Texas Republicans on blackouts: Liberal politicians, Obama, and free market are to blame!

[Brick]

11 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Individuals? As a state, Texas is already #2 in percentage of power generated by solar.

 

But yeah, I put in an order for the initial stage of my solar farm which will produce around 35,000 kHw per year and have battery back up for 3 normal use days. My cousin has a farm he started developing last year and I’m going to drop some cash into expanding it. I’m going to be a crazy prepper by next weekend at this rate.

 

Just need to dig yourself a nuclear bunker and fill it with canned food, and various shotguns and rifles! 

[MarSolo]

Suck my big Italian sausage, you gagootz!

Ungrateful motherfucker.

[CitizenVectron]

I can get on board with this.

 

 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

2 hours ago, MarSolo said:

Suck my big Italian sausage, you gagootz!

Ungrateful motherfucker.

The motherfucker doesn't realize that renewables weren't the problem (because his donor interests say renewables are the problem)

 

Also he doesn't know how to do a twitter thread which is a minor pet peeve

[Firewithin]

1 hour ago, CitizenVectron said:

I can get on board with this.

 

 

[Keyser_Soze]

4 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

I can get on board with this.

 

 

 

@Jason is making a bunch of alts so he can upvote this a bunch.

[Air_Delivery]

AOC trolling conservatives by helping people is just *chefs kiss*

[Anathema-]

If it's a political stunt then it's literally one that the framers expected when they imagined politicians. 

[PaladinSolo]

 

[cusideabelincoln]

We need a chef's kiss upvote/reaction.

[marioandsonic]

1 hour ago, PaladinSolo said:

 

 

You live by the free market, you die by the free market.  This is the bed Texas's politicians made, now they have to sleep in it.

[Chairslinger]

1 hour ago, PaladinSolo said:

 

 

32 minutes ago, marioandsonic said:

 

You live by the free market, you die by the free market.  This is the bed Texas's politicians made, now they have to sleep in it.

 

 

Another case of privatizing the profit and socializing the expense.

 

At the end of the day there should definately be help for people. But if it's federal help it should be tied to Texas committing to improving their system.

 

Republicans always throw their supposed small gubmint ideals out the window when it comes to emergencies because of the urgency. It is just frustrating that they don't see that it's the exact same problem whether you pay for it before or after the disaster happens.

 

It's like every shitty workplace you've ever worked in that would rather patch a problem endlessly and spend more money in the long run rather than just pay to fix the problem from the beginning.

[Jason]

[69los]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

 

Am I the only annoyed that plane isn't on the 1st line?

[Littleronin]

I hate how Rep. McCaul says that he thinks it is great "AOC and Beto are crossing party lines." It wasn't about crossing party lines, it is about helping follow Americans in need. Something that Republicans seem to forgot how to do in recent decades unless it is them that need to be helped. 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, marioandsonic said:

 

You live by the free market, you die by the free market.  This is the bed Texas's politicians made, now they have to sleep in it.

Again, Griddy is an energy wholesaler and by its nature customers who use it are accepting whatever the prevailing rate is at the time. Much more typically (like over 99%) customers use retail electric providers who pre-purchase electricity contracts based on the typical usage of the customer and that locks in the rate. Going straight wholesale comes with the benefits of typically much lower prices (sometimes 1.5-2 cents a kWh) but also crazy spikes. Nothing usually like this though for obvious reasons.

 

It is actually retail electric providers who are going to get trounced by these rated as they actively purchase energy in the wholesale markets to make up for shortfalls in their contracted amounts. They legally cannot pass the cost on to customers with contract pricing.

 

So, uh, Ted doesn’t seem to know what he’s upset about.

[CitizenVectron]

10 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Again, Griddy is an energy wholesaler and by its nature customers who use it are accepting whatever the prevailing rate is at the time. Much more typically (like over 99%) customers use retail electric providers who pre-purchase electricity contracts based on the typical usage of the customer and that locks in the rate. Going straight wholesale comes with the benefits of typically much lower prices (sometimes 1.5-2 cents a kWh) but also crazy spikes. Nothing usually like this though for obvious reasons.

 

It is actually retail electric providers who are going to get trounced by these rated as they actively purchase energy in the wholesale markets to make up for shortfalls in their contracted amounts. They legally cannot pass the cost on to customers with contract pricing.

 

So, uh, Ted doesn’t seem to know what he’s upset about.

 

Issue in this case (as I understand it) is that there is normally a cap on how high it can go, but they were given permission to raise it for this crisis?

