Texsox Posted February 17, 2021 Author Share Posted February 17, 2021 Do you prepare for a once in a hundred year event? What backup do you have in place for 100 days over 100 degrees? That's our norm in south Texas and our power grid handles it without a hiccup. Try that in Chicago. Most homes rely on electric heat here because we don't heat very often. The systems are built around summer cooling. Why invest billions of dollars in a system that might be used once every 50 or 100 years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 (edited) FERC recommended winterizing back in 2011, because this same exact thing happened then. So much for "100 year events." Or you could interconnect with the rest of the country instead of remaining separate to avoid federal regulations. Or you could kill a whole bunch of people and cause a lot of suffering in the name of deregulation and energy company profits. Edited February 17, 2021 by StrangeSox 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quin Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 6 minutes ago, Texsox said: Do you prepare for a once in a hundred year event? What backup do you have in place for 100 days over 100 degrees? That's our norm in south Texas and our power grid handles it without a hiccup. Try that in Chicago. Most homes rely on electric heat here because we don't heat very often. The systems are built around summer cooling. Why invest billions of dollars in a system that might be used once every 50 or 100 years? Because global warming means that hundred year events are happening every few years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichieZisk Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Theres a lot of stuff constantly to do. Texas isn't the first state to have the event happen that they knew could happen and cause damage. Chicago has a pretty awesome water management system, but it likely doesn't invest in things like TARP (deep tunnel) without a hundred years of constant waste water battles. And it was billions and it's not even clear it fixes the problem. Hard to get buy-in for that stuff unless you have a "great chicago flood". This situation is really bad and scary for certain for many families and those with medical device needs. But Texas will likely adjust. They may not even overhaul, they may just bring some more safeguards and generally keep it the same. Chicago had a heatwave and hundreds died, and their mayor called it fake news. Puerto Ricos grid was destroyed in a hurricane and their island without power. I don't recall dunking being the response that helped. Not everything needs to be kinder for the fire for the ongoing exhausting ideological battles. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 The people "dunking" on the millions suffering in Texas because it's a "red state" are pretty gross and revealing. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScootsMcGoots Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 5 minutes ago, bmags said: Theres a lot of stuff constantly to do. Texas isn't the first state to have the event happen that they knew could happen and cause damage. Chicago has a pretty awesome water management system, but it likely doesn't invest in things like TARP (deep tunnel) without a hundred years of constant waste water battles. And it was billions and it's not even clear it fixes the problem. Hard to get buy-in for that stuff unless you have a "great chicago flood". This situation is really bad and scary for certain for many families and those with medical device needs. But Texas will likely adjust. They may not even overhaul, they may just bring some more safeguards and generally keep it the same. Chicago had a heatwave and hundreds died, and their mayor called it fake news. Puerto Ricos grid was destroyed in a hurricane and their island without power. I don't recall dunking being the response that helped. Not everything needs to be kinder for the fire for the ongoing exhausting ideological battles. Compassion is the correct response in these events. Not accusatory anger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 4 minutes ago, StrangeSox said: The people "dunking" on the millions suffering in Texas because it's a "red state" are pretty gross and revealing. I mean, you’re not wrong, but at the same time let’s go To the precedent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Yeah, I get the whole thing, but at the same time, no state spends more time talking about how they don't need anyone or anything else, and how shitty the rest of the country is. I feel bad for the individuals, but the whole kind of Texas persona pretty much asked for it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 1 hour ago, Texsox said: Do you prepare for a once in a hundred year event? What backup do you have in place for 100 days over 100 degrees? That's our norm in south Texas and our power grid handles it without a hiccup. Try that in Chicago. Most homes rely on electric heat here because we don't heat very often. The systems are built around summer cooling. Why invest billions of dollars in a system that might be used once every 50 or 100 years? Frankly...YES. You absolutely prepare for 10 in 100 year weather events. A 1 in 100 year weather event is all but guaranteed to happen during your lifetime. Having that turn into a disaster that kills dozens is a bad thing! And some areas of the country are flat out guaranteed to have them happen every few weeks! Plus, if this is a 1 in 100 year cold snap (it isn’t), are you unprepared for 1 in 100 year floods? What about 1 in 100 year heat waves? 1 in 100 year wind events? 1 in 100 year flash floods? This is why you require resiliency to be built into systems you rely on, because they start failing every decade or so if you don’t; and in different ways each time. We scrapped all the plans for a 1 in 100 year pandemic after the Trump team took over. The end results were bad! Maybe you don’t spend the money building out to 1 in 1000 or 1 in 10000 year events, but you at least consider what they will do. Will a 1 in 1000 year cold snap leave a state with 1000 dead? If so, maybe you need to harden infrastructure even more because that would be a really severe policy failure. