Forty percent of Austin residents are without power, and up to a total of four million Texas residents are suffering under extreme cold conditions as the state power grid is overwhelmed. Making matters worse, a shortage of natural gas combined with failures of most wind turbines due to ice and freezing temperatures have dropped power generation.
TEXAS – Nearly 200,000 Austin Energy customers woke up without power Monday and were not expected to get it back until Tuesday — possibly late in the day — because of a so-called rotating power outage that didn’t rotate, leaving parts of the city in the cold and dark.
The outages began in the middle of the night, leaving swaths of neighborhoods without electricity, as already freezing temperatures dropped into single digits during an extraordinary winter storm that has raised questions about the city of Austin’s and the state’s ability to handle such an event. (read more)
The Houston Chronicle reports: […] “Natural gas supplies for electric generation are already strained in the winter, the peak season for gas used for heating, adding pressure to supplies used to generate electricity.”
The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and natural gas in the state, said Monday afternoon that some producers, especially in the Permian Basin and Panhandle, were experiencing unprecedented freezing conditions, causing concern for employee safety and affecting production.
[…] “This event happened quickly, and the amount of load that we needed to remove from the grid was significant. It was in a very short time that we maxed out on all of the available circuits that we had to disconnect,” Sargent said. “So because we’re at a max limit, there’s no more energy that we can shut off at this time to bring these customers back on. Basically, we’re stuck here.” (read more)
Good news. Results are on the way.
About 200,000 residential customers are coming back on line now.
More are expected in the coming hours. https://t.co/8AlqYOycT8
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 15, 2021
The “Green New World Order” can’t even handle a bit of weather. Hilarious and tragic at the same time.
They believed their own lies and thought there wasn’t going to be any more cold weather.
Climate change aka global warming is settled science, because there is a consensus of scientists that say its settled science so its settled by politicians.
At this point we have more to fear from politicians than weather.
Yes, because God controls the weather and God is merciful unlike man.
We have been in an ice age for the past 3 million years. We are currently in an interglacial period. What is so damn hard for people to understand? All my liberal friends just cannot get their head around this. I tell them all the time, this is what happens during an ice age!
And somehow we got out of the last ice age ‘without’ resorting to the dreaded SUV? The real problem is we are running out of ‘inexpensive’ fossil fuels.
Mankind came along at just the right time to liberate CO2 from soil and save life on the Earth. Now we need to save ourselves.
Regardless, don’t worry about the Earth its survived worse, its modern human civilization (based largely on fossil fuels) that is in the cross hairs.
There are effective solutions but they take time, time that is running out, and it takes engineers and builders ‘not’ politicians to develop them. Politicians just give about 90% of the funds for ‘green’ energy to the parasites that keep them in office.
Even worse most of the ‘green’ energy that is funded with the scraps doesn’t come close to replacing the utility of fossil fuels.
Truth
Ask them when the last ice age ended. That always stumps the man made global warming believers. A: Less than 10k years ago. Michigan and NY were under a mile of ice. Indeed, I remember the 70’s when they said the Great Lakes were drying up. Pictures from the 20’s showed docks and the water was certainly at least a foot or two lower. The science was settled. But then they put up the GPS system, and low and behold, the lakes were not falling. Michigan was rising!! Almost an inch per year. What? Indeed, Michigan was ‘springing back’ from where it was pushed down under miles of ice from the last ice age.
Yeah, there are all kinds of things like that that get past the feeble minded.
Another one is: they just found trees under a glacier on ground that has not been exposed since the Bronze Age. And that is supposed to create all kinds of consternation and angst. But when you really look at it, it means that the Bronze Age was warmer than the current era and the Bronze Age had much lower levels of Carbon Dioxide. So, why was that?
And my favorite is: How can you say catastrophic Climate Change isn’t real when 97% of scientists say it is? Besides disputing the 97% figure, that argument has another fatal flaw. Take the question: “Did Joe shoot Johnny?” Answer: “The jury said he did.” While that might seem to be an answer to the question, it really isn’t. It is an answer to a totally different question. But you have to be a bit astute to see that.
One of the earliest fathers of the scientific method was Ibn al-Haytham. He was the first to develop hypothesis by experimentation. He wrote:
“The seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them,” the first scientist wrote, “but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration and not the sayings of human beings whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency.”
IOW a scientist must be a skeptic that must develop/confirm his/her hypothesis by experimentation and observation and not base it on the supposed research of others.. If a person is not a skeptic then they aren’t a scientist no matter how many degrees of titles they may have. The so called field of “climate science” is filled with people that rely on nothing more than computer models. Models that have without fail been terribly inaccurate in their projections so far and yet they still treat them as valid scientific evidence. They are NOT scientists. They’re leaches working flawed academic and government systems for self enrichment.
The most dangerous phrase written by so called journalists today supposedly reporting on climate change is. “Scientists say”.
“Settled Science” ?
Go to 0:39:30 – some people actually get it… Bryan Callen does (also a very nice guy IRL ? )
https://youtu.be/H0J64y124fo
After the left bans cows and we get hit with a bird and swine flu, this will be our food supply. Horse will have never tasted so good. Then we will not only be cold but hungry as well.
I live in Texas, and we are on our 3rd
Day of no power.
We are suffering here, we are angry at our officials and
Governor Abbot will not be re-elected. Nursing home near my home has no power, two have passed away .
We have had no communication
From our local government.
Churches are stepping up offering a place to come to get warm.
We’ve been charging our phones in our car
So we have some means of communication.
Pipes frozen and bursting. There will
Be major financial hardships
To come.
Solar panels and wind mills frozen
And they supply
About 20 % of energy.
Here we are the state with so much
Energy and our
Politicians have failed us.
I’m cold and angry
It doesn’t matter how much energy a state produces when they have windmills in their minds and on their power grids.
So sorry, Jean. It’s truly inexcusable. A state with the energy resources of Texas should not be in this situation!!!
I’m in the Midwest; we are just as cold but not quite to rolling black outs here, and I intend to follow up with our politicians and electric co-op to find out what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again like this.
So sorry to hear of the suffering in Texas, Praying that there is a break through very soon and power restored. I just read of a mother and child who died of CO poisoning from trying to warm up in their car in Houston area. Tragic.
jean- my heart goes out to you. I live in a part of NY where we get many, many power outages because all the electric lines are above ground. Winters here are very bad so we have multiple fuel sources for heat, etc. including wood, oil and propane gas. I can’t imagine how people in the cities or elsewhere that are not prepared can deal with no heat.
We are praying for Texas.
I also feel for the jean and the others in Texas who are suffering because of their politicians.
Like you in your area of NY Seneca, here in my rural area of Colorado many of us have wood stoves and huge wood piles.
They are work but also give us a bit of comfort knowing we will not freeze.
From some of these Texas commenters it sounds like their gov Abbot is in big trouble.
Wasn’t all that green energy crap done under the former Governor?
All of Texas Governors have supported windmill power – everyone gets subsidies to buy more expensive and less reliable power. All republicans – Geo ‘silver foot’ Bush, Rick ‘Aggie’ Perry, and now Greg Abbott. Lots of federal tax credits, school district tax credits to get jobs out in unpopulated west texas.
Meanwhile, Texas politicians used to beat up Electric Utilities – Houston Light & Power, Swepco, Texas Utilities, Austin Power, San Antonio Power & Central Power & Light – ‘how much extra capacity do you have? needs t/b 10% and account for population growth’…..with Rick Perry’s ‘deregulation’ and help from ENRON (Phil Gramm’s wife was on their board), didn’t need to do that anymore ……’THE MARKET’…. would get companies to build power plants to supply electricity….
