Responsible capitalism equals Socialist Democracy or Democratic Socialism sounds very reasonable. However you have the nutters frothing at the mouth calling conservative Democrat Joe Biden or the moderate Obama socialist/communists. They spread the bs that Countries like Norway and Denmark are the Gulag and will soon be reduced to starvation poverty. Ultimately this is because we allow selfish psychiatrically impaired money horders i.e billionaires to buy all the media to spread their views, and buy our politicians and government so they can make more money and lower their taxes..
Trump is the continuation of many trends but the assault on the Capitol and that a significant portion of our population believes the last election was fraudulent is uniquely about Trump. The implications of the loss of faith in our democracy based on slavish devotion to one individual to the point that people are willing to use violence is a very dangerous development for our country.
Another excellent read (short) and podcast (~40m) from a legal and policy perspective below. I like the "supergrid" idea - that makes complete sense. @rocketsjudoka - should be part of infrastructure investment. One big adv is using an enhanced interconnected supergrid as "battery storage" for renewable energy, which is now the cheapest form of energy. Lessons From the Texas Grid Disaster: Planning and Investing for a Different Future - Lawfare (lawfareblog.com) The Lawfare Podcast: Alex Klass on the Texas Energy Crisis - Lawfare (lawfareblog.com)
This is just the beginning. The anti-institutional sediment has been building for a couple decades now and its not limited to one party or group. Occupy Wall Street, CHAZ, defund the police and others... these are all very extremist takes. Im not surprised over the Capital riots. Yes, Trump is unique in that he became the defacto leader of the right wing anti-establishment, but that is exactly what he ran on in the first place. There is a very strong anti-establishment mood in our country and its very much in flux. Currently its being tempered by keeping them divided between political lines however eventually, sooner than later, there will be a realignment between the haves and have nots.
I mean many of the people at the riots were business owners with 6+ figure incomes. Yes, the divide in wealth is influencing the extremes but at the same time well off people aren't immune to online social media brainwashing. That also is a large aspect of the extremism.
I do agree. Nobody is immune to brainwashing. Anti-establishment isn't extremism nor is passive protesting. Rioting, destroying ****, harming/killing people is. As is oppression.
You should be fine. Only the part of your bill regulated by the state can change in spite of your contract. That needs approval by the PUCT and takes a long time to get through the regulatory hurdles. You might get a slightly large bill because you used more electricity than normal. But, if they charge you a higher rate, join the class action lawsuit that awaits them. This bears repeating though: if your provider goes bankrupt, you might be "dropped to POLR" (Provider of Last Resort) -- switched immediately to a new provider without your contract and charged a POLR rate. It would not affect your rates during the power crisis. But your rate after the bankruptcy of your provider would be in the 15-22 cent neighborhood. You should sign a new contract with someone expeditiously to minimize how long you are in POLR.
Bill King wrote a pretty good article on his blog about the whole mess. Its pretty non partisan, and lays out some of the issues pretty well. https://billkingblog.com/the-texas-power-grid-failure-is-more-complicated-than-green-v-carbon/
Article is pretty good. I do have to quibble with his assertion that Texas doesn't regulate the reserve margin. I'd say they manage the reserve margin with market rules instead of regulatory mandates. There is a reserve margin threshold that ERCOT will say we're in trouble if we fall below it. We had a problem for awhile where generation companies didn't want to build new plants in Texas because there wasn't enough money to be made, and our reserve margin was falling and falling. It got to a point a few years ago where it was less than the threshold. But, instead of declaring a problem, the PUC said 'hey look! we don't seem to need as much reserve margin as we thought!' and they lowered the threshold. I know, terrible, BUT at the same time, they tweaked the system. They raised the wholesale cap from $2k to $9k, and they added a mechanism to make wholesale prices shoot up faster when supply got tight. So there's been more investment in the past few years and the reserve margin has been climbing. I don't think this is the problem at all. Unless you want to pay for 40% extra power plants that don't do anything for a decade (and then freeze when they're finally called). The problem was the plants we have didn't perform when the chips were down. Also, he makes a good point that the failure of rolling blackouts was at the local utility level. As best as I can understand, they were turning things off at the circuit level. So, if your house was on the same circuit as a hospital, that might have protected you from a blackout. And they needed to take off so much load that they essentially used up all the circuits that didn't have critical infrastructure on it. I'm sure there's good engineering reasons for all that. But, we do have smart grid tech all over the system, including smart meters on each house. I think they could theoretically turn off individual premises. Maybe that's one way we can improve in the future.
