Wow Texas power grid is really fucked up and I do blame the Republicans
- Thread starter easy_b
- Start date
That’s sad And this event could happen again so people of Texas you guys better put in the right people in your government
just like the lady who was holding the snowball and saying it wasnt real because it wasnt melting..................Obama called the shit years ago when a GOP Senator
brought a snowball onto the Senate floor and was talkin about climate change isn't real. these Trump loyalist gonna keep these same GOP
representatives in office even at the expense of death.
@2:04
....and yet Oklahomans re-elected him act the ripe age of 86 last November SMH
Bruh a little gas fireplace was $500 for 2 days?
Have you not heard of the astronomical bills that the residential consumers were getting? He's one of the lucky ones.
Although my electricity is thru the city and at a fixed rate.....my gas (as well as everyone else's damn near in Dallas)....is thru Atmos energy.
They lied and said they weren't gonna pass on the cost of the skyrocketing gas prices to consumers....but that's exactly what they did.
My hot water heater is gas powered as well....so it didn't get shutoff when I lost power. So I still had hot water. They charged me damn near 10x's what they would normally charge for taking showers, running the dishwasher, or using the fireplace for that week of the deep freeze.
When the power company is telling you to switch or turn off your power then you know things are bad. When she saw the -$500 she should have shut it down and went to a hotel. We still haven't seen the real cost to our bills here in San Antonio but If I got that warning I would have heeded it. My power was out for nearly 3 days but I'm sure we will take a hit.
Damn fam. My Apt in SA doesn't have gas. The Houston gas bill was around 65 bucks.
they got me too..you can usually tell when you're about to get fucked when it's preceeded by a drawn-out explanation, which is what CPS energy did to me. Mine wasn't that bad. bill was double what i usually pay. I was still pissed - i hate being lied to.
The only thing worse than this is the amount of the CEO's bonus he'll receive for making the shareholders wealthier within the next 9 months.
i had a chance to move to texas for a job promotion. I turned it down on the strength of their power grid. that's some real bullshit but texas are hard headed as fuck and keep voting in mofo who will fuck them without Vaseline.. i'll take a hard pass.
Like I said earlier in this thread the Texas people have a decision to make next election cycle because this is going to happen again
FYI CPS hasn’t included the extra costs in our bills yet. I believe CPS GOT hit with a billion plus in unexpected charges for the natural gas they used to generate electricity. We will see those on our bills at some point. CPS is even talking about spreading it over a decade of bills.
This I have CPS at my apartment in San Antonio.
Call me a central planning simp, but I think that’s what those anti people are all about. Government can’t do nuffin right? Surely they can’t do better than that.Capitalistic raping.
They let a cripple push them around. How you let a w/c clown roll over you?
This is a clear cut explanation of the technical failure of the storm
Texas Senate passes bill aiming to counter federal subsidies for wind and solar power
JEREMY WALLACE MARCH 29, 2021
Wind turbines spin Tuesday, March 2, 2021 near Raymondville in the Rio Grande Valley in far south Texas.William Luther, Staff / William Luther
While President Joe Biden moves to expand the use of renewable energy nationwide, the Texas Legislature is doing the opposite, adding fees on solar and wind electricity production in the state in hopes of boosting fossil fuels.
Among the reforms of the state’s electric grid following last month’s deadly winter storms, Republicans in the Texas Senate have included new fees aimed at solar and wind companies that Democrats warn would damage the state’s standing as a national leader on renewable energy production, particularly wind power.
State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, said while wind and solar have expanded in Texas, those are “unreliable” sources of energy because they cannot be called up at a moment’s notice during an emergency like the freeze in February.
To correct that, Schwertner said his bill will give the state’s grid monitor authority to create fees for solar and wind. As it stands now, he said billions of dollars in federal subsidies to wind and solar companies have “tilted” the market too much to benefit those sources of energy, and he aims to re-balance it.
The Texas Senate on Monday passed a major set of reforms for the state's electrical system. The legislation next goes to the Texas House for consideration. If both chambers pass identical bills, it can go to Gov. Greg Abbott for his approval. Here are some key elements of that bill.
Weatherization: Would require power companies and energy producers to weatherize facilities, including transmission lines, at their own expense to assure they can stand up to extreme freezing temperatures.
Wind and Solar fees: Would direct the state's grid manager to charge solar and wind producers for not being reliable enough to help more during winter storms.
Rolling outage drills: Would require a test run of how rolling outage operations work. During winter storms, attempts to turn off power temporarily turned into days-long outages because of mistakes and technical glitches.
Prohibit wholesale electric index plans: Would end wholesale electric plans that resulted in some homeowners getting hit with astronomical electric bills
Emergency price maximums: During electricity emergencies, would allow maximum pricing for electricity to last only 12 hours rather that going on for days.
Emergency alert system: Would create an alert system to notify Texans when power outages are anticipated.
Yet fossil fuels also receive government subsidies of roughly $20 billion a year, according to some estimates.