Electric utility deregulation in Texas was being worked out at the same time that California was having its energy crisis. I was taking an energy economics course at University of Houston at the time. Ken Lay was a local rock star. A semester or two later, the “innovative financial geniuses” and their SPVs at ENRON blew up that company.
Excess capacity at the moment was proposed at 15% in the Houston area. That sounded totally bogus to me because the municipal utilities had to be broken up. That unhinged wholesale generators in a competitive market from what had been their own dedicated service areas. The central purpose shifted from assuring adequate (with a buffer) power to assuring a profit. I am not convinced that we were not better off with municipal utility monopolies that were answerable to their customers and local governments rather than shareholders in far-flung places.
…energy companies would not see a benefit / cost decision in favor of wind mills nor solar panels…
if the federal government – for a decade – was not largely, LARGELY subsidizing / providing incentive$$ for the notions.
(and thereby overlooking the downsides…and maintenance… )
p.s.
there are federal subsidies for petroleum too. Ask the oil industry, why – after multiple decades. [ hint, a straight answer has been obfuscated for a long, long time. So, it must be… money / politic$. ]
p.s.
the current administration decision to derail the keystone pipeline hurts the long term energy producing sector of the U.S economy (and we-the-peoples access to affordable energy),
big time ….
and prices are rising (in correlation to the rising pessimism about the current administrations mis-policies )…
p.s. Austin is one of those many (liberal ) college towns full of high minded academics…. not worth their pay – for decades. (but they feel entitled… ) fwiw.
p.s.
the climate (and weather) changes, by golly and by nature,
whether one likes it, or not.
And no politician has control over unpredictable, inclement weather – and never will.
(those offering wooden-nickels otherwise – via global warming, climate change, green deal,
are just looking for naive’ takers… (for selfi$h reason$ ))
imho
ps
“prove all things,
hold fast to that which is good.” Thessalonians 5:21
i.e. do not take any wooden nickels, whatever the form(s) or words.
I thought Texas was solid republican.
Ah . . . maybe THAT’S the problem.
Republicans are NOT conservative, as they proved when they had the Congress with President Trump in office.
We need a new party.
We need actual voting.
We need freedom, including economic freedom.
Including the freedom to travel, to leave the house, to decide for ourselves what we will do to protect ourselves from diseases . . .
It’s horrible living in a totalitarian state.
I thought Texas was different.
Windmills in Texas.
That shows you how many illusions we’ve believed about Texas and the republicans.
lol.. when a jackass can’t get elected with the party of the ass as the affiliation on the ticket they change parties, hence the term RINO.. therefore you find yourself voting for the lessor of two evils.. lessor than but evil just the same.. then you get Kalifornicated and everybody thinks they are a superstar in la la wood..
That tells you Texas is a big globalist state… Texans you need to change that!!! fast. America first not globalist agendas. What an eye opening…
Ah, windmills in Texas. Reminds me of Don Quixote of La Mancha…..
I would think many Texans would be considered Blue Dog Democrats who vote “conservative” in federal elections, but I could be wrong – based solely on what I was told by my dad, who was a Texan. For example, one of my uncles would be considered “conservative” but he has run a couple of times in local elections – as a democrat, because “that’s what you have to do to get elected.” It didn’t work, by the way. LOL
As an aside, do you all remember T. Boone Pickens, the wind energy guy? He was considering running for president at one time.
I am in Ft Worth, had electric alternating on/off about every hour but have had no water for 2 days
Jeantexan, what you folks are enduring is heart breaking. I pray for Texas.
I can only imagine how bad it is in your area. I don’t blame you for being angry. Texas in the news with the power grid failures, outages, etc. I’m in central Oklahoma. My house is freezing cold except for one room. No running water; pipes are frozen. And I left my taps dripping. Power went out briefly, then came back on. It is now 12 degrees according to the Weather Channel. My wife is in a nursing home; I just talked to a nurse I know from another nursing home where I currently work. She’s ok and staying warm.
Stay warm and safe. We’ll get through this.
I read that 31% of Texas energy comes from alternative sources which end up costing more than they are worth much of the time.
My sons electric in Austin just went out
If you can;t afford a generator a good thing to get would be a portable power station they can be taken from room to room and they usually come with at least one AC outlet 2 or 3 USB ports as well as a couple 12 v ports. I have a volo but another brand is Jackery. They can be charged multiple ways in the house electric, in the car or you can buy small portable solar panels ( they are small they fold up to about the size of laptop. and charge that way..) It is better than nothing you can charge multiply things at one time and you could even plug in a small lamp for light or use the AC outlet to charge your computers..
Feel bad for you and all those that are suffering. Please focus your anger at the politicians who forced 30%+ green energy on your state. With subsidies from the federal government their installation probably seemed cheaper and more “environmentally friendly”. Fools gold.
Sorry to hear your situation. This is the result of the crony-capitalism that distorted the market – under Obama- and in addition – public choice theory. To be sure, the States that took the ‘free’ green money, were short sighted (to put it mildly). These are regulated markets (massive distortions) – “because of the natural monopoly” – and this must be a case study in the most energy rich state – running out of energy. I’m sure somebody that knows the inside baseball of what is going on in Texas would have a heck of tell all book – of stupid government decisions/incentives/regulation/unintended consequences – sort of a “big short” movie of stupidity.
Pied Piper professors, using Chicken Little Science to force Jack in the Beanstalk solutions > “Only an Airhead Can Save Us from Air”
Here in north Dallas, the whole neighborhood has frozen pipes, and rolling blackout, targeted they say for short periods. Well the short periods is b as in b and s as in s.
Run your tap water at a trickle. Helps to prevent total freeze up.
And keep the sink cabinet open if the sink’s on an outside wall.
If you have pool noodles you can cut them and put them over your pipes under you sinks for insulation. cut them the long way an it will fit over your pipes..
If you still have electricity you can hang a lightbulb on an extension cord right next to your pipes under the sink and this bulb will produce just enough heat to help.
If you have no electricity then a wood stove comes in handy.
If you have no electricity and no wood stove or other back up then you are in bad shape and God help you.
My heart really goes out to all those caught in this mess in Texas where they are more use to trying to keep cool in the heat instead of warm in the winter.
Until the water goes out too.
Yes ironically its the unfrozen water that acts as hydraulic ram that bursts the pipes. Opening the taps allows that pressure to be relieved as the ice progressively expands in the pipes.
You still don’t have water but its better than burst pipes once they thaw and the water pressure returns.
Everyone everywhere should think about ‘how’ off grid they are right now. Namely the rule of three’s; three minutes without oxygen, three hours without heat, three days without water and three weeks without food.
Somewhere in Dallas County, Yep rolling blackouts alright.. not sure where they rolled to, once my blackout rolled in it failed to roll out for 26 hrs.. Don’t mind sharing the misery but it would be nice if others reciprocated.. Meanwhile local “essential” businesses were open, you can call in a pizza but you had to go pick it up.. Ashley furniture store and Guitar Center are open for you shopping needs. Actually their lights were on but no one was home.. I could have run my heater with their light bill..
We are lucky we have natural gas for cooking and a fireplace.. We did experience pressure drops but we managed to keep at 40. No water issues although we did empty the freezer into an aluminum trash can on the back patio
Those businesses likely have the use of backup power generators.
