| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17747
Location: Berkeley, California
|
 Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 1:45 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
We saw this movie once before with Enron. I guess when you have no new ideas, it's time for a sequel.
| Quote: | Still, some experts say the criticism of wind power appears overdone already.
“In terms of the blame game, the focus on wind is a red herring. It’s more of a political issue than what is causing the power problems on the grid,” said Dan Cohan, associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University.
Cohan said there was a far greater shortfall in terms of the amount of power Texas was expecting from natural gas than wind.
It’s clear that a wide range of energy sources — from fossil fuels to renewables — were not prepared for the unusual weather in Texas.
“Regions need to rethink the extreme conditions to which they’re planning for and to make sure their systems are designed to be resilient to those,” said Princeton’s Jenkins.
The energy crisis in Texas raises also questions about the nature of the state’s deregulated and decentralized electric grid. Unlike other states, Texas has made a conscious decision to isolate its grid from the rest of the country.
That means that when things are running smoothly, Texas can’t export excess power to neighboring states. And in the current crisis, it can’t import power either.
“When it comes to electricity, what happens in Texas stays in Texas,” Cohan said. “That has really come back to bite us.” |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
J64TWB
Joined: 24 Dec 2013
Posts: 1685
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
J64TWB
Joined: 24 Dec 2013
Posts: 1685
|
| Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 8:53 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I suspect the damage in Texas is so far beyond anything a hurricane could do. This storm hit the entire state not just a coastal city. I am also sure many building will need complete gut jobs or be razed. Then the next question, will they invest in the infrastructure to prevent future events? Who is going to pay for all that? Raise taxes? The not-so-great state of Texas has some big issues to figure out. Meanwhile Flying Teds kids wont be allowed to return to school until after a 7-10 day quarantine per school policy. Blame your kids, throw them under the bus and then have their peers and school banish them. Horrible parenting skills. Way to fuck up their lives. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
coachg
Joined: 10 Sep 2000
Posts: 3550
|
| Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 11:36 am Post subject: |
|
|
It's bad. My cousin lives just outside of Dallas. Her on demand heater is located in her attic and the line to it burst. Water started pouring out of the HVAC & electrical outlets. Unfortunately she is probably the typical resident who was not prepared; doesn't have a gate valve or know where to shut off the water so she called the fire department. She was 70th in line. All they could do was turn off the breakers in case the power came back on & move into a hotel where she has been living for about a week now. Major mess.
My daughter in north Austin fared better as their power never went off & we have bottled water delivered to them regularly. On my first visit to Austin a couple of years ago I couldn't drink the water because it was so nasty so I immediately hooked them up with a water delivery service and yes, even with the bad weather they received their delivery yesterday.
The first time my old van has seen snow.
Coachg |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17747
Location: Berkeley, California
|
| Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 12:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Perhaps building codes would have helped? No, we don't need any government, and we're thinking about seceding--after we try to invalidate the election of Biden.
Biden approves emergency funding to Texas without people stroking his fragile ego--just because the law provides that answer?
In the meantime, despite the lies of the Governor, evidence amounts that the Republicans in Texas dropped the ball not once, but repeatedly since the last event. And yes, this is related to climate change.
From Bloomberg:
| Quote: | The Earth’s poles are warming faster than anywhere on the planet. While the consequences of that aren’t completely understood, it’s becoming apparent that many of the world’s extreme weather events owe the Arctic at least some of the credit.
A blast of cold air that swept out of Canada in mid-February, moving across the Great Plains and deep into the South, has overburdened the electrical grid and triggered widespread power outages in Texas, which like many southern states relies predominantly on electric heating, according to the Energy Information Administration. It was the second time in six months that extreme temperatures have brought grids to their knees—a heatwave across California in August caused a spike in energy demand for cooling equipment, forcing rolling blackouts for the first time since 2001.