Democrats in the Senate say raising fees on green energy would be a step in the wrong direction for a state that has done well in developing wind and solar. Over the last decade, renewable energy has surged past coal and nuclear power to become the state’s second-leading source of electrical power, after natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“This section could actually be detrimental to renewables,” said State Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio.
The fees are included in a bill that is the most wide-ranging response yet to pass the Texas Senate dealing with the power outages from the winter storms.
Beside the fees on solar and wind producers, the legislation would create an alert system to warn Texans about impending power outages, and would require all electricity providers to weatherize their facilities and transmission lines — a major source of the midstorm power outages. It would also prohibit the wholesale electric index plans that resulted in astronomical bills for some consumers.
“SB 3 comprehensively addresses the root issues that led to the major failures that occurred in the Valentine's Day winter storms,” Schwertner said.
As the Senate debated the legislation, Menéndez said he’s bothered by some who have tried to scapegoat solar and wind generators for the power failures when nuclear, natural gas and coal were all interrupted during the storm, resulting in the rolling blackouts that left millions of Texans without power.
Conservative groups in Texas have long complained about the federal subsidies for wind and solar power that Biden is considering expanding.
Those groups, like the Texas Public Policy Foundation, have argued the billions in federal spending has distorted the free market to the detriment of fossil fuels. While they’d prefer those subsidies be undone, that is unlikely with Democrats in control of Congress and the White House.
The Advanced Power Alliance, an industry trade association created to promote the development of wind and solar, calls the proposed fees in Texas “unnecessary, discriminatory policy that will increase costs on residential, commercial, and industrial electricity consumers.”
The arguments back and forth come as Biden has promised a historic commitment to expanding clean energy production.
Paying for ‘lack of reliability’
Biden is headed to Pittsburgh on Wednesday to lay out a sweeping infrastructure plan with an expected price tag of at least $3 trillion — and green energy is likely to be a major focus of the package, with new incentives for wind, solar and more expected to be included.
On Monday the White House rolled out a slew of new federal projects aimed at juicing offshore wind energy production — including in the Gulf of Mexico — that set a goal of building 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power in the United States by 2030. That followed an executive order Biden signed on his first days in office that called for the creation of a new “clean energy economy.”
“This offshore wind goal is proof of our commitment to using American ingenuity and might to invest in our nation, advance our own energy security, and combat the climate crisis,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
Biden’s infrastructure proposal is expected to be Democrats’ biggest push for green energy since the Obama-era stimulus, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included some $90 billion for wind, solar and other clean energy initiatives.
White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain on Monday was tweeting findings from a 2020 National Bureau of Economic Research study that found the Obama-era clean energy spending created nearly 1 million jobs between 2013 and 2017.
Texas Republicans emphasize that when the sun goes down or the wind isn’t blowing, those sources of power can’t be relied upon, as the winter storms showed.
State Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, said the proposed fees on renewables recognize “the lack of reliability, which is what we saw during this event.”
However, it’s not just renewables that receive government subsidies.
The U.S. government is also providing tax subsidies to the fossil fuel industry as a means of encouraging domestic energy production. They include direct subsidies to corporations as well as other tax benefits to the fossil fuel industry, according to the bipartisan Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington, D.C.
Conservative estimates put U.S. direct subsidies to the fossil fuel industry at roughly $20 billion per year.
Senate Bill 3 passed the Senate on a 31-0 vote on Monday and now heads to the Texas House. Both chambers must pass identical versions of the legislation in order for it to get to Gov. Greg Abbott for his approval before it can become law.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican from Montgomery County, made the bill a priority.
“The work is just beginning,” Patrick said, promising more changes to correct problems that caused the state’s power grid failures. “But this is a great first step.”
SMH
JEREMY WALLACE MARCH 29, 2021
Wind turbines spin Tuesday, March 2, 2021 near Raymondville in the Rio Grande Valley in far south Texas.William Luther, Staff / William Luther
While President Joe Biden moves to expand the use of renewable energy nationwide, the Texas Legislature is doing the opposite, adding fees on solar and wind electricity production in the state in hopes of boosting fossil fuels.
Among the reforms of the state’s electric grid following last month’s deadly winter storms, Republicans in the Texas Senate have included new fees aimed at solar and wind companies that Democrats warn would damage the state’s standing as a national leader on renewable energy production, particularly wind power.
State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, said while wind and solar have expanded in Texas, those are “unreliable” sources of energy because they cannot be called up at a moment’s notice during an emergency like the freeze in February.
To correct that, Schwertner said his bill will give the state’s grid monitor authority to create fees for solar and wind. As it stands now, he said billions of dollars in federal subsidies to wind and solar companies have “tilted” the market too much to benefit those sources of energy, and he aims to re-balance it.
The Texas Senate on Monday passed a major set of reforms for the state's electrical system. The legislation next goes to the Texas House for consideration. If both chambers pass identical bills, it can go to Gov. Greg Abbott for his approval. Here are some key elements of that bill.
