When the tax breaks and Texan subsidized handouts dry up. Under resourced/malnourished employees still ok with the "Alabama Factory Model" Race to the Bottom stops for no one and for no pretend-nation.
She got that job because of her two best friends. If that is a "prepared statement" from a PR person there, I'd hate to see her "wing'n" it. That said Texas needs to continue running its own power grid (the agenda is clear; people want Texas as dependent on others as possible). Funny how the left is super interested in Texas all of a sudden when it suits their control over it. Also energy issues have hit other states, like Cali, and still do. No one makes as huge a fuss about that.
She's a comedian. I don't think you have kept up with the energy "fuss" in CA. But CA is CA. For ppl that live in TX and are impacted, we don't care so much about left vs right like some ppl from out of the state or country like to positioned the issue as. We simply want energy stability at reasonable price.
Is governor wheels solving the power grid problem by announcing a executive order outlawing wokeness?
I brought this up in the "Infrastructure" thread but as TX develops and grows reliable power and flood controls are going to be needed to continue to sustain TX's growth. Corporations like low taxes but they also like certainty that they will have power and that their facilities won't flood. If TX prioritizes businesses receiving power during crisis how many much of the workforce will want to keep coming if they don't have certainty that their homes won't have power? TX is growing fast but growth isn't just self fulfilling or sustaining. It needs planning and infrastructure.
Private investors are the ones deciding whether to build plants, so the responsibility of predicting the future falls on them. They may lean conservative, but the opportunity to make and lose money tends to have a sobering effect on people. In any case, you don't need to worry about Abbott or Patrick deciding how much generation we need. California pays 30 cents per kwh. And they routinely have blackouts because of forest fires. I wouldn't look to them as the model for grid reliability.
I don't think it does, really. The sanctity of the Texas grid thing started before the industry was restructured, and it was basically a power move to protect the profitability of the monopolies of HL&P and TXU. Then we had restructuring, and many in the industry thought the independent grid was necessary to protect the nascent market from meddling by the feds -- perhaps a good call if you look at the other states' restructured markets, which aren't all that great. But now we have a mature market, and one that is widely respected in the world as robustly competitive, modern, and efficient. Interconnecting will invite FERC oversight. But ERCOT would still be ERCOT, and the feds are not going to be demanding drastic change in the fundamentals of one of the best markets in the country. Meanwhile, we'd get some reliability benefits, being able to import more power and have an easier time managing frequency.
Politicians make laws and regulation, and sometime they have vision and try to solve problem for the people and not the industry.
What is Texas' excuse? The past freeze was no worse than what people in the Midwest deal with on a worse scale than Texas does. Texas has natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes which no one faults the energy sector for when power goes out. What is Texas' excuse comparable to forest fires which I'd put up there with hurricanes and tornadoes as forces of nature you do your best to plan around but have no way of preventing.
I don’t understand. This is unusually hot for June but not remotely unusual for Houston. In fact it’s expected. So what’s the problem they’re having?
Apparently, a number of power plants are down for “maintenance”. This was also a stated reason / problems during this past cold snap power outage. It clearly speaks to a lack of enough margin, something the regulators have control over.
Or try to build a border wall... https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/16/texas-border-wall-greg-abbott/ Gov. Greg Abbott announces Texas is providing initial $250 million "down payment" for border wall The governor did not specify how long the wall would be or where it would be built. He directed the Texas Facilities Commission to hire a program manager to begin that research. Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday announced some new details of his plan for Texas to build its own border wall, starting with the hiring process for a program manager and providing $250 million in state funds as a "down payment." "Texas will build a border wall in our state to help secure our border," Abbott said. The governor did not specify how long the wall would be, where it would be built or the total cost of the project, saying that those decisions will need to be determined by a program manager. On Wednesday, Abbott directed the Texas Facilities Commission to hire a program manager to begin that work. A commitment to building a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border was a hallmark of former President Donald Trump’s time in office. His administration built about 450 miles of barrier, mostly in Arizona, according to The Washington Post. But Trump, who is touring the border with Abbott later this month, also met fierce resistance from private property owners unwilling to allow the federal government to build on their land. Abbott said he expected people to both donate their own money and volunteer their land for the barrier. "My belief based upon conversations that I've already had is that the combination of state land as well as volunteer land will yield hundreds of miles to build a border wall in Texas," he said. The funds for Texas' $250 million "down payment" will come from the state budget. Lawmakers will allocate money from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice into a disaster account, which will then be moved to the Texas Facilities Commission for the border wall construction. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dade Phelan and the Legislature's top budget writers Sen. Jane Nelson, R- Flower Mound, and Rep. Greg Bonnen, R- Friendswood, joined Abbott for his announcement Wednesday and signed a document allowing the transfer of the money. The move took Democrats who oppose a border wall by surprise. Sen. Cesar Blanco, D-El Paso, said he had "zero indication" when debating the budget during the legislative session that the money would be used for a border wall. "Building a wall form El Paso to Brownsville is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security and it's a huge waste of taxpayer money," he said, adding that if the state wanted to spend money on border security it should spend it on modern technology that is less expensive and more effective than a wall. Abbott acknowledged that construction of a wall would cost "far more than $250 million" but said he and lawmakers will follow through with their plan. "It's my commitment as well as the commitment of the people in this room, as well as the people in this Capitol, to make sure that we see this project through," he said. Federal lawmakers have said building portions of the wall in Texas cost $26.5 million per mile. The Biden administration, which has ordered the federal government to stop construction of the wall where possible, said last week that building the wall cost taxpayers $46 million per mile in some areas along the border. Texas will also take private donations for construction of the border wall at borderwall.texas.gov. Abbott said the website will be monitored by his office and the Texas Department of Emergency Management and all the money donated would be publicly tracked and accounted for. The governor was surrounded by a slew of lawmakers for his announcement, including Patrick and Phelan -- the leaders of the two chambers of the Legislature. No Democrats or state officials from the border were present, but Abbott said local officials from border counties had urged him to take action. Critics have questioned the state's authority to venture into immigration regulation, which is the purview of the federal government under the Constitution. The League of United Latin American Citizens has threatened to sue the state as soon as Abbott finalized his plan for the border wall. Abbott's office did not immediately respond to a question about the state's authority to build a border wall, but the two-term Republican governor has blamed President Joe Biden for the increase of migrants on the state's southern border. "The Biden administration has abandoned its responsibility to apply federal law to secure the border and to enforce the immigration laws and Texans are suffering as a consequence of that neglect by the Biden administration," he said. "In the federal government's absence, Texas is stepping up to get the job done." Abbott said he will send a letter to Biden asking the federal government to return land the Trump administration took from private property owners in Texas to build a border wall. He also said Texas would ask those property owners to use their land to build a state-funded wall. Land Commissioner George P. Bush said Wednesday he would grant emergency authorization for the building of the wall on state lands. The state owns approximately 591,595 surface acres along the border. Abbott has blamed Biden's immigration policies for the increase of immigrants on the state's southern border, saying in an earlier disaster declaration that new federal policies have paved the way for “dangerous gangs and cartels, human traffickers, and deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities.” Last week, Abbott announced a partnership with the state of Arizona calling for other states to send law enforcement officials to help border states arrest and jail immigrants crossing the border. There were 180,034 border crossings last month, compared to fewer than 25,000 border crossings in late 2020, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. During the Trump administration, the highest recorded number of apprehensions was nearly 150,000. Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Florida have sent law enforcement officers and Georgia and South Carolina have sent National Guard members, Abbott said. Earlier in the year, Abbott deployed Texas National Guard troops to the border and ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest immigrants and charge them for state laws such as trespassing, illegal entry, smuggling and human trafficking. Immigrant rights advocates have said arresting and prosecuting immigrant parents who cross the border with their children seeking asylum could lead to the same separation of families seen under the Trump administration. Advocates have also expressed concern that the move essentially criminalizes seeking asylum. In response to a question about asylum seekers, Abbott responded that he was focused on the effects of increased immigration and drug smuggling on Texans. "Texans on the border are suffering through a humanitarian crisis by having their lives disrupted with guns and gangs and being riddled with crime," he said. "We have a responsibility as leaders of this state to step up and address their humanitarian crisis and that is what began today." David Donatti, staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement state officials are trying to reinstate harmful policies implemented by the Trump administration. "Abbott’s proposal could tear families apart at the border and allow law enforcement to terrorize people arriving in the United States in search of safety and refuge," he said. "The announcement shows how little Abbott and his cohorts care about fellow Texans." U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, blasted Patrick for likening the increase of immigration at the border to an "invasion," which she said is rhetoric used by white supremacists like the alleged El Paso shooter who wrote online before the killing that he wanted to stop a "Hispanic invasion." "Texans will get this done," Patrick said. "We will not let our state and our country be invaded." Escobar responded on Twitter: "If people die again, blood will be on your hands." More at link
But hey, Texas leaders are focused on removing all reasonable gun restrictions, building pointless walls, outlawing "CRT" even if they don't understand it, and pledging allegiance to the flag. All this while the power grid fails and gets further corrupted...