In Marshall, Walmart, Lowe’s, and Kroger’s have generators and can stay open (albeit with decreased lighting and HVAC). All hospitals have generators. Look around for red outlets. Those are the ones that life-saving equipment such as ventilators are plugged into because the red ones provide power from the backup generators.
During Tropical Storm Allison that hit Houston 20 years ago, almost all of the Texas Medical Center lost power because most of the facilities had their switching gear and/or fuel at or below ground level. That was a learning experience. The particular problem no longer exists.
Who needs a Yeti when we have mother nature. Its weird, bathroom cold water came on today after a 48 hour freeze (outside wall, hot water was ok) and my kitchen sink, hot and cold is still out. One neighbor has no water at all while the other has no kitchen water too. At least my 40 years of Wisconsin driving experience has not deterred us from getting around. Always, always have 4-wheel drive, It comes in handy.
Here is another detailed explanation.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1361734258629353473.html
They have one job….
Fascinating read. Thanks.
Great explanation and 100% believable. Thanks for posting!
Sounds like someone failed Electrical Engineering 101.
This is why I follow Revolver. I would never have found this story except through a link from Revolver.
https://www.revolver.news/
In other words, if there was a competent government with honest policies for the good of the people, none of this misery would have happened. It is totally unnecessary.
So.. Government House tilts the playing field and Americans suffer for their stupidity.
Yes this explains the problem very well. In fact in some areas of the world, power rates go to negative pricing during high renewable generation. One way to solve this is we set a floor on the price, the difference going to the on demand power suppliers. Either that or the renewable generators need to spend the money to store excess power below a certain daily demand capacity.
AP: MEXICO CITY
Freezing weather in Texas led to a chain of events that left almost 5 million customers in northern Mexico without power Monday as a shortage of natural gas disrupted electricity production.
Mexico’s government-owned utility, the Federal Electricity Commission, said its operations were left short as the winter storm in Texas froze natural gas pipelines. It said some private power plants also began shutting down Sunday night. Private plants supply about 80% of power in northern Mexico.
Mexico uses gas to generate about 60% of its power, compared to about 40% in the United States. Mexico built pipelines to take advantage of cheap natural gas from the U.S., often obtained by fracking in Texas, but Mexico does not allow fracking in its own territory.
…“Electricity demand in the United States rose by a little over 20% in just four days,” Reyes Hernández said. “The increase was due precisely to the drop in temperatures, and obviously the use of heating in the United States meant an increase in natural gas demand on the one hand, and precisely because of the low temperatures, there was a decrease in renewable energy.”
He said U.S. wind turbines “had their blades frozen … and there was freezing in many pipelines and even at wells.”
Texas freeze leaves millions in north Mexico without power | The Olympian
It’s not just the Condor Cuisinarts.
The Gipper, but…but what about the solar panels? 🙂
The solar panels are covered in snow.
It was so completely predictable.
Our rulers are stupid. After all, the oligarchs need their factories and superstores to run, too.
We need a new party that represents the people, a party that will challenge voter fraud, a party funded by America First business interests exclusively.
Yep. I’ve had four of my thirty panels offline for over 5 days. And another frozen dumping is forecast for tomorrow night into Thursday. Oh joy.
GB Bari, thanks for a real, on-the-ground report of how solar is doing with this situation.
We got a solar panel to run just two circulating pumps in our small lake, and I have noticed they often have not worked this winter and even earlier from simply a lack of sunlight.
If I were depending on them for actual, reliable power, I would be in trouble in this geographic area.
Aerators, not circulating pumps.
What is the freezing temp of natural gas? Minus 297 degrees. So the excuse that the pipes froze is not acceptable. Look to the contracts for natural gas for the electricity producers and you will see that it was bid up to high levels and the electricity producers would rather see elderly freezing in their homes with their grandchildren than have a day or so of losing on buying gas criminal? Just sound business practice they will say. They are not good neighbors in the community but they enrich themselves and bid up the price of natural resources that are sold in mineral contracts that would rather allow people freezing to death than accept a few days of negative cash flow. That’s the truth sad to say and against God. But we’ll see these good Christians in our churches on Sundays while they run our country like this.
That’s what I was wondering. I didn’t think natural gas would normally freeze.
I believe there are valves and other equipment in the gas storage and transmission infrastructure that may be susceptible to extreme low temperatures.
I get that , thanks
Also gas shrinks in volume in low temps so there are not quite as many cubic feet of gas in the system. The opposite occurs during high temperatures. Your billing actually accounts for that.
[email protected]
It’s the condensate in the natural gas-not the gas itself
I see, thanks
I would further posit that these systems in these “warmer” regions weren’t constructed to address such low temperatures effectively. Our northern regions that use gas know cold and I’ve never seen a flicker of flakeyness due to frigidity.
Sounds like an engineered engineering issue to me.
Same here Maquis.
Here many use natural gas and we have very low temps all winter.
Our natural gas systems never freeze.
Why is the condensate not extracted?
[email protected]
I’m civil not process so I’ll give you the holiday inn express answer. My understanding is that they’re freezing up at the wellhead so…at what depth below the earth’s surface do you wanna dehydrate it and where do you wanna put the heaters?
Living south of Austin I had a blackout last night lasting about an hour and a half. I am thankful for running water, power, gas right now.
I’m old enough to remember when Austin Power only meant spy movie parodies.
Let mom, I live close to Fredericksburg, we’ve been having power on and off. Sunday afternoon I had to drive to San Antonio to tend to our business (ice driving). The power at home went out that evening and didn’t come back until Monday early afternoon. It did manage to freeze our pipes.‘Monday drove back home on snow and ice to help my wife. This morning back to San Antonio, and is sitting at our house there at 48 degrees inside. According to my neighbor the power has been out since Monday morning. About ready to kick Abbott’s and Texas Electric Liability Council asses.
Petzmom, autocorrect strikes again.
Grandpa M,
So sorry. It really is inexcusable. We are cold with a thermostat at 64 degrees. I am sure there is enough brain power in the true (not faux like wind and solar) energy sector in Texas to have prevented. this. Stupid, magical thinking by green new dealers and I imagine ridiculous regulation is causing true monetary and probably even health issues for the very Americans who support MAGA. Hmm…is that a feature and not a bug?
?
I am wearing steel toed muck boots right now as I just finished walking my dog. I offer as many kicks as necessary to throw odius Abbott’s flat ass to the curb.
We are in South Austin near Zilker and have been without power for 37 hours now. I know it’s a combination of failures but feels like mostly our local government.
That is unbearable. Wouldnt wish that on anyone except Abbott.
Austin has its own power company. Has been a tarbaby for 40 years at least – remember scandals in the lat 1970s. Look up Lovaca gas company, Oscar Wyatt and Coastal corporation. Austin & San Antonio got caught with no natural gas in the 1970s when energy crisis hit. History repeats itself….
Texas Monthly had great reporting on it in its early days
https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/oscar-wyatt/
The Dark Winter is here.
Promises made, promises kept.
Zydeco 🙂
200,000 is not much. Go to that website PowerOutage.US, there is millions still without power. My brother and his wife have been without power since last night. They use ONCOR. Their temperatures last night was -6 degrees. They’re worried about their pipes bursting. Thankfully they have a fireplace. I also have family in Palestine and Corpus Christi, they are without power also. I live in northeast Texas and so far we still have our power. Prayers for all those who are without power.