Weatherization: Would require power companies and energy producers to weatherize facilities, including transmission lines, at their own expense to assure they can stand up to extreme freezing temperatures.
Wind and Solar fees: Would direct the state's grid manager to charge solar and wind producers for not being reliable enough to help more during winter storms.
Rolling outage drills: Would require a test run of how rolling outage operations work. During winter storms, attempts to turn off power temporarily turned into days-long outages because of mistakes and technical glitches.
Prohibit wholesale electric index plans: Would end wholesale electric plans that resulted in some homeowners getting hit with astronomical electric bills
Emergency price maximums: During electricity emergencies, would allow maximum pricing for electricity to last only 12 hours rather that going on for days.
Emergency alert system: Would create an alert system to notify Texans when power outages are anticipated.
Yet fossil fuels also receive government subsidies of roughly $20 billion a year, according to some estimates.
Democrats in the Senate say raising fees on green energy would be a step in the wrong direction for a state that has done well in developing wind and solar. Over the last decade, renewable energy has surged past coal and nuclear power to become the state’s second-leading source of electrical power, after natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“This section could actually be detrimental to renewables,” said State Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio.
The fees are included in a bill that is the most wide-ranging response yet to pass the Texas Senate dealing with the power outages from the winter storms.
Beside the fees on solar and wind producers, the legislation would create an alert system to warn Texans about impending power outages, and would require all electricity providers to weatherize their facilities and transmission lines — a major source of the midstorm power outages. It would also prohibit the wholesale electric index plans that resulted in astronomical bills for some consumers.
“SB 3 comprehensively addresses the root issues that led to the major failures that occurred in the Valentine's Day winter storms,” Schwertner said.
As the Senate debated the legislation, Menéndez said he’s bothered by some who have tried to scapegoat solar and wind generators for the power failures when nuclear, natural gas and coal were all interrupted during the storm, resulting in the rolling blackouts that left millions of Texans without power.
Conservative groups in Texas have long complained about the federal subsidies for wind and solar power that Biden is considering expanding.
Those groups, like the Texas Public Policy Foundation, have argued the billions in federal spending has distorted the free market to the detriment of fossil fuels. While they’d prefer those subsidies be undone, that is unlikely with Democrats in control of Congress and the White House.
The Advanced Power Alliance, an industry trade association created to promote the development of wind and solar, calls the proposed fees in Texas “unnecessary, discriminatory policy that will increase costs on residential, commercial, and industrial electricity consumers.”
The arguments back and forth come as Biden has promised a historic commitment to expanding clean energy production.
Paying for ‘lack of reliability’
Biden is headed to Pittsburgh on Wednesday to lay out a sweeping infrastructure plan with an expected price tag of at least $3 trillion — and green energy is likely to be a major focus of the package, with new incentives for wind, solar and more expected to be included.
On Monday the White House rolled out a slew of new federal projects aimed at juicing offshore wind energy production — including in the Gulf of Mexico — that set a goal of building 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power in the United States by 2030. That followed an executive order Biden signed on his first days in office that called for the creation of a new “clean energy economy.”
“This offshore wind goal is proof of our commitment to using American ingenuity and might to invest in our nation, advance our own energy security, and combat the climate crisis,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
Biden’s infrastructure proposal is expected to be Democrats’ biggest push for green energy since the Obama-era stimulus, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included some $90 billion for wind, solar and other clean energy initiatives.
White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain on Monday was tweeting findings from a 2020 National Bureau of Economic Research study that found the Obama-era clean energy spending created nearly 1 million jobs between 2013 and 2017.
Texas Republicans emphasize that when the sun goes down or the wind isn’t blowing, those sources of power can’t be relied upon, as the winter storms showed.
State Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, said the proposed fees on renewables recognize “the lack of reliability, which is what we saw during this event.”
However, it’s not just renewables that receive government subsidies.
The U.S. government is also providing tax subsidies to the fossil fuel industry as a means of encouraging domestic energy production. They include direct subsidies to corporations as well as other tax benefits to the fossil fuel industry, according to the bipartisan Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington, D.C.
Conservative estimates put U.S. direct subsidies to the fossil fuel industry at roughly $20 billion per year.
Senate Bill 3 passed the Senate on a 31-0 vote on Monday and now heads to the Texas House. Both chambers must pass identical versions of the legislation in order for it to get to Gov. Greg Abbott for his approval before it can become law.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican from Montgomery County, made the bill a priority.
“The work is just beginning,” Patrick said, promising more changes to correct problems that caused the state’s power grid failures. “But this is a great first step.”
SMH
Just evil...
You know what fuck Florida and I was raised in that state but still fuck Florida
Hey easy_b this is why we need a good infrastructure bill.
What an awful post.
Light Bill last month was $390. I just bought the house in January and have even move in until this week. I’m hoping this was only a one month situation.