Severe Winter Weather Update En Espanol We’ve received many questions asking about rates increasing next month and the impact higher natural gas prices could have on your bill. There’s a lot of misinformation circulating out there, so we would like to provide you with the facts and with what we know at this time. Below, we’ve gathered the five most commonly asked questions and did our best to answer them. We know this doesn’t answer everything, but we hope it will give you some assurance on our commitment to keep you informed as the situation develops. Do I have to continue to conserve or are things back to normal? Residential customers can return to normal natural gas usage. We want to thank you for your conservation efforts. Your efforts helped us avoid widespread outages during the extreme weather event. Will my bill be higher? Your bill may be higher based on the amount of gas you used during the historic cold temperatures. Your monthly bill is a combination of the amount of gas you use and the cost of gas. The extreme weather caused many customers to use more gas for heating their homes than they may have in prior years. The higher amount of gas used will be reflected on your bill, regardless of the price of gas. While we do not markup the price of natural gas, these events will have an impact on customer bills. If you conserved energy during the weather event, your bill will most likely be lower than it would have been otherwise. How much will my bill increase? Honestly, it’s too early to tell. At this time, we can’t quantify what the impact on customer bills will be. We experienced much higher natural gas demand which resulted in a significant increase in natural gas market prices on a portion of the supply we purchased during this period. What are you doing to help reduce the impact to customer bills? Unlike some other utilities, Texas Gas Service has the ability to work with our regulators to spread these high gas costs out over several months. The Railroad Commission of Texas has issued an accounting order that authorizes utilities to defer extraordinary costs, including natural gas costs, associated with the recent extreme winter weather event. If you have concerns when you get your bill, we will work with you to help find options for payment. There are a number of payment options and resources that we offer customers, and we will commit to doing what we can to help you. What can I do to minimize the impact to my bill? One important thing you can do right now to minimize the amount of your bill is to follow the conservation tips that we’ve been communicating throughout this extreme winter event. Following the tips we list in this infographic can help you conserve in a number of different places around your home. While these answers may not provide you with the level of details you’re looking for right now, you should know that payment options are available. Our Average Bill Calculation (ABC) Plan helps reduce the fluctuations of your monthly gas bill and makes budgeting easier. The Average Payment Plan is based on a 12-month average of your natural gas bill and is a way to reduce the volatility of seasonal energy expenses by spreading out the cost throughout the year. You can enroll by logging into your account. If you don’t already have online account access, you can sign up today. It’s quick, easy and let’s you manage your account without having to call. We also partner with financial assistance agencies throughout the communities we serve that manage funds for eligible customers that need help paying their utility bills. Visit texasgasservice.com/cares for more details. As we get more information, we will communicate it to you and post to our website and social media channels. Thank you again for everything you did to help conserve during the extreme weather event. You played a big part in helping us avoid any widespread gas outages. If you have any questions about the information provided in this email, please connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or email us at media@texasgasservice.com. As always, if you smell gas, leave the area immediately, then call 911 and call 800-959-5325. We will respond as quickly and as safely as conditions allow.
We've had periods of anti-establishment movements. Back in the 60's and 70's it was mostly from Left but we also had the Murrah Federal Building blown up by Rightwing anti-government forces. While yes there are movements like Occupy and others but what we're seeing with Trump is uniquely different. It is different that it is focused on one individual. While Trump capitalized on previous Rightwing grievance it is essentially a cult of personality where support of Trump is basically part of identity. it's not out of the realm of possibility but Left and Right anti-establishment groups will unite but very unlikely because of how much the Right is focused on Trump.
I couldn't find anything about this online, but I wonder how you weatherize battery storage during Alaska-like conditions. They don't discharge well at near zero temps...
It's different now because people can't make due with a high school equivalent degree. Ask any millennial with a newly minted BA degree in language or arts how long it took for them to find a sustainable career path. I think a major problem w/ in the have/have-not situation is that even if the government wants to provide aid or relief to "poor groups", it's a much larger distribution pool than the "rich group". So they trend towards stability by funnelling in money to the wealthy or jerb creators in hopes that will trickle down. In theory, it's easier to hold 5000 CEOs accountable (in reality, they are not...) than it is to track the 100 million people employed by said executive managers. California is going through an aid boondoggle where inmates and fraudsters were getting credit cards intended for the needy. Apparently its bureaucracy is old, bloated, and open to fraud/corruption. This is more symptomatic to systems of scale (small states, let alone states w/ 20+ million people). So what's the solution? The Fed has been inflating a 10+ yr asset bubble to recover from a 10+yr asset bubble(s) burst. We haven't seen wealth inequality this bad since the Roaring (19)20s. This is the consequence of directly bailing out job creators in hopes of preserving a quota over jobs. On the other end, people laughed at the thought of bailing out every homeowner in the last crisis (prob a better solution since today people now rent from banks/investors for the homes they used to own...) and they're now laughing at bailing out "lazy or directionless" people. It's a legit argument that the government likely doesn't have the will or means to efficiently allocate that aid compared to businesses, but I think the propensity and scale of fraud committed by business are likely higher and more destructive to society than rappers bragging on social media of how they conned the system for free checks.. Who knows but the status quo will brew a bigger movement than Occupy, Tea party, or Trumpism. It's literally snowballing...
It's not actual battery storage (that tech for GW of power isn't available, at least not feasible). The SuperGrid is a fully interconnected grid within the continental US with additional transmission capability enabling a more efficient balance between generation and load. It also improves resilience, especially to extreme events. Since it is always windy or sunny somewhere within the US, the ability to transmit power from anywhere within the US to anywhere else within the US doesn't eliminate the need for energy storage but helps with the transition to clean energy. Interconnections Seam Study | Energy Analysis | NREL
My hypothetical is whether battery storage woukd be helpful in a situation like Texas's. If neighboring areas of the grid are also under load, prob wouldn't be helpful,