O power in wide swaths of San Antonio, my daughter and family in. New Braunfels just got power back after almost 48 hours without it. Roads not treated except I-10. Reminds me of the “Developed socialism” of the early 80s in Eastern Europe. At night it used to look like one giant disco club – lights on, lights off.
I live in N.B. and i lost power last night for a short while but I hear older sections of the city are suffering. I was thinking newer subdivisions like mine are luckier. Who kniws. Either way, inhumane.
Actually, they are in a newer neighborhood off 306. The story that the PEC gave them was that it was due to some yuge infrastructure damage, yeah right. when the first round of ice hit we had an outage due to downed power lines and PEC fixed them under 4 hrs. Little did we know that ERCOT was poised to strike. Abbott called for an emergency review by the Texas legislature of ERCOT. I guess he is feeling that his rear might get kicked out of the Guv’s mansion.
I’m not ever voting for a rat but I ain’t voting for Abbott either.
Why is Abbott pushing the review onto the legislature? The executive can do it, but looks like he wants to push the burden onto someone else.
My son is in Texas. He and two puppies have been without power since yesterday morning. Temps down to 2 degrees last night. No way to know when power will be back on. “Warming stations” have been set up now. Pretty much a nightmare for Texans. I’m in the middle of the ice and snow in another state and can’t get to him, so we are stuck for now. It was -7 last night, with windchill at -28 where I am. But God is still on His throne and still answers prayers, and we are still praying for the people in Texas and other states dealing with power outages. May He protect all who are facing this storm, especially those who are risking their lives as they work to restore power and gas.
Power has been off, for hours, and on, for 10-20 minutes, since4 Monday morning. I’m lucky I have gas heater and gas stove. Pray for the folks who don’t, it’s nasty here.
NE Texas, Celia? Your electric power company likely is in the Southwest Power Pool, same as mine. The people most impacted in Texas are in ERCOT.
Where I live, we are supposed to get some more snow tonight. I am waiting for tree limbs to start breaking and hitting power lines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Power_Pool#/media/File:NERC-map-en.svg
So, the United States is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas, and we don’t have enough???
It’s winter. It gets cold. I’m in the Midwest where they’ve told us we could have rolling blackouts. We’ve had other winters this cold; in fact, it was about several years ago we didn’t have any days above freezing temperatures for a 14 day stretch like now. There was no talk of rolling blackouts, shortages, etc. then.
What’s changed? What’s different?
And, because unbeknownst to us our local supplier of propane got bought out by a national company with call centers instead of the folks in the local office who are familiar with local conditions, we are perilously close to running out of propane. We’ve used propane to heat with for decades and never had a problem before. The good to come out if that is, after scrambling fir solutions, we’ve talked with several local suppliers so we will be keeping that money in the community here, but we’ve dropped the thermostat to 65, and since our wind chills have been as low as -25, space heaters are keeping us afloat (plus lot of clothing layers) The poor people with electric furnaces are in really bad shape. We have at least 6“ of snow on the ground with more coming in tonight and this weekend.
I wonder since it’s Austin without power if any liberals will get “woke” to this being the future with Biden’s energy “policies.”
Biden housing will be a roll of insulation with a small window. No electric outlets will be an energy saving feature.
We have plenty of Natural gas, but what we don’t have enough of is NG pipelines thanks to environmentalists and politicians
I’m getting a very weak flame from my gas cooktop and worried my gas furnace will fail too.
Too many uninvited foreign nationalist and their anchor families .. more people than sustainable..
This event exposes many things. Yes, the green idiots have no clue how useless their alternatives are under adverse conditions compounded by unprecedented demand. Their dream scenarios aren’t constructed for contingencies, since they can’t adapt to them anyway (can’t push more sunlight onto panels or spin blades faster on demand).
Now…imagine an extended outage due to grid failure at the hands of nefarious forces (either sadistic stateside commies who’ve shown they’re willing to kill, or foreign adversaries who already target our infrastructure). An EMP is even worse using “green” systems…everything fries.
Energy security is national security. The Biteme administration and their globalist commanders are destroying our strength through suicidal policy.
iethematrix, that’s the plan. Didn’t XIden promise a ‘Dark Winter’?
Biden has opened the door for the CCP to provide equipment for our national power grid. I suspect we have seen nothing yet.
Massive Texas gas failure during climate extremes gets blamed on wind power
https://reneweconomy.com.au/massive-texas-gas-failure-during-climate-extremes-gets-blamed-on-wind-power/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Ya, that is a bunch of crap. Greenies throwing out a sock puppet.
If these blackouts continue, Biden could lose his Mario Kart high score!
No worries. Kamala’s got it…as soon as she gets off the phone with Macron and Trudeau. /s
Somehow, they all deserve each other.
But we don’t deserve them. SC not bad in the overall picture.
regional grid (SWLA) was taken down out of precaution at 0400 hrs this morning (local)…was restored at 1400 Hrs….
a. the power generation AND the network, distribution elements, HVDC lines, safeties and fuel stock storage ARE NOT designed to deal with deep cold events that we experienced.
b. Heat exchangers specifically for plant power generation are not designed to overcome DEEP freeze events of even long period icing.
so Entergy and beauregard took the system down to prevent damage that would be very difficult to repair if left running at the risk of catastrophic failure.
It was a good call.
notice: there are ZERO WIND TURBINES interconnected to the regional entergy and beauregard power networks….on the other hand, our entergy networks ARE interconnected and phase linked to other states, unlike Texas…but given those states are at peak or near peak during this hard cold event, there are few of any contingency solutions from that design. At best, it simply steers demand load marginally during this event…the same sort of thing we experience during very very hot and humid cycles in the summer months.
Thanks for the explanation, regitiger. Still, I have lived in the Midwest almost my whole life, and this is unprecedented without there have been a tornado, severe thunderstorm, or in the winter, ice on the lines, etc.
Something is different.
And, it is the responsibility of those in charge to prepare for these scenarios.
My heart goes out to those who are cold and are suffering damage. This is inexcusable in a first world country. And, heartbreaking, because President Trump had us energy independent. This should not happen.
The government spends most of its time enriching itself and abusing the people.
Also in creating useful crises.
This event unfortunately will empower the climate change activists even further. Little will get fixed. They will double down.
that something different is a very cold event that these southern power generation systems were never designed to mitigate.
noting two things to get proper perspective about design (in general).
northern state power generation systems ARE designed to mitigate deep cold events, and thus we do not see them fail in this way (due to cold).
interterconnectivity is only marginally useful during peak load and load shifting events. Typically, you find the reality is that if one state is experiencing demand that overwhelms a system, it’s likely adjacent interconnected state systems are as well.
We learned this reality during Hurricane Laura and H-Delta. When the HDVC systems were finally repaired (5 major hi power transmission branches, the local power generation was unable to steer supply from the interconnectivity from other states. They were experiencing hi demand too..and the nearest states were also experiencing their own hurricane related supply and high demand issues…
what this exposed is that any interconnectivity benefits are achieved when ALL systems are operating within a normal non peak nominal operation. The strategy to provide additional load steering thus is not dependable when needed the most, during a crisis.
I think Texas (ERCOT) has the proper strategy when you consider this reality…But some of that decision can be explained as texas is a vastly large state, and power distribution transmission even in the HVDC corridors are enormously expensive to maintain..and there is a pronounced power loss over distance….In addition, Texas, whether they considered it or not, by not interconnecting operate a closed system that is not subject to multi-state “consensus and politics” NOR the beaurocracy of FERC.