Is the Texas cold blast connected to climate change? “I have argued a definitive yes,” said Judah Cohen, director of seasonal forecasting at Atmospheric and Environmental Research, part of risk analytics firm Verisk, who’s spent more than a decade studying what warming across the Arctic means to weather for the rest of the world.
While Cohen is more confident in making this connection than many in his field, the data show plainly that the region is a warming faster than the rest of the planet. The North Pole has been heating up about twice as fast as the rest of Earth for the last 30 years, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center. “Most scientists agree that this rapid warming is a signal of human-caused climate change,” the center’s website says. |
From the AP:
| Quote: | By Seth Borenstein | AP
Feb. 19, 2021 at 5:05 p.m. PST
Add to list
This week’s killer freeze in the U.S. was no surprise.
Government and private meteorologists saw it coming, some nearly three weeks in advance. They started sounding warnings two weeks ahead of time. They talked to officials. They issued blunt warnings through social media.
And yet catastrophe happened. At least 20 people have died and 4 million homes at some point lost power, heat or water.
Experts said meteorologists had both types of sciences down right: the math-oriented atmospheric physics for the forecast and the squishy social sciences on how to get their message across.
“This became a disaster because of human and infrastructure frailty, a lack of planning for the worst case scenario and the enormity of the extreme weather,” said disaster science professor Jeannette Sutton of University at Albany in New York. |
I have no problem with the Governor of Texas representing the oil industry which is a big part of the State's economy. But I do have a problem with his incompetence and lying.
Next up--pictures of cars streaming back to California and being stopped at the border? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17747
Location: Berkeley, California
|
| Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 8:03 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Not mine, but very funny.
Do you know why you can fly a helicopter on Mars, but you can't turn on the lights in Texas?
Because scientists are in charge on Mars, and Republicans are in charge in Texas. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17747
Location: Berkeley, California
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 1:47 pm Post subject: |
|
|
There are too many Ted Cruz memes to post. The funniest was his reverse immigration, seeking asylum in Cancun. But he was not alone in his contempt for actually governing, or staying and helping out.
| Quote: | By
Jaclyn Peiser and
Felicia Sonmez
Feb. 23, 2021 at 2:22 a.m. PST
Add to list
Last Wednesday, Austin residents entered their third day of frigid temperatures, powerless homes and frozen pipes. Shelves in grocery stores were bare, schools had transformed into warming centers and local hospitals struggled after losing water pressure and heat. Winter storms were battering the state.
But one city homeowner had escaped the misery: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), who was nearly 1,300 miles away in Salt Lake City, where water flowed freely and electricity pumped warm air indoors.
Paxton traveled to Utah’s capital with his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton (R), and met with Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes (R) “various times” between Wednesday and Friday, a spokesman for Reyes told The Washington Post.
Paxton’s trip out of state during the historic crisis has attracted ire from state Democratic leaders, who last week scorned Sen. Ted Cruz (R) for his own effort to escape the storms by heading to Cancún with his family. |
Of course, some people actually tried to help:
| Quote: | New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined several Democratic lawmakers at a Houston food bank Saturday as she and former Texas Representative Beto O'Rourke amassed about $5 million in total so far to help Texans struggling amid winter storms.
Millions of Texas residents remain without water or heating, prompting the current and former Democratic congressional members to spearhead fundraising campaigns through ActBlue. |
Texas Republican snowflakes flee the cold. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mac
Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17747
Location: Berkeley, California
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 12:12 pm Post subject: |
|
|
One of the many down sides of de-regulation in Texas.
| Quote: |
By Erin Douglas,
The Texas Tribune
FEBRUARY 24, 2021 02:26 PM ET
Oil refineries, chemical plants and other industrial operators emitted 3.5 million pounds of excess pollution during the winter storm and power crisis in Texas, according to an analysis of company notices provided to state regulators.
"Texas plants released nearly as much pollution during winter storm as during Hurricane Laura" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum
|
|
|
Search
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Register
