People Who Moved To Texas From California Finally Feeling At Home Now That Power Is Out

BREAKING NEWS! LO discovers that Cali is Liberal! Leaves in a huff! Abandons his prosperous amyl nitrate factory!
Perhaps he was his own best customer, which would explain his posting history.

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This situation in Texas leads to a broader conversation about the evolution of the electric grid and "smart energy". This problem is not limited to Texas but the entire electric grid in North America and Europe. For decades countries and utilities have under-invested in their electric grids --- many are still based on technology from the 1930s.

Our aging power infrastructure based on a hub & spoke architecture using traditional power plants. Adding a few more transmission power meters and few more transmission lines does not magically enable our power infrastructure to become a "smart grid". Installing "smart meters" in homes (which really serves only to benefit the power company) does not make our electric infrastructure a "smart grid".

In order to support a "green" distributed power network which is reliable, a modern "micro-grid" architecture must be put in place to support the distribution of power across the local & distant areas. The modern grid must include necessary local back-up (small gas power plants) that only need to be used as lulls (in winter for instance), support large-scale net-metering (customer selling power back from the solar array on their roof), and full monitoring/routing capability of power in real-time with predictive support.

I am a supporter of green power. However in order for either Europe or America to properly implement it, the power grid will need to be re-designed and nearly completely re-implemented. This would be a very significant cost that power companies do not want to take on (what is the benefit to them?). It would require government mandates and money to drive this type of change to create a modern "smart grid" (or "micro-grid" which supports distributed green power.

Any type of -re-design of the grid towards being a "micro-grid" would effectively turn the electric utility into a pipe-provider providing transmission oversight and distribution
-- rather than a generator of power at large power plants with huge fixed costs distributed via a hub & spoke architecture with substations.

it would be better if the U.S. and the rest of the world evolved to green power based on a utility micro-grid architecture. Unfortunately utilities strongly resist any change.
In the U.S. utilities do their best to squash net-metering, green power mandates, and anything having to do with green power when ever possible despite increasing customer and government pressure to "go green". Power companies have merely implemented "green measures" that have a hook in them to earn more money or side-step taxes in a manner greater than their investment -- while running marketing campaigns on how "green" they are.

The reality is that over the long term we need to wean ourselves off of fossil fuel and move towards green energy sources. The extraction of fossil fuels is a dirty business and having U.S. economy based on oil/gas means that we are importing from our enemies such as Venezuela (well until recently).

The U.S. government should drive policies that support adoption of clean energy such as net metering, re-doing the U.S. electrical infrastructure to support micro-grid, and tax credit incentives to install solar. Yet doing this would require that the U.S. fund the complete update of our power infrastructure as well to make effective use of the "green changes" -- the entrenched utilities are not going to support this.
 
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if they find a way to scrub carbon from the air, like they do with nitrogen ,would there still be an issue with fossil fuels
 
'He is lying -- people are dying': Calls for Texas governor to resign as he blames power outages on wind and solar
https://www.rawstory.com/abbott-resign/

As millions of Texans struggled desperately to keep warm amid power outages stemming from the devastating winter storm sweeping the nation, the state's Republican governor late Tuesday blamed solar and wind for the blackouts—despite the fact that Texas relies overwhelmingly on fossil fuels—and claimed the crisis shows that the Green New Deal would be a "deadly deal" for the United States.

"Texas is blessed with multiple sources of energy, such as natural gas and oil and nuclear, as well as solar and wind," Gov. Greg Abbott said in an appearance on "Hannity" Tuesday night. "Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10% of our power grid. And that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power in a statewide basis."

Abbott was far from the first Republican to deploy such blatantly false talking points in response to the ongoing crisis in Texas, which has left at least 10 people dead. But the governor's decision to appear on Fox News and attack a policy that has not even been implemented as Texans resorted to burning their belongings to keep their children warm was viewed as yet another example of his failed leadership.

"Five million Texans are without power tonight and temperatures are below freezing. People will most certainly die tonight because of it," said Sawyer Hackett, senior adviser to Julián Castro. "But Gov. Abbott had time to go on Sean Hannity to blame the Green New Deal."

Citing an official with the state's Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT), The Texas Tribune reported that as of Tuesday afternoon "16 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, mostly wind generation, was offline. Nearly double that, 30 gigawatts, had been lost from thermal sources, which includes gas, coal and nuclear energy."

"Texas is a gas state," Michael Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Tribune. "Gas is failing in the most spectacular fashion right now."

But that hasn't stopped Texas Republicans like Abbott and Rep. Dan Crenshaw from attempting to blame frozen wind turbines for outages that could continue for days, endangering lives and coronavirus vaccines.

In response to Abbott's "Hannity" interview, Texas voting rights advocate Charlie Bonner tweeted, "He is lying. People are dying, and he is on Fox News lying to you. We are living in fear and Greg Abbott is playing politics with our lives."

"Greg Abbott doesn't care if you live or die tonight so take care of each other, my friends," Bonner added. "We're living in a failed state."

(More at above url)
Oh... look... the governor is ordering an investigation...... why is an investigation needed? He already blamed it on green energy.

Gov. Abbott orders investigation into Texas energy company amid blackouts, freezing temperatures
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ab...nergy-company-blackouts-freezing-temperatures

That oak tree should've finished the job.
 
Tough degree. The thought of all that O-chem makes me feel kind of sick.
First 2 years is brutal..
then it gets easier...
was a long time ago - now prepping my kids for the wrath that is First & Second Year...
 
Yeah, I am gonna have to call BS on that one.

BREAKING NEWS! LO discovers that Cali is Liberal! Leaves in a huff! Abandons his prosperous amyl nitrate factory!
I didn't own a business when I moved to CA.
I love SoCal and go back whenever I get the chance.
Just not worth living there and not worth owning a business there, either.

No matter - Everything is BS to a Bet Welcher..
Get fucked, loser!
 
Well North Carolina is going to have another ice storm overnight. At least we are not a third-world state like Texas. Our outages will be caused by downed power line which are quickly fixed --- not from rolling blackouts due to generation problems.

We had an ice storm a week ago and nearly everyone had their power back within two days. We are about to go through the cycle again.

Duke Energy expects imminent ice storm to cause up to 1 million power outages
https://www.wral.com/duke-energy-ex...cause-up-to-1-million-power-outages/19527787/
 
That bullshit is called getting out in front of your getting slammed...


All of the shit gwBe-lying was just slinging now stands a chance of backing up into his face... backing up on him like the sewage in his gut.


Well North Carolina is going to have another ice storm overnight. At least we are not a third-world state like Texas. Our outages will be caused by downed power line which are quickly fixed --- not from rolling blackouts due to generation problems.

We had an ice storm a week ago and nearly everyone had their power back within two days. We are about to go through the cycle again.

Duke Energy expects imminent ice storm to cause up to 1 million power outages
https://www.wral.com/duke-energy-ex...cause-up-to-1-million-power-outages/19527787/
 
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