In Louisiana, as with many states, the interconnectivity issues was chosen as a result of many the benefit of exploiting common and close fuel stock supply routes, and thus the operating costs for each is lower… And in fact, most states do operate lower in cost this way, which is exceedingly cheaper at the residential pricing, compared to texas.
the notion of windpower as a load balancing system is certainly going to get another closer look. I don’t think we can nearly blame the failure of windpower as a single cause of the problems with Texas,….more to do with the design to not operate the primary power generation against such hard deep cold events. I think there is some information coming out also about the lack risk planning for reserve power ..namely with protecting fuel stock reserves from freezing. I don’t think the experts are thinking about upgrading the system to overcome a deep cold anomaly. But I do think they need to rethink how their systems as a whole are more resilient to this event, as well as other events that may be rare, but can black swan effects (hurricane, flood, high wind, icing, tornadoes, peak demand and load balancing…)
very hard to budget for a cold deep event, given they are so anomalous the cost benefit is nearly impossible to pressure change in design.
Texas SHOULD be using this event to place enormous pressure on the biden administration about the Keystone XL issue. It IS related in terms of energy security for the state…for all states in fact.
Louisiana would support that in a combined campaign to get biden administration to back off and start acting like adults.
The absolute insanity of the left, and their hare-brained policies:
One of the most energy-rich regions on the entire planet suffers mass power outages.
This is happening in republican Texas.
Are you saying the republicans are leftists who support China?
Ah . . . in that case, you would be correct.
That’s what the republicans are.
The Lefts policies should not be called “hair brained”.
Their policies are DELIBERATE. They want to get us used to being deprived of basic necessities like food and energy. This is part of Communist conditioning. (Remember bread lines in Soviet Union?)
Ask your anti-Trump, pro-Biden friends and family, “Like it? Keep voting for DemoncRATs (DemoCommunists). Guar-on-teed it’ll get worse. They want TOTAL control over your lives.”
Exactly!
Willful incompetence creating useful crises.
Reinforcing false narratives, creating conditions that demand more centralized power, subduing the plebs.
Transparent as heck.
Well, I said I would never do this – But – I actually stood in line outside Trader Joe’s yesterday to purchase one jar of applesauce because I forgot to purchase it in the morning at my regular grocery store. I remembered when I was driving by Trader Joe’s; whipped in to their parking lot and Voila! A 5 minute line and a covid prevention lecture. I stood there and prayed not to lose my temper.
Interesting how so many are so eager to engage in Soviet obeisance, n’est-ce pas?
They thrive on it, as long as they are enjoying their status as oppressors that is.
Agree. It’s all part of their plan for one world order, de-pop, & go green. Worse is yet to come. Agree.
How about prioritize power for those that did NOT vote for idiotic windmills?
I am surprised that more people in Texas don;t have generators being they are Hurricane prone state.
The Elite do.
Good point, They’re expensive. We had been looking to get one; Generac seems to be the only game in town for a whole house generator, and it’s 10K plus yearly costs of around $300 for maintenance we were told by the distributor. Worse, though, their reliability seems to be in question and the length of use only good for 24 hours.
If anyone has any good suggestions, I’d welcome them!
Yikes! You know, I just realized that would go off topic.
Sorry. I should post such a question on the open thread.
Sorry.
When we built our new house 2 years ago (SW Missouri) our Generac 24 W whole house generator cost 7K installed, and the yearly inspection costs $75. Another option is Kohlar, but they are more expensive and not as many electrician tech work on them . It is on natural gas.
Honda makes really nice ones for half the price.
You could opt for a portable one, $300-700.
We lost power due to windstorm here in CT back in August. We lost power for 4 days.It got old real fast..but I was mad we lost everything in the refrigerator/freezer. We bought a Duramax generator it is not whole house. but we had the electrician put an plug in the garage to plug into and he set up the electrical box with a switch for the generator we can;t run the whole house but we can have lights, and keep the refrigerator/freezer going and the Furnace and AC on and off. Interestingly though he said we can;t use the dryer as it would pull to much energy
Another idea to buy one of those camping power banks like a Jackery , they have several brands. they have different options some can be charged with solar if you buy portable folding solar panels, in the car or in the house. They at least ususally have on AC outlet two or 3 USB ports and some 12 volts ports in them.. They are better than nothing. and you can charge multiple things at one time the AC outlet is nice to be able to charge your computer or run a small lamp for light..
Thanks!
I have thought of a propane-Generac. I live outside anybody’s city and can have a large tank. Can’t afford it however.
Military surplus trailer mounted and a reserve of diesel fuel. Go in with your neighbors. get at least 20KW.
Deplorable Nazarene, I love the innovative idea!
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I’ve actually shared this a lot lately. Enjoy!
E-Waste
By FULL MEASURE STAFF
20 Dec 2020
https://fullmeasure.news/news/cover-story/e-waste
https://bigbattery.com
BTW, this is anotheer huge problem that no one has addressed, until this man, and he cannot do it alone.
I am not anywhere close to elite and I have propane, a wood heater insert and a generator. Us dumb rednecks know how to look out for ourselves.
We have a generator, and at our last house which my husband designed, we could plug it in on the patio. It was a great system, but not whole house. Unfortunately, we moved and no longer have that easy set-up to run that generator.
We actually got started on getting a Generac a few years ago, but the electrician backed out, and we let is slide because of the expense and reputed reliability issues in online reviews. Furthermore, up until now our electric co-op has actually really performed pretty admirably if there were outages. Last fall we started to looked again into getting a whole house Generac; it was going to be 3 months before it arrived after you plunked down a $5,000 deposit. I imagine demand and delays will be far worse after this multi-state fiasco, though.
However, all that being said, with this being just a preview of where we’re headed with the Biden regime, a whole house generator may be the way to go. Thanks to everyone for your valuable input, even if I inadvertently veered off topic.
Texas midget, we remodeled this house somewhat, and one thing we did was put in a wood burning fireplace, which managed to get our smallish living room to almost 70 degrees last night. It certainly made the evening more bearable, with the added feature of making the family pretty close as we huddled together in that room! Our propane supplier let us down big time. We ordered over 3 weeks ago, and the scheduled delivery of last Friday was a no-show by them, even though that serendipitously turned out to be the best time in a two week window to get a delivery; roads were plowed and our lane was pretty clear. Now we have 6 plus inches of snow on a 1/4 mile gravel lane, so we’re scrambling to solve this issue.
So sorry you are dealing with this issue. I live in snow country. Last summer I had the propane stove and tank removed, and had a wood burning stove installed. I had the equivalent of 5 cords of wood at the start of winter. I was told I might need more, and they may be right, but so far so good. Our county code would preclude me from having propane piped into the main living area where a wood burning stove is installed. A family was killed about a year ago when they tried to do both. The whole house exploded due to a propane leak. We’ve had very heavy snow – about 6 FEET – propane trucks would have a difficult time getting in here this winter because we only have so many plow trucks/tractors, but they could do it. All that to say, my main concern was having a way to heat the home and cook without relying on propane delivery or electricity. Hauling in wood is inconvenient in this weather, but I know I can keep the house warm. I was adamant about putting in a wood burning cook stove and family members chided me “propane is so easy though!” – only if you can get it. Now, with the Xiden Admin, I’m thankful I moved towards more self-sufficiency, even if a small choice. I wonder how much damage Xiden/Harris can do in 4 years…
Thanks, Madame. I, am concerned how available propane will be under this regime.
