Texas governor says 'no one can guarantee' there won't be power outages in winter storm

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The Washington Post is covering this mess

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said “no one can guarantee” there won’t be power outages in the state during a winter storm expected to hit a wide swath of the nation starting Wednesday, despite his promise months ago to the millions affected by last year’s freeze that the lights would stay on this year.

Frigid weather is expected to hit the state in what is likely to be the first significant test of the Texas power grid a year after a historic freeze killed hundreds of residents and left millions without power for days. The National Weather Service says the state could see freezing rain and cold conditions, as well as sleet and snow, as early as Wednesday afternoon in Central Texas.

Although Abbott said in November that he “can guarantee the lights will stay on” in the state the next time severe winter weather rolled through, the governor cautioned Tuesday that he could not promise that “load shed” events would not unfold this week. A load shed occurs when electricity demand above available supply results in rolling blackouts to keep the state power grid from collapsing. Load-shedding happened on a large scale in the state last year.

“No one can guarantee that there won’t be a load-shed event,” Abbott said at a news conference in Austin. “But what we will work and strive to achieve — and what we’re prepared to achieve — is that the power’s going to stay on across the entire state.”

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[Firestorm49]

1. He's had time to improve the grid. Same old story in Texas. I feel bad for DUers who live there.

But then again, I live in WI, which is just as nuts. Conclusion: I feel bad for myself too. 😂

[SergeStorms]

2. No shit, Sherlock.

When the Texas government and private industry have done absolutely nothing to prevent another catastrophic power failure, it's bound to happen again.

[Liberal In Texas]

3. Not supposed to be as bad as last year. We hope. We'll see.

But after having been smacked last year, we're all kind of shying away waiting for the next punch...like an abused spouse.

[orwell]

4. Why don't you sacrifice an animal...

...to "SkyGod".

Burn some witches (or books)...

Speak in (false) tongues...

Why hath God forsaken thee?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. "People should probably be worried": Texas hasn't done enough to prevent another winter blackout, ex

I am worried

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After last winter’s freeze hamstrung power giant Vistra Corp.’s ability to keep electricity flowing for its millions of customers, CEO Curt Morgan said he’d never seen anything like it in his 40 years in the energy industry.......

That’s because the state still hasn’t fixed the critical problem that paralyzed his plants: maintaining a sufficient supply of natural gas, Morgan said.

Natural gas slowed to a trickle during the storm, leaving the Midlothian facility and 13 other Vistra power plants that run on gas without enough fuel. The shortage forced Vistra to pay more than $1.5 billion on the spot market for whatever gas was available, costing the company in a matter of days more than twice the amount it usually spends in an entire year. Even then, plants were able to operate at only a fraction of their capacity; the Midlothian facility ran at 30% of full strength during the height of the storm......

But energy experts say Texas’ grid remains vulnerable, largely because newly written regulations allowed too much wiggle room for companies to avoid weatherization improvements that can take months or years. More than nine months after February’s storm — which could exceed Hurricane Harvey as the costliest natural disaster in state history — a lack of data from regulators and industry groups makes it impossible to know how many power and gas facilities are properly weatherized.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Abbott's Broken Promises and Failure as Governor Leads to Potential Power Grid Collapse

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