Biden declares a winter emergency for Texas.

[5to1baby1in5]

From my understanding the biggest reason is that a lot of Texas’s power is from natural gas but they never insulated the pipes that transport it. Pipes froze -> no natural gas -> no electricity. Or I guess more accurately, extremely expensive electricity in those cases.

Natural gas transportation and delivery pipelines are generally not insulated in cold weather environments either.
Natural gas (methane) does not freeze.

They just do pigging more often (run a foam barrel through the pipeline to sweep out the water that accumulates in the low spots).
They also do not accept wet natural gas into the pipeline in the first place.
No water = No 'Freezing.'
I bet Texas builds a bunch of natural gas dehydrator skids this summer.

They also inject Methanol into the pipeline to lower the freeze point temperature.

It is due to lack of preventative maintenance and not designing the system for a low enough minimum temperature.

Water lines can be insulated, but if it is too cold for long enough, they will still get cold enough to freeze.
You need to add heat tracing (usually electric, but sometimes steam) under the insulation to keep them warm enough.
That's what probably knocked out the refineries.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Natural gas transportation and delivery pipelines are generally not insulated in cold weather environments either.
Natural gas (methane) does not freeze.

They just do pigging more often (run a foam barrel through the pipeline to sweep out the water that accumulates in the low spots).
They also do not accept wet natural gas into the pipeline in the first place.
No water = No 'Freezing.'
I bet Texas builds a bunch of natural gas dehydrator skids this summer.

They also inject Methanol into the pipeline to lower the freeze point temperature.

It is due to lack of preventative maintenance and not designing the system for a low enough minimum temperature.

Water lines can be insulated, but if it is too cold for long enough, they will still get cold enough to freeze.
You need to add heat tracing (usually electric, but sometimes steam) under the insulation to keep them warm enough.
That's what probably knocked out the refineries.

This is kind of what I mean. Power plants don’t just crap out when it is cold in the North East, Windmills don’t “freeze” sure solar panels get covered in snow but the big farms angle their panels so snow doesn’t stick to them.
These aren’t extraordinary measures to take.
California should have raked their forests better, PR should have been more diligent about power grid maintenance, Texas should have done the above.
#BOTHSIDES

 

[zzyzxroad]

This is kind of what I mean. Power plants don’t just crap out when it is cold in the North East, Windmills don’t “freeze” sure solar panels get covered in snow but the big farms angle their panels so snow doesn’t stick to them.
These aren’t extraordinary measures to take.
California should have raked their forests better, PR should have been more diligent about power grid maintenance, Texas should have done the above.
#BOTHSIDES

Yeah if places like Alaska and Siberia have wind farms then um....

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Great thread

https://twitter.com/x/status/1361778280521605122

theres something rather comical about no-names quoting no-names from Twitter like "OH MAN! WE GOT THAT ELITE PERSON with this AMAZING Twitter pun!" lol

Christ, children are comical to watch dance around in circle.

 

[MrSquished]

theres something rather comical about no-names quoting no-names from Twitter like "OH MAN! WE GOT THAT ELITE PERSON with this AMAZING Twitter pun!" lol

Christ, children are comical to watch dance around in circle.

The funny thing it's totally believable. You got a big chunk of Trump's base that are Q-Anon and wanna be warriors, electing congresspeople that think there are Jewish space lasers starting forest fires and there is a giant cabal of anybody they disagree with politically running massive child sex and satanist trafficking rings out of pizza parlors and Tom Hanks is a pedo cause he said wear a mask. They think all sorts of insane shit that makes them non-functional in the reality around them, this would be a pretty tame thing to believe about these loons compared to the shit they preach about online. A bunch of incompetent wanna be Texas warriors that think a Biden win would bring the end of times finding it hard to function in an extreme weather event? This is a totally normal story about their existence.

 

[MrSquished]

Ted Cruz just landed in Cancun while Beto O'Rourke is in Texas phone-banking seniors to check in on them and providing aid where needed.