And, your six feet of snow puts my six inches to shame! 🙂
We have a whole house Generac that got hit by a lightning a few years ago. It melted the switch, we replaced it but it turned out that the motherboard was also damaged. We’ve had one hell of a time finding a reliable generator tech to fix it. Finally, we may have found a company that is over 100 miles away. They are scheduled to come and take a look at it on Feb. 25. We’ll see. If it gets fixed it will be after the deep freeze but still it would be nice to have it working. My parents have one that is working and they haven’t had any problems with the blackouts or water. In fact yesterday at their house I filled a bunch of containers with water so that we can flush the toilettes at home.
And really sorry for your propane problem. Seems the suppliers act the same no matter where you live.
Thanks, Grandpa M. We’re managing, but it was a frightening prospect at first.
We get plenty of lightening here; your experience gives me pause.
only on the coast … not inland and Texas has ALOT of inland …
Yeah, I’ve thought abut getting a generator but haven’t seen the need really. We occassionally lose power during a T-storm for a few hours. I’m damn sure getting a generator now though.
While many on the coast know what to have on hand for a hurricane, most in central Texas and certainly in the western plains of Texas do not generally ever encounter hurricanes. Texas is a very big state. Different regions deal with different issues. And generators are expensive.
What I don’t think people realize about Green Energy is that it is completely duplicative/redundant and does not get rid of fossil fuel producers. What Texas shows is that you need to be able to generate power when no solar or wind is available and this comes from fossil fuels. What happened to Texas was that they cut the margin too close (closed too many fossil fuel plants) and now are paying the price.
So, when people tell you renewables are cheaper, remind them that the are taxpayer subsidized, are not mandated to supply the grid with constant supplies of electricity, they cannibalize each other (glut the system when energy is not needed (at high solar noon, driving prices to almost zero, where they have to pay others to buy what they produce) and can’t supply power when it is needed (after sundown) and finally they have to be completely backed up by fossil fuels (or people die and businesses shut down). The “cheaper” label is achieved only by looking at the production in isolation, not taking any of the above into account (essentially freeriding on the fossil fuel system).
And all of that is why Germany has the highest electricity rates in the world.
“In March 2007, the E.U. adopted climate and energy goals for 2010 to 2020. The 27 member countries set a goal of reducing carbon emissions 20 percent by 2020 and increasing renewables to 20 percent of their energy portfolio. Unfortunately, they underestimated the carbon intensity of burning wood (a.k.a. “biomass”) for electricity, and they categorized wood as a renewable fuel.
The result: E.U. countries with smaller renewable sectors turned to wood to replace coal. Governments provided incentives for energy utilities to make that switch. Now, with a bunch of new European wood-burning power plants having come online, Europeans need wood to feed the beast. But most European countries don’t have a lot of available forest left to cut down. So they’re importing our forests, especially from the South.”
Europe is burning our forests for “renewable” energy. Wait, what? (grist.org)
In addition, Germany burns wood pellets from trees the US cuts down when states decide to put a wind farm in the middle of a beautiful CO2 capturing forrest. Wood pellets imported by diesel engine ships is considered a Green Energy Renewable Source in Germany anyway.
Aaagghhh…it just keeps getting worse and worse, stupider and stupider.
I have a special animosity against wind farms; they ruin the landscape and, as I suspected, they contribute noise pollution to those who live around them. They kill birds. They pollute landfills. Gggrrr… They are not cost-efficient, and demonstrably unreliable.
Everyone needs to read the following articles and send them around the world! Nobody knows this!!!
https://energycentral.com/news/retiring-worn-out-wind-turbines-could-cost-billions-nobody-has
https://www.americanexperiment.org/2019/10/it-costs-532000-to-decommission-a-single-wind-turbine/
You can find a fount of information on this topic! Anybody who thinks that inefficient windmills are “green,” CAN NOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!!! Defunct companies will never pay what it costs to deal with old windmills, which will fall apart and become an even uglier blight on our environment —- OR, they can dig up the entire country burying these dinosaurs at taxpayer expense!!!
Michael Moore’s movie was previously banned on utube, but is available for now. Discusses the fallacies behind renewable energy (so called) and addresses biomass energy that you address on tearing down forests, much of which come from the USA to power Europe, sadly. Not sure how much longer it will be available to view.
https://youtu.be/5x7UgKfSug0
Amen.. few people understand what is really happening in the energy resources market and even fewer that actually have a say know how to steer the boat
Anon, isn’t Germany going to be dependent on Russia for natural gas? I remember several years ago ships delivering liquid NG to England were late and the country was shivering because they had closed the coal-fired plants.
It was so wonderful being energy independent and so fleeting. Why? why are they doing this?
Exactly, Issy, exactly. It’s so stupid!!!
Yes, that is correct. The NG is needed to back-up their Green Energy producers, when they can’t produce. It is cleaner than coal… and through a pipeline, the NG is stored in Russia and can be delivered on demand. The optics look good as well, as Germany can close its coal mines (replaced by NG wells in another country (ie “off shored) and boast about it.
As for the reason they are doing this, I suggest this article:
In Their Own Words: Climate Alarmists Debunk Their ‘Science’
1] In 1988, former Canadian Minister of the Environment, told editors and reporters of the Calgary Herald: “No matter if the science of global warming is all phony…climate change [provides] the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.”
2] Speaking at the 2000 U.N. Conference on Climate Change in the Hague, former President Jacques Chirac of France explained why the IPCC’s climate initiative supported a key Western European Kyoto Protocol objective: “For the first time, humanity is instituting a genuine instrument of global governance, one that should find a place within the World Environmental Organization which France and the European Union would like to see established.”
3] IPCC official Ottmar Edenhofer, speaking in November 2010, advised that: “…one has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. Instead, climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth…”
4] And the quotes go on and on and on …
https://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2013/02/05/in-their-own-words-climate-alarmists-debunk-their-science/?sh=5e8c696368a3
My guess Germany is leading the way, as its population is prone to being manipulated by guilt after World War II (hence the white privilege push here, as guilt and self-hatred makes a population more malleable).
So, in a nut-shell the folks that started this did it as a wealth redistribution scheme, and once the ball got rolling you have tons of others taking advantage of the scheme (those who profit by moving factories overseas, the green power producers, corrupt politicians, China, etc. etc.)
By the way, Trump saw through all of this when he said: “just wait, it will get colder. “
Why Texas ever gave in to this green crap is way beyond my comprehension.
A: It’s a feel-good political kickback scam. Money and virtue-signaling.
They bought into all that kinder gentler Bushie crap. I have been warning my partners in TX for years that the lefties are targeting them. They didn’t think it would happen. Maybe they will wake the hell up now.
I was supposed to be in Houston today for meetings. Glad my flights were cancelled.
Austin….blue….mentality….disease….
Fracking is banned everywhere now since Joebama was installed. Fracking is how we get natural gas.
Ahhh….thanks, annieoakley.
Donny V, you should ask Greg Abbott. He recently got an award for having so much wind powered energy and was very proud of it. I am so disappointed y him, and he still manages to underwhelm me more.
Ah . . . republican governor Abbott proud of his wind powered energy.
And people still believe the republicans are conservative and pro-America First?
Maybe these people are watching Fox news, and Fox news tells them what to believe about the republicans and how they will save us because they are Trump’s party now.
Lots of new electric co start ups in TX during the reign of Barry the First. Government subsidies was the reason.
