Tired of the dysfunctional blame game

[txbullsfan]

Originally Posted by elnina

Right! Once in a lifetime? Hardly.

The majority of the problems generators experienced in 2011 resulted from failures of the very same type of equipment that failed in the earlier (1989) event and in many cases, these failures were experienced by the same generators.
Twenty six power generators that failed during a 2011 winter storm also failed during a similar 1989 storm.
State officials have failed to ensure that power plants across Texas can operate in extreme winter conditions despite three decades of warnings and multiple examples of the same facilities failing storm after storm, according to regulatory documents uncovered by WFAA.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/lo...3-19aa4f4f4690

Exactly.

While this storm may have broke temperature records, significant winter storms and significant widespread power outages from them (and other things) are not once in a lifetime events for Texas. We are on the rinse, wash, repeat cycle.

With climate change affecting both the frequency and intensity of all kinds of storms...please take your seats as the captain has turned on the seat belt sign.

Also, how did other states grids who were also affected by the exact same storm do?

Does Canada's, Switzerland's (other countries) and even northern states equipment and grids shut down on a large scale to freeze people in their homes when affected by even worse storms then we just had?

[Redlionjr]

Originally Posted by USDefault

This would be a nationwide story no matter what state. California blackouts got huge coverage. Any state that has millions of people without power, in every major city, followed up by no water, massive amount of pipes bursting, hospitals unable to flush toilets -- it's getting coverage.


Finally, there is no "blame game." Texas owns this failure, period, end of story. Can't blame "the feds" or "the left." For many years now Texans have voted in the legislators who repeatedly voted for an unregulated energy grid that was purposefully kept separate from her fellow states, and thus from federal regulation which would have helped lessen this disaster. And there were multiple warnings, going back decades, a hard Texas freeze would result in systemic grid failure. All of it, ignored. I say again, Texans own this.

Generalizing and blaming all Texans for this disaster is inaccurate though. No Non-politician Texan directly voted for the deregulation of the Texas electricity market. Now maybe you can say a significant amount of Texans voted for politicians who approved of the deregulation but by and large it was a bipartisan effort in the state. Generally voters in any state are not that educated enough to know what they're signing up for when they cast in a vote. I know this bill was passed in 2002, I wasn't even old enough to vote then. Politicians present a bill to the senate, maybe that bill gets some press coverage if any and if it's not a controversial bill then generally these types of things fly under the radar to everyday Texans if it doesn't greatly impact them. We're talking about it now because the system failed us but before then it wasn't a thing since 2002 when the state decided to deregulate.

Now you can blame those who are in the position to know these kinds of things. State officials, City leaders, county, etc. those people are supposed to be for the interest of the people but we know that's not how the world truly works. But now you have to really look at your leaders, mayors and other officials and ask why wasn't there a push to change the system? Why did certain cities support the deregulation of the electricity market? Austin and San Antonio opted out of the deregulation supposedly. Yet because they were in the ERCOT grid they were still impacted by Texas incompetence.

I think the elephant in the room is Texas relationship with the Energy industry. The Energy industry is largely responsible for the push of deregulation in the state. Energy corporations and politicians left the people in the dark(no pun intended). Unfortunately this is all too common on some kind of level in every state in America. It's the American way. Ours just manifested in the form of a winter storm. I know some people would like to chalk it up to some caricature image of a loud mouth Texan proud of his/her "independence" and threats of succeeding from America at the drop of a dime. But that ain't the case. Greedy corrupt corporations and greedy corrupt politicians are at the root of the issue. And that's a bipartisan issue.

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

I haven't tracked other records in other states or even most other regions of Texas, but here in the Tyler area this winter storm broke many records - not just daily records, but ALL TIME records. So yeah, it was a huge event here.

Even so, we're just about done with the drama here, thank goodness.

Yet other states fared much better than those in the Texas electrical grid. Funny though, the parts of Texas not in the state grid fared better than those in it as well. Longview-Marshall experienced record lows just like Tyler yet fared better. Maybe, just maybe it has something to do with them being apart of the Eastern Grid and Tyler being part of the ERCOT grid. I'm just saying.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by Redlionjr

Generalizing and blaming all Texans for this disaster is inaccurate though. No Non-politician Texan directly voted for the deregulation of the Texas electricity market. Now maybe you can say a significant amount of Texans voted for politicians who approved of the deregulation but by and large it was a bipartisan effort in the state. Generally voters in any state are not that educated enough to know what they're signing up for when they cast in a vote. I know this bill was passed in 2002, I wasn't even old enough to vote then. Politicians present a bill to the senate, maybe that bill gets some press coverage if any and if it's not a controversial bill then generally these types of things fly under the radar to everyday Texans if it doesn't greatly impact them. We're talking about it now because the system failed us but before then it wasn't a thing since 2002 when the state decided to deregulate.

Now you can blame those who are in the position to know these kinds of things. State officials, City leaders, county, etc. those people are supposed to be for the interest of the people but we know that's not how the world truly works. But now you have to really look at your leaders, mayors and other officials and ask why wasn't there a push to change the system? Why did certain cities support the deregulation of the electricity market? Austin and San Antonio opted out of the deregulation supposedly. Yet because they were in the ERCOT grid they were still impacted by Texas incompetence.

I think the elephant in the room is Texas relationship with the Energy industry. The Energy industry is largely responsible for the push of deregulation in the state. Energy corporations and politicians left the people in the dark(no pun intended). Unfortunately this is all too common on some kind of level in every state in America. It's the American way. Ours just manifested in the form of a winter storm. I know some people would like to chalk it up to some caricature image of a loud mouth Texan proud of his/her "independence" and threats of succeeding from America at the drop of a dime. But that ain't the case. Greedy corrupt corporations and greedy corrupt politicians are at the root of the issue. And that's a bipartisan issue.



Yet other states fared much better than those in the Texas electrical grid. Funny though, the parts of Texas not in the state grid fared better than those in it as well. Longview-Marshall experienced record lows just like Tyler yet fared better. Maybe, just maybe it has something to do with them being apart of the Eastern Grid and Tyler being part of the ERCOT grid. I'm just saying.

I don't know but I do know that Louisiana and Mississippi also experienced significant power and water outages during this winter storm.

I do agree that 1) most Texans really weren't aware of this issue beforehand and 2) we should learn from our mistakes moving forward.