Well, it doesn't produce Co2.

Clean? Depends on your definition. We still need a more robust energy infrastructure, and nuclear probably should be a part of that until we have fusion. But fusion has been just around the corner since the 1950's, so don't hold your breath.

[sarchasm]

20. KnR

[IronLionZion]

22. Texas could use some global warming and fossil fuels right about now

GOPers are online claiming frozen Texas windmills are the problem, not their deregulated power grid.

[gab13by13]

27. Turbines are part of the problem.

but...Texas didn't want the cold weather turbines which do just fine in the cold. Texas chose to go cheap and buy the warm weather turbines.

[rurallib]

32. It amazes me that something like a turbine would even have such an option

There can't be much difference in the price, can there?

[IronLionZion]

60. Cold weather states use deicing systems

and heaters for various parts. Canada has plenty of wind turbines in conditions way colder than Texas can ever dream of.

This happens so rarely in Texas that they designed their system for hot summers, not icy winters. Conservatives like to blame wind turbines, but natural gas is the main source of power for Texas in the winters, and the pipelines and compressors froze for the same reason. They were designed for warm weather.

[IronLionZion]

53. By far the largest part was natural gas pipelines and compressors froze

yes wind is part of it, but a smaller part.

Here's a Vox explainer: https://www.vox.com/2021/2/16/22284140/texas-blackout-outage-winter-storm-uri-ercot-power-grid-cold-snow-austin-houston-dallas

However, the cold itself posed a direct challenge to the power sources that the state was counting on. Wind turbines iced up. Coal piles froze.

The biggest shortfall in energy production stemmed from natural gas. Gas pipelines were blocked with ice or their compressors lost power. Much of the gas that was available was prioritized for heating homes and businesses rather than generating electricity. That’s helpful for people who use gas for heating but less so for those who use electric furnaces.

Wholesale natural gas prices, meanwhile, shot up as much as 4,000 percent. According to Bloomberg, electricity prices in northern Texas jumped to $300 per megawatt-hour, up from the average this month of $18 per megawatt-hour.

In total, about 34,000 megawatts of power generation in Texas went offline during the winter blast, more than 40 percent of peak winter demand. So even with a diverse range of energy sources, Texas was left scrounging for electrons in the bitter cold.

[whopis01]

81. The turbines are an incredibly small part of the problem.

The power lost due to problems with natural gas and other fossil fuel generation systems was an order of magnitude greater than the power lost due to wind turbines.

[TeamPooka]

23. And Republicans would like the rest of us to live in the same conditions

[SleeplessinSoCal]

25. it also relies on wind power according to Houston Chronical

"The Texas power grid, powered largely by wind and natural gas, is relatively well equipped to handle the state’s hot and humid summers when demand for power soars. But unlike blistering summers, the severe winter weather delivered a crippling blow to power production, cutting supplies as the falling temperatures increased demand."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Wholesale-power-prices-spiking-across-Texas-15951684.php

[obamanut2012]

33. Wind Turbines work fine in Minnestota, Sweden, the Artic Circle

They only don't work in Texas for some reason.

[plimsoll]

40. Eastern Washington.

Lots of places where it get's cold. It's obvious that Texas once again planned on the happy path.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

54. Wind turbines are freezing.

Or so it's being reported

Who was the big time Texas oil man who became a major wind power advocate? I can't recall his name.

[Karadeniz]

63. Something like Tbone P....

[SleeplessinSoCal]

74. Thank you Karadeniz!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Boone_Pickens?wprov=sfla1

He was ahead of the curve.

[House of Roberts]

75. T. Boone Pickens?

I recall he went big for wind turbine power some time ago.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

76. Yes. He died 9/11/19

A real mixed bag.

[CaptainTruth]

41. Wind is currently only about 13% of Texas' power & it's been overproducing...

...the past several days to do high winds.

The problem is the approx 30GW of gas/coal plants that are offline.

I should note that the "13% wind" is the baseline contribution that ERCOT uses for this time of year when compiling their energy supply "budget" (how much each source can be counted on to contribute).

ERCOT is the Energy Reliability Council Of Texas, the organization that runs the state's power grid.

[progressoid]

45. Ironically named "Energy Reliability"

[SleeplessinSoCal]

55. a major rethink is in order.

And you can bet the barrons will rig it.

