Texas Weather Tragedy Brings Out the Worst in Republicans
Just last week the talk in Texas was all about how they were gonna maybe secede from the United States of America now that Democrats are running the show in Washington.
This week, however, it’s a different story. Bitterly cold weather has swept over much of the country and Texas has been particularly hard hit. These ‘polar vortexes’ are thought to be caused by a weakened jet stream allowing very cold air to spill over into more temperate zones. It’s part of that ‘climate change’ thing you might have heard about.
The state’s power grid has failed in heavily populated areas; officials are unable to promise when power will be back on.
People are dying from carbon monoxide poisoning as they run cars to stay warm. Pipes are bursting. Snow and ice have made the roads undrivable. Government agencies and municipalities large and small lack the resources to mitigate the situation.
It’s a disaster that will take weeks to recover from. President Joe Biden has approved emergency federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts from the resulting weather conditions. And he did so without demanding anything from Gov. Greg Abbott… because it was the right thing to do.
You might expect Republi-pundits like Fox Tucker Carlson to show some concern for the welfare of a state with top to bottom GOP leadership, including the Governor, Lt Governor , Secretary of State, State Senate, State House, both US Senators and 22 Congressmen/women.
But you’d be wrong.
Nope. Because now that the liberals are running the show, a natural disaster represents an opportunity to preach doom and gloom based on lies, innuendo, and exaggeration.
The culprit for Texas woes is…. The Green New Deal. You know, the concept for a humane approach to dealing with climate change that doesn’t exist anywhere but on drawing boards.
Tucker and his pack of Trump-lovin’ meanies are telling the world that windmills are responsible because they’re freezing up and can’t turn. Never mind that Sweden, Russia, and a host of other countries where sub-zero temperatures are common don’t seem to have this problem.
The Governor of Texas went on Sean Hannity’s nightly hatefest to claim solar and wind power were at fault.
I hate to let a few facts get in the way, but a small part of Texas power is wind generated. 74% is petroleum or coal-powered, using steam. They are one of the few states that put their boilers outdoors, unprotected from the weather, that's what is knocking them offline.
The state’s nuclear reactors are offline because the Texas government’s deregulation policies meant they weren’t required to winterize. The water required for safe operation of the reactors is frozen. Just like the deregulated gas pipelines and the turbines that only TX didn’t winterize
In their haste to get out from under the thumb of the DC bureaucrats, Texas politicians mandated a grid all its own that is almost entirely cut off from the rest of the country. That has prevented Texas from importing much electricity as its power plants went down. (El Paso, by virtue of its location, isn’t part of the grid. Needless to say, they have electricity.)
The independent grid was created in response to the 1935 Federal Power Act, giving the Federal government authority to regulate power companies engaging in interstate commerce. Texas companies agreed not to sell power outside the state to avoid regulation.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that these schemes always screw the less wealthy.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas ( ERCOT), whose leadership doesn’t even live in the state, is the responsible agency. Chair Sally Talberg lives in Michigan. Vice Chair Peter Cramton lives in Del Mar.
Making fun of California’s problems was a popular activity for Texas politicians last summer.
Now, the chickens have come home to roost, via Bloomberg:
To get a sense of the magnitude of the power crisis hitting Texas, take a look at how it compares to the blackouts that roiled California last summer during a searing heat wave.
The California grid was short about 1 to 2 gigawatts for two evenings, while Texas has been short about 15 to 25 gigawatts for two straight days, according to Andy DeVries, a power analyst at CreditSights. And while California’s rolling blackouts left customers in the dark for a couple of hours at a time, customers in Texas have been without power for more than a day.
“It’s not even off the charts, it’s a different ball game,” DeVries said. “This is like a fundamental historic failure here. It’s mind boggling.”
The magnitude of the situation --where millions of people are impacted-- hasn’t stopped either the nutcases or the respectable parts of the GOP from weighing in, via Gizmodo Earther:
“You know how you unfreeze frozen windmills?” tweeted noted shitposter Rep. Lauren Boebert on Tuesday. “By sending up a helicopter that shoots out chemicals onto the blades. You need fuel for the helicopter. Keep that in mind when thinking how ‘green’ windmills are.”
Nevermind that this isn’t actually how modern turbines, which have built-in de-icing systems, work. It wasn’t just QAnon-elected politicians rushing to blame windmills.
“Herein is the paradox of the left’s climate agenda: The less we use fossil fuels, the more we need them,” a Wall Street Journal editorial from Monday crowed, going on to say that the grid is less reliable because of wind and solar. “The Biden Administration’s plan to banish fossil fuels is a greater existential threat to Americans than climate change.” (Lol, ok cool.)
Congressman Darrell Issa couldn’t pass up an opportunity to trash the “Biden Green Deal.”
Finally, one last bit of Texas stupidity:
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