 

[shortylickens]

Ted Cruz just landed in Cancun while Beto O'Rourke is in Texas phone-banking seniors to check in on them and providing aid where needed.

Right now he's leading the charge on the nursing home scandal.

GOP Senators Led by Ted Cruz Urge Congress to Probe Andrew Cuomo's Nursing Home Scandal

Who is going to investigate him for killing off thousands of seniors, children, sick, and poor?

 

[sportage]

See Texas.... you should have elected Beto O'Rourke! And now you're screwed (yourself). Hmmmm, so what da ya think would happen when you elect presidents that can't lead and governors that can't govern? I swear, America's problem is not the covid or the pandemic or the weather or the economy, the problem is DUMB PEOPLE. Dumb people electing other dumb people, and so on and so on. Now STOP doing THAT.

 

[shortylickens]

Oh, and this is hilarious:

https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/lmezwe/_/gnuv0oo

 

[cytg111]

nm

 

[pauldun170]

So summary of Texas situation
1. Decades of Scientists and dirty filthy "Elites" telling everyone that humans are doing things that lead to volatility in weather patterns that will result in extreme weather events. So you should plan for extremes
2. Texans says "That ain't ina bible and an armed population is a polite population so things and stuff"
3. Texans tell School boards that Scientists are communists and only preachin and engineering should be taught in Schools because Engineers are always right and yall need Jesus.
4. Extreme weather hits as predicted.
5. Nation discovers that Texas is secretly hilarious from a distance.
6. Texans blame a New York Congresswoman and windmills
7. Etsy stores pop up with Texas edition Thought an Prayers cards

 

[VRAMdemon]

Rick Perry says Texans should be willing to go without electricity in order to prevent the federal government from regulating it. .

Rick Perry calls on Texans to endure frigid temps without heat to ‘keep the feds out of their business’

Rick Perry, a former Texas governor who served as an energy secretary under former President Donald Trump, argued this week that Texans should be happy to go days without electricity if it meant thwarting the federal government.The Houston Chronicle reports that Perry posted a blog on House...

www.rawstory.com

So Rick Perry is asking Texans to, quite literally, die for Republican anti-regulatory dogma. "You can have your regulations when they have cold, very cold, dead hands!” He was the Energy Secretary, wasn’t he? .. What a asshole.

“The tree of libertarianism must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of the poors.”

 

[brycejones]

Rick Perry says Texans should be willing to go without electricity in order to prevent the federal government from regulating it. .

Rick Perry calls on Texans to endure frigid temps without heat to ‘keep the feds out of their business’

Rick Perry, a former Texas governor who served as an energy secretary under former President Donald Trump, argued this week that Texans should be happy to go days without electricity if it meant thwarting the federal government.The Houston Chronicle reports that Perry posted a blog on House...

www.rawstory.com

So Rick Perry is asking Texans to, quite literally, die for Republican anti-regulatory dogma. "You can have your regulations when they have cold, very cold, dead hands!” He was the Energy Secretary, wasn’t he? .. What a asshole.

“The tree of libertarianism must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of the poors.”

The smartifying glasses are not working.

 

[Thump553]

I haven't read through this thread-so maybe this question is already addressed. From what I understand a similar problem happened 10 years ago. The feds gave Texas a massive report strongly urging they winterize their grid. Texas has intentionally designed their grid to be solely within Texas and not link to any other state, so they are the only state the feds can't mandate, Texas authorities, did nothing but give a nonbinding recommendation that their energy providers winterize.

Forward to now-we have a declared federal disaster which I guessing will involve probably many millions of dollars of federal relief to Texas. Since this disaster is essentially intentionally manmade by the Texas government, is there any way the feds can pass the cost of this relief onto Texas?

Small government is a fine philosophy but it should not be used to freeload onto the backs of other US citizens.

 

[shortylickens]

One more reason people are dying.