[TwilightZone]

50. Wind wasn't the problem.

Other articles have noted that wind production was at higher than expected levels, even with the frozen turbines.

The problem was mostly frozen equipment at other facilities - natural gas, coal, and nuclear - and a shortage of natural gas.

[HUAJIAO]

58. I also heard a discussion NPR this afternoon whereby the "energy expert"

said that quite a few natural gas and oil 'plants' were shut down for repairs/maintenance preparing for the summer 'rush' !

[TwilightZone]

61. Not good timing.

They've known for a couple weeks that this storm was going to arrive. It was a bit worse than forecast, but not that much. Mismanagement all around, it seems. Not surprising considering the deregulation and funding cuts under Perry, Abbott, etc.

[ananda]

30. ERCOT is a piece of shit organization, and guess what?

They’ve just called on all public utilities, including
Austin Energy, for more load shedding.

Austin Energy seems to be pushing back a bit bc
this would mean cutting energy for hospitals
and critical services.

I do not expect to have my power restored for
quite some time, but I can tough it out OK.

Well over 40% of Austin residents are without power
as it is.

This is beyond ridiculous!

[Wounded Bear]

35. From what I've read, TX was never on the national grid...

or at least most of it. Apparently there are some areas in the panhandle and in East TX that are connected to adjoining states.

I also hear that much of Northern Mexico is losing power because the TX natural gas pipelines have been freezing up and failing.

[BobTheSubgenius]

36. As I said in an earlier thread, there is nothing wrong with the infrastructure.

It is working just fine for the few controlling it....and really, that's all that matters, isn't it? We should be happy and even honoured to be carrying water for the. Sometimes literally.

[Clearly fogged in]

78. Well it was. Now they're going to be answering all sort of things for a week or more

After that, meh.

[benld74]

37. El Paso not on the grid,,,

Used their own. Publicly sold. Until 07/20, sold to JPMorgan hedge for $4.3b!

Look out El Paso

[SunSeeker]

38. Republicans can't govern. It's been obvious for decades, since Eisenhower left office.

All they know is how to do is to cut taxes for the wealthy and cut regulations for the wealthy.

[Fla Dem]

42. Does Ted Cruz, John Cornyn, Greg Abbott and all their extended families have power?

Someone should look into that.

[C Moon]

43. Smells like Enron.

[Rebl2]

67. YEP!

[NCjack]

44. Ted Cruz: "Socialism sucks". But, it's OK to suck all the electric power

Texas can get from MEXICO!

[Ziggysmom]

48. Only 3 grid in the lower 48, one of them is Texas

But why!

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

[Deacon Blue]

52. Oh, We Know Why!

Oil (pronounced ‘awl’), black gold, Texas tea, dinosaur wine and its sister Methane run the politics of this the Reddest of the Red. Texas, Our Texas, so benighted and beholden.

And have you noticed how the Fossil Lovers have slammed green energy for this problem? Nothing to do with the oligopoly sheltered as a semi-state-run (socialist? no way!) enterprise. Jehezius Christ, just awful, so many handles to grab here...

[Cha]

51. Rt TY Smh.. & Texas Suffers bc

Greed!

[live love laugh]

56. The travesty is that they don't understand they voted for this. Elections have consequences. nt

[BigmanPigman]

73. That falls on deaf ears.

[dchill]

57. I would never have assumed anything else.

[Rebl2]

66. So how's

that working for them now.

[Nitram]

69. Yeah, Texas has always been very generous to "energy providers." The electrical grid buys energy, so

it is fair game in the Lone Star State. Remember Enron?

[obamanut2012]

70. And they think they can successfully secede!

[Kablooie]

72. Wealthy WARM individuals, you can be sure.

[MustLoveBeagles]

77. K&R

[modrepub]

79. Kind Of Disagree, But We'll See

To me it seems TX has politicized its electric grid. It reflects a political philosophy that all government is bad and doesn't work.

If it is truly a private business organization then heads will roll. No private company would tolerate a failure of this magnitude. Stock owners would be upset, board meetings would be contentious, management would be shaken up and CEOs would be fired. You don't run a private company this badly without repercussions.

If no reforms are made and upper management stays intact then this is more of a political creature than a private company. As we've seen, politicians seem to be the only folks who get to deny that rules apply to them.