We didn’t.. the fed forced their policies on most of us while previous legislators let it go.. (think Shrub) we have more RINOs in our state government than we have non RINOs.. many of which were registered jackasses before they were listed on a republican ticket
Guess it is time for the old bumper sticker to be resurrected.
Ban Hydrocarbons – Let the Bastards Freeze in the Dark.
Harsh? Maybe. But people get the government they vote for. When I live in the land of idiots, then I make sure my family is always protected. Before buying all the toys. It is all about responsibility.
But I voted for Trump!
Actually, no, we DID NOT get the government we voted for. It was stolen from us. Remember?
I’m from Missouri today. Show me actual evidence that the cold weather knocked gas fired plants off line. SHOW ME!
Not in my neck of the woods in SW Missouri. The problem that TX had is that the steam lines that run the turbines were freezing up. Mainly cause they aren’t buried deep enough.
Hi Booger. Aren’t most gas powered plants now avoiding the steam step with directly fueled turbines?
Newer ones maybe
The Public Utility Commission is saying since the cold spell has caused a shortage then prices for energy are being raised.
What is the difference in this and a hurricane increasing the demand for gasoline? Could it be that gas stations are owned by middle class Americans and electric companies are the big boys?
That is the same tactic CA has used for years. Always a crisis, always raising the price… but oh, the utility is broke, right? It’s a big scam. Don’t let this be done in the great state of TX.
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/gov-abbott-says-ercot-is-anything-but-reliable-millions-powerless-in-life-threatening-cold/2553792/
“ERCOT said the demand for power began to exceed the supply early Monday morning and they were forced to order rotating, controlled power outages to keep the grid intact and to help even more people not experience longer uncontrolled blackouts that could have last for weeks or even months.”
Supply is contracted for in advance. This weather forecast has been known for well over a week and a half with the polar vortex. They can blame the customers (demand too high), but their job is to anticipate customer needs to ensure no interruption in supply and that appropriate equipment is running to handle this.
Coming soon to a neighborhood near you, courtesy of the Buyden-Harass administration.
Bill Megalomaniac Gates wants green to dominate, backed up by….nuclear power plants.
Yes, those things that cost a gazillion dollars to build, produce waste so toxic it threatens life on earth, is at risk in dangerous locations, etc.
Never mind the fact that production of solar panels and battery storage is among the most polluting and harmful to the environment, and disposal is just a few steps down from radioactive waste.
But as Sundance made the point, the wealthy and elite live nowhere near these facilities.
Yessir!
The lefties will scream and rail about blood diamonds. Yet the rape of Africa for precious metals to make all this “green” tech, dwarves the blood diamond trade. It gets even worse in the areas of Africa the CCP Chinese operate.
But for the American commie left, it is all about the feeeeelz.
Inconvenient truth
Here in SC we have many Nuclear power plants. One is about a mile away from us, one side of our property is right next to all the land/woods Duke owns to the lake. They aren’t great big plants anymore either. Pretty affordable and they don’t scare us.
Green energy should never be allowed to be linked to the public utility, keep it on it’s own grid.
My local Coop just signed a Deal for Solar panels by none other than a Company based out of Little Rock…. I Sh!T you not…. I could not believe it. Since the Coop is non profit, guess who gets the solar credits??? The Little Rock Company…. makes you wonder if Clinton Cronies are running the Scam. Apparently this company is doing this all over the place relative to signing deals and getting the credits that the non profits coops can’t receive.
‘guess their idea of a worst case scenario wasn’t.
How are the illegal aliens doing at the border? Are they turning around and going back home?
Nope, they are still coming and now having babies outside, in the cold.
Honduran woman gives birth in frigid temperatures after crossing U.S.-Mexico border
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/honduran-woman-gives-birth-in-frigid-temperatures-after-crossing-u-s-mexico-border/ar-BB1dJMQt?tblci=GiCZzGlnwasqfmfmvyA21f_E2AESudlzE_19vRescyH3vCCC-00
“Balance of Power” and other social media propagandists are putting out memes that “privatization”, “deregulation”, and “greedy Republican capitalists” caused problems with the “grid” in order to maximize their profits. Saying that Republicans are trying to “blame this on the Green New Deal that hasn’t been enacted”. No mention of the frozen windmills. Frozen gas lines, yes. (Of course FB and Twit have left these lies up.)
This is a very small price to pay for the wonderful Green New Deal that will lower the temperature .00000000000000000000000000001 degree over the next 1,000 years.
Texas really got screwed by these unusually low temps.
It was colder last nite in Dallas than it was in Northern MAINE. Something like 12F up in Maine and 9F in Dallas. Crazy.
Hopefully, most Texans know how to keep warm. Hats, socks, gloves, etc. indoors. Forget about sleeping on cotton sheets. Sleep between blankets if you don’t have flannel sheets.
Close one room off w/ sheets, blankets. Cover windows in the room w/ blankets. Mattress on floor under a table w/ blankets sheets = makeshift tent.
etc.etc.etc.
I always had a wood stove up north so winter was never a problem. But dang, I can’t imagine 9 F and no heat, no flannel sheets, not enough blankets to block off a room, no fur lined boots to wear around the house, etc!!!
What. A. Nightmare.
It was -15F in some areas of the midwest last night. I even think Nebraska got closer to -30F
Fire emits deadly carbon monoxide. Don’t seal the room if you have a candle burning or fireplace!
You know all those old fur coats that no one wears any more because of animal cruelty, whatever?
Warm as toast when the heat goes out – just sayin!
Boy, you got that right, amjean.
I never had a fur coat , but I can tell you my big Russian fur hat keeps my head warm no matter HOW cold it gets.
Don’t worry. The Keystone pipeline is on the way. Oops, sorry, Biden cancelled that.
Well at least you have your electric car. Oops, sorry, no power.
It’s okay, China will be fixing the electrical grid. Maybe we need to get used to this.
Where’s President Trump when we need him? Maybe Kamala can fix it.
And you know, Michael, I think President Trump really would have cared that Texans and other Americans were really cold and in the dark, which is likely more than can be said about anyone currently in positions of responsibility.
.
Arrogant diabolical narcissists in DC banned fracking. Fracking is where we get get natural gas. Gee, I guess we freeze to death because Joe is the King of the USA.
annieoakley, can you imagine what Trump would be doing during this emergency? He would be haranguing the energy companies and sending in emergency supplies and DOING.
Have we heard a peep out of XIden? I don’t listen to the news anymore so I wouldn’t know. Oh wait Joe probably doesn’t know either and his cabinet, well they are just waiting for those new green jobs. Nevermind people in Texas are freezing and without water.
They knew the storms were coming more than a week in advance and did NOTHING to compensate.
They are now jacking up the price of electricity ($9,000/KW-hour!!) due to the huge demand and short supply which THEY CAUSED. The people responsible for forcing Texas, sitting on bazillions of barrels of oil and gazillions of cubic feet of Natural Gas should be dragged out and flogged. My son in the Houston area has been without electricity since 2 am YESTERDAY with NO prediction of when it will be restored. Meanwhile, the skyline of Houston was light up last night with empty office buildings consuming precious electricity for no reason. Residents are LIVID.
Texas decided to be hip and “Go Green.” Now they are Snow White.
https://youtu.be/ry54LTMYLDw
I’m in Georgetown, Texas, right in the middle of it, been very lucky at our house so far, everything has stayed on. Power has been on and off in Austin, some friends in Pflugerville and Round Rock have lost both water and electricity.
