The power's back on in Texas but the crisis continues
Source: cnn
(CNN)Americans should be able to expect a few simple things from their politicians: Tell the truth, don't be a hypocrite, keep the lights on and the water running But just like mayors get in trouble when streets aren't plowed or trash isn't picked up, governors get blame when the state power system fails, even though the power systems operate largely on their own. Or in the case of most of Texas, entirely on its own.
The government also gets the blame when it can't quickly mobilize to help people who are stuck in a major natural disaster get warm, get fed and flush their toilets. The weather is going to do what it's going to do, but the warnings that climate change will cause more and more freak weather events have been getting louder for years, and it is the job of the government to be ready to relieve these crises.
Taking responsibility. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday he takes responsibility for the failure of his state's unique power system -- formed in 1970, long before he was in politics -- to plan for the catastrophic ice and cold that shut his state down and turned off the lights.
The system commonly known as ERCOT, is more formally, and inappropriately this week, called the Electric Reliability Commission of Texas.
"I'm taking responsibility for the current status of ERCOT. Again, I find what has happened unacceptable," Abbott said, and called on lawmakers to change the system and noted top officials overseeing it were not from Texas.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/18/politics/what-matters-february-18/index.html
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)everything is empty everywhere.
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)qazplm135
(7,447 posts)not sure about others, water pressure is a bit wonky. But if you want food or gas, boy it's slim pickens right now.
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)Hang in there
Sapient Donkey
(1,568 posts)He said he was trying to find gas the other day but had to give up or risk being stranded. He was able to find a station down the street this time, though. I'm assuming they didn't have gas the other day, or he would have got it there.
summer_in_TX
(2,680 posts)After shutting down for about seven hours yesterday after pressure dropped, the water is brackish and the pressure is still low. We'll have to boil water for quite awhile, I think. Whatever agency is charged with testing water samples and okays them as safe for drinking is bound to be backed up.
We aren't yet putting fuel pressure on the electric grid, keeping few devices going and only bumping the thermostat back up to 65 degrees. Maybe Saturday we'll feel safe going back to 70 degrees.
Sapient Donkey
(1,568 posts)Most people I know who lost electricity (I was lucky and didn't) seem to have their power back up, but everyone I know is still having water issues. That's a sampling of people not just from my area, but from other parts of the state too.
RockRaven
(14,782 posts)And a tremendous amount of it would have been avoidable if TX didn't fetishize antiregulationism.
rdking647
(5,113 posts)if so its outside feeding my hose spigots so no danger inside the house all ill end up with is a flooded yard.
No way to know for sure until the snow melts tomorrow or saturday
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)bucolic_frolic
(42,666 posts)I mean insulation is not just for cold weather. It helps in hot weather too.
Scruffy1
(3,239 posts)Old houses like mine built in 1959 weren't, but everything built since the 70's is insulated to the UBC of the time it was built. The first thing I did when I bought this old one was to insulate the walls and attic. Of course when you have no heat to lose it makes no difference.
bucolic_frolic
(42,666 posts)I live in the northeast and run a very cold house to cut heating bills. I have R-12 in the walls and roof, no foam, wood siding. It takes 3-4 weeks in December for the internal temperature drop to 38-40 degrees, no heat. Sunlight provides a little daytime energy gain, but not much. So I'm not understanding how a week of frigid weather is freezing pipes in TX if houses are insulated.
rdking647
(5,113 posts)or thru walls along unheated garages
Skittles
(152,964 posts)after he ran around the shows blaming it on wind power?
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Their whole bullshit game has gotten older than dust ...
Skittles
(152,964 posts)not sure though, because the cult mentality runs deep in Texas
Ford_Prefect
(7,817 posts)who were paid off to vote for Deregulation and promoted it as Texan independence and market based financial wisdom.
He will find a way to blame the technical faults on anyone else but the most recent derivative of the GOP. He will insist that the answer is in his hands and that good Texans need not worry too much about it.
He will then proceed to bury the problem one more time behind a smokescreen of claims of outside interference. The one problem he will encounter is that the whole system is built so it is not subject to outside interference. Like his responses to COVID he will aver that the experts are wrong and the superior wisdom is to build another Texas sized disaster using local contractors and localized ordinances.
And that whatever they do should not be beholden to the Liberal Democrats in DC who only want to steal Texan's birthright to make and live in their own personal hell. Along with the endless chorus of the Texas GOP chanting dirges to liberal ideals and informed, progressive, common sense state government.
They will do anything to protect the profits of their patrons and sponsors including the mass-murder of thousands of citizens due to the built-in neglect enshrined in deregulation policy. Rick "Big-Hair" Perry himself has said that regulation is an Un-Texan and unnatural abomination. He ought to know having spent such a productive time working in the heart of the DC Beast.
Sapient Donkey
(1,568 posts)I remember trying to figure out how all that stuff worked a ways back, and it seemed like prices for most people went up compared to before and even now the prices in Texas regulated municipal cooperatives tend to be cheaper. The entire system is confusing and seems designed to make certain people lots of money.
Ford_Prefect
(7,817 posts)It is meant to be just confusing enough that no one can make sense of it. What it ultimately means is that the price you pay has little to do with anything other than how much they can gull you out of. As with financial derivatives and health insurance the value changes often and at the whims of those who can figure out one more way to put a finger in the pie that you must pay for.
The alternative would probably cost the end user a bit less but it would deprive those addicted to the gamble that is profiteering in the domestic, as opposed to industrial, energy market of the fix they so desperately need, along with the kind of uncertainty which underlies the paranoia at the heart of GOP politics.
Montauk6
(8,045 posts)These right-wing conservatives and their ideology still have a political presence. Frustrating as hell.