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quin Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Yeah, the Texas politicians that loved shitting on California are ghouls. You may also recall Ted Cruz working to get the government shut down when Colorado flooded in 2013. Or how he railed against disaster relief in wake of Hurricane Sandy. So, there's a lot of desire to tell him to pound sand ... and then you remember there are people in Austin, Houston, Dallas, the suburbs, rural Texas, etc., who don't have power and shouldn't have to answer for the mistakes of idiots like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T R U Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Texas is the worst, they really do think they are better than all other states. I want to move out of this place after this bullshit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyyle23 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 14 minutes ago, T R U said: Texas is the worst, they really do think they are better than all other states. I want to move out of this place after this bullshit. I'm actually really curious if this affects any action going forward. Knowing politicians, probably not, but this is tremendously messed up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 7 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said: I'm actually really curious if this affects any action going forward. Knowing politicians, probably not, but this is tremendously messed up Governor Coronavirus announced an investigation yesterday and put reform into the required subjects for this years legislative calendar, so maybe? All they would have to do to mitigate this is have a few connections to the wider US grids. It wouldn’t prevent all the problems, but the rest of the country had enough of a surplus that they could have cut out like 80% of the blackouts or shorten them to an hour or two instead of days. More likely though they will probably try to raise taxes on wind power in response. I am genuinely curious whether any of the Texan energy providers did an Enron-in-California situation here - taking capacity deliberately offline to push energy prices through the roof (you can’t say it’s just a crazy conspiracy when Enron literally did that to California in 2001). But, I have every confidence that if it did happen, the Attorney General of Texas will make sure it is covered up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soxbadger Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 1 hour ago, Texsox said: Do you prepare for a once in a hundred year event? What backup do you have in place for 100 days over 100 degrees? That's our norm in south Texas and our power grid handles it without a hiccup. Try that in Chicago. Most homes rely on electric heat here because we don't heat very often. The systems are built around summer cooling. Why invest billions of dollars in a system that might be used once every 50 or 100 years? 4 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said: I'm actually really curious if this affects any action going forward. Knowing politicians, probably not, but this is tremendously messed up https://www.republicanleader.gov/whats-up-in-texas/ “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” Gov. Perry said, partly rhetorically. “Try not to let whatever the crisis of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically, and strategically.” The policy of Texas is not to care. The fault lies in not having enough non-renewable sources of energy in Texas. If only Texas had more natural gas, coal and nuclear power everything would have been fine. The problem is wind and solar power. And if you arent willing to invest money to protect your system, why should the federal government using federal tax payer dollars pay billions of dollars to bail out Texas? No one is trying to "dunk" on Texas, but they have spent quite a lot of time telling everyone else how they are so much better and independent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Parkman Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 1 hour ago, RichieZisk said: Holy fucking shit. Texans are fucked if that’s what their politicians are thinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted February 17, 2021 Author Share Posted February 17, 2021 Balta, why did you ever move to Texas? You hated it before you ever got here. Haters gotta hate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted February 17, 2021 Author Share Posted February 17, 2021 49 minutes ago, Jack Parkman said: Holy fucking shit. Texans are fucked if that’s what their politicians are thinking. Yeah, Colorado City is huge with over 4,000 residents. It's like having the mayor of Caseyville, Illinois representing Illinois politicians. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Parkman Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 (edited) 31 minutes ago, Texsox said: Yeah, Colorado City is huge with over 4,000 residents. It's like having the mayor of Caseyville, Illinois representing Illinois politicians. I know it's a small town, but that's pretty representative of attitudes down there from my experiences. Maybe you can tell me otherwise. I'd imagine it's not much different than the urban/rural splits elsewhere. Edited February 17, 2021 by Jack Parkman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 32 minutes ago, Texsox said: Yeah, Colorado City is huge with over 4,000 residents. It's like having the mayor of Caseyville, Illinois representing Illinois politicians. Maybe we should get a lot of Texans on TV claiming that he doesn't speak for Texans as a whole? Oh wait, that is for a different occasion. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 1 hour ago, Texsox said: Balta, why did you ever move to Texas? You hated it before you ever got here. Haters gotta hate. "Haters gotta hate" is a funky way to defend your government after a multi-day power outage. But anyway, I moved there because there was a huge surge of students in the geology major after the oil price boom, and lost my job because those students went away after the oil price bust. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyyle23 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 1 hour ago, Texsox said: Yeah, Colorado City is huge with over 4,000 residents. It's like having the mayor of Caseyville, Illinois representing Illinois politicians. If any mayor of Illinois said some shit like that, he/she would rightfully be raked over the coals. And it's really hard to find daylight between him and Abbott when Abbott is going on Fox News yesterday blaming the new green deal and wind turbines, and Ted Cruz and Crenshaw and Cornyn pointing and laughing at California when it was on fire, and blaming the governor instead of the private company that is at fault. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Parkman Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 54 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said: If any mayor of Illinois said some shit like that, he/she would rightfully be raked over the coals. And it's really hard to find daylight between him and Abbott when Abbott is going on Fox News yesterday blaming the new green deal and wind turbines, and Ted Cruz and Crenshaw and Cornyn pointing and laughing at California when it was on fire, and blaming the governor instead of the private company that is at fault. It's never the company's fault. Don't you know that? Shhhhhh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg775 Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 Did the South Side really get 14 inches by 103rd and Pulaski? Is it true Midway had 21 inches? Was Midway closed? That kind of stuff intrigues me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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