“We’re in it alone”: Power outages leave millions of Texans desperate for heat and safety

A grandmother slept in her car. Parents who ran out of firewood burned belongings to keep their children warm. A Richardson resident watched the battery level of her partner’s oxygen machine …

www.ketk.com

Their home medical machines have batteries, that cannot be recharged.

 

[shortylickens]

A third of the ERCOT board is non-Texans.

5 ERCOT board members don’t live in Texas, one from Canada

As millions of Texans are still without power, Texas lawmakers and the governor are demanding answers after ERCOT activated the state’s Energy Emergency Alerts. The first alert happened at 12…

www.ketk.com

Cuz Texas is so fucking proud to be independent.

 

[fskimospy]

While I'm all for helping those suffering right now, it does annoy me that Texas has taken in huge amounts of FEMA funding in recent years, some of which is likely due to more extreme weather caused by climate change, and yet they keep sending people to Congress and the White House who try and stop efforts to fight climate change.

 

[pauldun170]

A third of the ERCOT board is non-Texans.

5 ERCOT board members don’t live in Texas, one from Canada

As millions of Texans are still without power, Texas lawmakers and the governor are demanding answers after ERCOT activated the state’s Energy Emergency Alerts. The first alert happened at 12…

www.ketk.com

Cuz Texas is so fucking proud to be independent.

Now they have another scapegoat.

 

[Dave_5k]

Yikes! I was under the assumption that the wholesale price rises were not passed on to the consumer in real time though. If they are a lot of people are going to have a miserable near future!

Most people in Texas have chosen fixed rate plans & they won't see any short-term impact. My bill for the month will be like $25. Only a small portion of folks have chosen these market-rate based providers like griddy.

 

[Wreckem]

Most people in Texas have chosen fixed rate plans & they won't see any short-term impact. My bill for the month will be like $25. Only a small portion of folks have chosen these market-rate based providers like griddy.

If you are off contract/contract has lapsed, on a variable contract based on market rate or your retail power provider goes tits up(many will) you will get socked with the market rate. It is the last part that everyone needs to worry about.

 

[Stokely]

I'd say something snarky about Texas but I'm in fucking Florida, where the latest fun times from our pudgy frat boy governor are setting up vaccines very specifically in two rich zip codes and nowhere else for one county...his response after this is called out for being as heinous as it sounds is to threaten to deny vaccines for the county if they don't get off his back about it.

I just need to move out of the south, period.

 

[fskimospy]

I'd say something snarky about Texas but I'm in fucking Florida, where the latest fun times from our pudgy frat boy governor are setting up vaccines very specifically in two rich zip codes and nowhere else for one county...his response after this is called out for being as heinous as it sounds is to threaten to deny vaccines for the county if they don't get off his back about it.

I just need to move out of the south, period.

This seems like a fairly recent development that Trump has accelerated - public officials engaging in nakedly corrupt, gangster like threats against their opponents.

 

[sdifox]

Most people in Texas have chosen fixed rate plans & they won't see any short-term impact. My bill for the month will be like $25. Only a small portion of folks have chosen these market-rate based providers like griddy.

Until your provider declares bankruptcy...

 

[K1052]

This seems like a fairly recent development that Trump has accelerated - public officials engaging in nakedly corrupt, gangster like threats against their opponents.

Not only that they are reveling in it. The culture war the GOP stoked has reached the point where doing harm to people who would challenge you is not only acceptable but intensely desirable. Trump definitely put the afterburners on that. This is what happens when your party believes in nothing but "owning the libs" at absolutely any cost.

 

[shortylickens]

Not only that they are reveling in it. The culture war the GOP stoked has reached the point where doing harm to people who would challenge you is not only acceptable but intensely desirable. Trump definitely put the afterburners on that. This is what happens when your party believes in nothing but "owning the libs" at absolutely any cost.

Well they already staged armed insurrection and killed people and most of them got away with it, so, yeah. We are on now at the starting gates to collapse.