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Politics. Texas and Oklahoma are red states that are largely dependent on fossil fuel revenue, revenue that gets channeled into GOP politicians to fund election campaigns. They see green energy as a threat to their power base, their livelihoods, and the livelihoods of oil companies and their employees. That's why years ago the fossil companies funded the anti-climate change astroturf propaganda campaigns. Why did Trump bend over backwards to kiss up to Russia and Saudi Arabia? The are large oil and gas producers. Follow the money.
Good Lord. That can't be true. Oil and gas lobbies don't like renewable energy?
Please don't mention oil and gas lobbies. Nor Russia and Saudi Arabia.
If Texas was connected to the rest of the country, the rest of the country could supply power to Texas. It is always windy somewhere - intermittency is more of a distribution problem with wind, especially noting the price differential with other generation sources.
When you move power over distance. , you have losses..
A connection does not guarantee anything but the connection being there.
And what of the consequences of wind power?? Wildlife? Offshore it affects sea life . Noise? And. Now, weather. NPR just said there were shortages of Natural Gas to burn, because they were shipping it out of state. Of course NPR would NEVER question renewables not even part of the conversation with them.
That’’s it for me.. The energy situation is too murky to analyze for me. Too much of a Cluster.
Thankfully , I don’t Live there. Imagine looking at frozen idle wind mills across the landscape as you shiver and huddle. Nope.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Speegleagle
When you move power over distance. , you have losses..
A connection does not guarantee anything but the connection being there.
And what of the consequences of wind power?? Wildlife? Offshore it affects sea life . Noise? And. Now, weather. NPR just said there were shortages of Natural Gas to burn, because they were shipping it out of state. Of course NPR would NEVER question renewables not even part of the conversation with them.
That’’s it for me.. The energy situation is too murky to analyze for me. Too much of a Cluster.
Thankfully , I don’t Live there. Imagine looking at frozen idle wind mills across the landscape as you shiver and huddle. Nope.
And yet every other state that needs additional power secures it from the grid regardless if the cause is extreme weather or a plant failure. Guess its more than a "connection being there" even with the power loss over distance. Those that have surpluses to sell over the grid get to do so at a premium making them money...
From the link:
“El Paso County is one place to experience minimal power outages, despite getting battered by the historic winter storm.
“We had about three thousand people that were out during this period, a thousand of them had outages that were less than five minutes,” said Eddie Gutierrez, vice president of strategic communications for El Paso Electric.
Gutierrez said the company learned a hard lesson and after a big freeze hit Texas in 2011. It invested millions in cold-weather upgrades.
“Making sure that we had we could winterize our equipment and facilities so they could stand minus-10 degree weather for a sustained period of time,” he said.”
Forward thinking.
Imagine that!
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Texas:
“ Ten years ago this month, severe winter weather caused rolling blackouts, sparking a Senate hearing and a whole lot of outrage. However, some observers say not enough has actually changed.
...
At power plants across the state, this 350-page report concluded cold-weather preps were "either inadequate or not adequately followed.”
Fast forward to present day, and little has changed.
“This was a failure from the get go,” UH Energy Professor Ed Hirs said. "It's exactly what happened in 2011, the summertime generators were not available to come online. They haven't been winterized. They haven't been in hot oil. They haven't had antifreeze.””
And yet every other state that needs additional power secures it from the grid regardless if the cause is extreme weather or a plant failure. Guess its more than a "connection being there" even with the power loss over distance. Those that have surpluses to sell over the grid get to do so at a premium making them money...
What you wrote is true, but a connection only guarantees a connection. Then other circumstances enter into the equation. Those other circumstances are out of your control, as they are in the domain of others.
There aren’t any absolutes except the actual connection, unless it is broken. I can build a bridge across the stream near my house so I can say I may be able to take a short cut. But forces out of my control may wash it away , a car might come off the road nearby and hit it, nearly endless possibilities.
However if you strive towards self reliance , avoid having to be dependent on others, it lessens the odds that something happens that you can’t control.
Several times over the years here we have lost power. Up to two weeks. In the Northeast . We are well connected to the grid. That connection did not help us.
Status:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Speegleagle
What you wrote is true, but a connection only guarantees a connection. Then other circumstances enter into the equation. Those other circumstances are out of your control, as they are in the domain of others.
There aren’t any absolutes except the actual connection, unless it is broken. I can build a bridge across the stream near my house so I can say I may be able to take a short cut. But forces out of my control may wash it away , a car might come off the road nearby and hit it, nearly endless possibilities.
However if you strive towards self reliance , avoid having to be dependent on others, it lessens the odds that something happens that you can’t control.
Several times over the years here we have lost power. Up to two weeks. In the Northeast . We are well connected to the grid. That connection did not help us.
In your case it didn't help but you don't elaborate what was the cause. As Texas has lost generating ability the connect would help but they have done nothing including maintaining their system to minimum Federal Standards that's why they remain disconnected.
We are experiencing outages due to an ice storm but our company is proactive and continually works to clear the right-of-ways but even with that they can still occur. Things happen beyond anyone's control but how many times does it have to occur before the state makes them improve the system?
Here's the lesson here. Don't rely on your Govt. Buy a good genset and be ready for the worst. Your Govt isn't going to save everyone in an event like this.
Wasn't this exactly what Texas did when they went off the national grid to avoid federal regulations?
In your case it didn't help but you don't elaborate what was the cause. As Texas has lost generating ability the connect would help but they have done nothing including maintaining their system to minimum Federal Standards that's why they remain disconnected.
We are experiencing outages due to an ice storm but our company is proactive and continually works to clear the right-of-ways but even with that they can still occur. Things happen beyond anyone's control but how many times does it have to occur before the state makes them improve the system?
The cause was inclement weather. I’ll be honest. The State and Utilities were negligent in regards to the amount of trees and greenery allowed to grow threatening transmission lines.
Environmentalists and common people were happy with the scenery, and I’ll admit, it can be very pretty at times, but we then found out the hard way.
After several incidents of long outages , the State and the Utilities had to react do to the outrage of the citizens. It was so bad , each and every home around here had to be reconnected by hand . After the fact, an aggressive tree cutting program was initiated, but not every where. Not too long ago, some areas of the state were without power for weeks. Again, a connection to other states is useless if the transmission lines in your town, neighborhood, and to your house are down.
But actually, to give credit where credit is due, the State here in CT does a tremendous job with winter .
Six inches of snow here usually means a few hours of inconvenience. Even 8-12 inches is cleared out in less than a day. Most all the roads are “ pre treated ”, even in my residential area on a dead end street. It was not that way years ago.
Here,in this state, we also had once in a 100 year massive flooding a little more than a decade ago. Negligence was the cause in his area. The Town addressed it and redid some of the fresh water movement to the river.
That’s all taxpayers ask for. Appropriate response to unfavorable conditions. I think this is really a “ Texas problem” that has been solved elsewhere to some degree.
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