To be fair, I’ve lived in this area all my life, 50 years, and this is a once in a generation confluence of events that will be over by the end of the week. But there is enough natural gas in Texas to power the state and country for generations, and the rank stupidity of relying on wind farms in Texas could only be conceived by someone as abjectly stupid as the Mayor of Austin, Adler. That’s why anyone with any sense is moving out of that beshitted city, and I lived there for 31 years. It took him 2 years to ruin it.
John, it’s what the leftist do best, ruin things. I can only hope these people have to answer some questions.
My daughter’s family lives in Pflugerville. She doesn’t get my texts for hours. Poor little grandsons, 8 months and 2 years, are also toughing it out. Prayers for our people in Texas. Here in the western mountains of NC with high winds and temperatures the low 20s, we have power. There is no excuse for what is happening in Texas.
I’m just to the west of you in Liberty Hill. Have had rolling blackouts since Sunday plus lost power for a while due to an ice-laden branch falling on the power line. Worse than the power though the water is now out apparently town-wide due to an outage in the local treatment plant. We had filled the bathtub and can use spa water for the toilets. We have plenty of firewood since many of our oaks have previously died from oak wilt. Neighbors are looking out for neighbors and so far everyone is hanging in there. Have to find that silver lining!
.
tktk, it is a question that needs to be answered.
CRF puppet governor Ricky Perry signed the 2005 Texas Renewable Energy Act, forcing utility customers to pay 25% of all NEW generation capacity to wind mill grifters and photovoltaic con men. Then masses moved to Texas forcing NEW demand. Then Obombie forced Texas coal off market, classified coal-to-gas conversion as NEW generation. Then Obombie DOE forced formerly independent Texas grid to share nationwide. Sleet covered wind mills and snow covered photovoltaic cells produce ZERO energy.
“Green Prince of Darkness Exposed” > some tragedies are planned
Planned pain. Especially for red states.
My parents live outside Dallas and are having rolling 15-minute blackouts. It worries me because they are both 80…but feisty as hell 🙂
They can thank Gov Abbott…that sorry Bushie won’t get reelected.
So . . . it will be the democrat instead?
Or a new party?
What I find interesting is the fact that apparently nat-gas power plants don’t have a working backup supply to go for a few days, even during a shortage, nevermind a shutoff situation. It’s not like an earthquake took out a gas line.
I voted for a Texan once that stated his opinion of “politics” was.. “Well poly means two and a tic is just a plain ole parasite” there you have..
The one bright spot I can think of in all this: When it’s really cold out, you can keep your fridge food from spoiling by putting it outdoors. Some stuff will do very well even in a garage.
Outdoors in a cooler or box, garage just set it on a table or something.
Last night, I explained to my daughter in KCMo how to shut off the water main, turn off the water heater, drain the water pipes, water heater and toilet tanks. She drained everything dry before going to bed.
She woke up with no power, but had a portable propane Mr. Heater MH18B prepositioned in her bedroom. Her power came on about 10:30am, and she received an email saying “they” only mean to rotate her power off for a half hour at 7:00am, but the switches froze, and crews had to manually switch them back on.
Another hint for those who’s electric garage door is frozen: pull the red handle on the rope hanging from the track slide. That will disconnect from the open an allow you to ooen the garage door by hand.
Anyone who is an experience plumber should consider taking a vaca in Texas next week, all expenses paid.
Unvented propane heaters are not recommended in bedrooms. They emit CO, deadly. Caution.
Properly operated ones designed for that are OK, but ventilation is required to supply oxygen, and a battery powered CO alarm is a gotta!
When building sealed greenhouses in the middle of winter, I have run the MH18s at high until they shut down due to low oxygen. (I did have CO and O2 meters with me) No hint of CO, and no noticable effects of the low oxygen when they shut down.
Is safe if the proper equipment and cautions are taken. But, yes, be careful!
I intentionally listed the model: Mr. Heater Big Buddy MH18B.
It is designed and certified for indoor use like this situation. It has multiple safeguards built in, and burns the propane in ceramic catalyst burn plates.
It is a really good idea to have one plus a few full grill tanks if you live anywhere it can get below 20F. A small green 1lb tank runs about 6hrs on low, and will heat a large room nicely. A 20lb grill tank will run it on high for 5 days on medium.
CO is a byproduct of combustion. There is a reason why heaters are vented. Reason, to remove toxic byproducts of combustion, CO. If you read other comments here, you will read that 20 people have died from CO poisoning during this event. Listed or not, there are states that outlaw unvented gas heaters. If you must use such a thing, invest in a CO alarm.
When my husband was still working in the federal government, occasionally he had to deal with alternative energy….solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars, whatever. He always, always warned of going full green energy and getting rid of coal and gas and nuclear. He would tell people that having solar and wind turbines is fine…..it is good to have many sources of energy…..but it isn’t smart to do away with gas and coal and nuclear, because solar and turbines can’t provide all the energy all the time!!! We need nuclear, coal, gas also. Don’t have all your eggs in one basket.
Too many DemoCommieFascists he had to deal with.
He hammers this into the heads of our kids.
I remember reading in 1976 Science News that global freezing was inevitable and we are due another ice age. Currently any scientist that voices an opinion that the hotter climate days may correlate to solar flare activity gets canned. The Sun is contracting and tends to kick out more solar flares on it’s way out. So called science has been wrong about many things, our planet is more likely to freeze from what I can understand. I am not a scientist but I like reading science publications.
blob:https://theconservativetreehouse.com/e7934490-ad44-47fa-b777-07798ec96ecb
Even in sunny CA, way back when, most homes had a fireplace with chimney. Slowly the Greenies had them outlawed. No one, anywhere, should have an all electric home. No one should count on propane or natural gas. Every home should have at least 3 ways to heat and cool, and if possible a 4th way. Solar doesn’t work during snowy, thundersleet, weather. This used to be common knowledge. But, the Marxist education has cleared everyone’s pretty little heads of common sense knowledge. I live in snow country. I have a wood fired stove with a cook top and tons of wood storage. But it sounds like we are having better weather than the rest of the country.
A person can get 2-3 warm ups by using wood. : )
Its a pretty good return on the investment.
p.s.
for a wood supply. Just become a helping hand to help clean up storm debris with your neighbors.
With all the natural gas reserves in Texas, yet they’re running out of energy to generate electricity?
That’s crazy. It’s like starving to death in a grocery store crazy.
https://stopthesethings.com/
Climate views. Com. Learn how renewable green energy is a scam. This site is top of the line with terrific scientists who understand what we’re in for.
Fossil fuels to the rescue.
https://twitter.com/lukelegate/status/1361149723072208896?s=20
From the frozen tundra of the Bluegrass state,
Signing on …
Bexar County reporting in. (North of San Antonio)
VERY thankful for power. (49% of customers are without in this “zone”) Heat pump limping along. 63 in house. Well pump frozen. Pool pump frozen. Water coming into house via storage tank. Wood fireplace roaring!
90 year old aunt in Fort Worth has power, water, and 2 elderly ladies coming to stay at her house tonight! Scrappy bunch!
P.S. Know several west Tx ranchers who have the abominable wind turbines on their previously pristine land. Big bucks. As in everything in this world…..follow the money. ?
Prayers for all.????????
Am afraid that we are going to see some horrific fatality numbers once they start accounting for the victims of this arctic storm. Places are breaking 120 year old record low temperatures. Central TX here and power has been 2 hours on and 2 hours off since yesterday morning.