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

Issue in this case (as I understand it) is that there is normally a cap on how high it can go, but they were given permission to raise it for this crisis?

No, the State utility commission told ERCOT to increase all wholesale prices to the $9,000 cap price. The cap was not increased. The market was actually clearing at prices lower than the cap until the State government intervened to push prices higher.

[Keyser_Soze]

9 hours ago, cusideabelincoln said:

We need a chef's kiss upvote/reaction.

 

[LazyPiranha]

8 hours ago, sblfilms said:

Again, Griddy is an energy wholesaler and by its nature customers who use it are accepting whatever the prevailing rate is at the time. Much more typically (like over 99%) customers use retail electric providers who pre-purchase electricity contracts based on the typical usage of the customer and that locks in the rate. Going straight wholesale comes with the benefits of typically much lower prices (sometimes 1.5-2 cents a kWh) but also crazy spikes. Nothing usually like this though for obvious reasons.

 

It is actually retail electric providers who are going to get trounced by these rated as they actively purchase energy in the wholesale markets to make up for shortfalls in their contracted amounts. They legally cannot pass the cost on to customers with contract pricing.

 

So, uh, Ted doesn’t seem to know what he’s upset about.

Assuming your fine with the general concept, the major problem with this system is that the price of electricity is invisible.  I couldn’t begin to tell you how much power I’m using at a given moment, I don’t think I even have the spinning dial power meter anymore so I couldn’t even attempt to find out.  While this system shouldn’t exist at all in my opinion because of this alone, at the pure bare minimum there should be a stopgap somewhere when either the rate hits X or bill goes Y over the typical amount that you get notified so you can do something about it.  Even that isn’t really a solution because I love you more assuming they’re not getting a bill in real time.

 

 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, LazyPiranha said:

Assuming your fine with the general concept, the major problem with this system is that the price of electricity is invisible.  I couldn’t begin to tell you how much power I’m using at a given moment, I don’t think I even have the spinning dial power meter anymore so I couldn’t even attempt to find out.  While this system shouldn’t exist at all in my opinion because of this alone, at the pure bare minimum there should be a stopgap somewhere when either the rate hits X or bill goes Y over the typical amount that you get notified so you can do something about it.  Even that isn’t really a solution because I love you more assuming they’re not getting a bill in real time.

 

 

It’s very likely a terrible idea to let consumers have access to wholesale markets, but the smart meters we have here do give you real-time usage data.
 

My understanding though is most Griddy (and other wholesale-only providers) are mostly used by consumers with solar panels on their home. The reason they go this route is during the day they sell electricity to the grid at the higher day time rates, and purchase electricity from the grid during the lower nighttime rates. 
 

Still probably a bad idea generally to have consumers in wholesale markets.

[foosh]

On 2/17/2021 at 11:28 AM, SuperSpreader said:

What area?

North Austin

[foosh]

Hey all,

 

I'm really late on this thread and not going to read it all. I really just need an outlet to vent. The last week had been extremely frustrating and exhausting. It was also really hard to decipher real news and fake news. Some "fake news" that was being cleared up by our local leaders ended up being real news per ERCOT. Also, social media blaming individuals for not being properly prepped is raising my blood pressure too.

 

I have more to say but it would mainly be emotional nonsense.

 

[CitizenVectron]

[foosh]

1 minute ago, CitizenVectron said:

essentially, this is what power companies do and we can go into semantics, but essentially, rates going up to make up for it. no different from PG&E raising everyone's rates to make up for the money loss from lawsuits because they killed people.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, foosh said:

Hey all,

 

I'm really late on this thread and not going to read it all. I really just need an outlet to vent. The last week had been extremely frustrating and exhausting. It was also really hard to decipher real news and fake news. Some "fake news" that was being cleared up by our local leaders ended up being real news per ERCOT. Also, social media blaming individuals for not being properly prepped is raising my blood pressure too.

 

I have more to say but it would mainly be emotional nonsense.

 

Glad you're OK. It was not fun down here in Houston, but I know my Austin friends had it even worse.

[Jason]

But his daughters.

 

GOP congressman from Texas slams Ted Cruz as it emerges he took his college roommate on Cancun trip

WWW.BUSINESSINSIDER.COM

---

"Look, when a crisis hits my state, I'm there. I'm not going to go on some vacation," GOP Rep. Michael McCaul said on CNN's "State of the Union."

 

 

[foosh]

Just now, sblfilms said:

Glad you're OK. It was not fun down here in Houston, but I know my Austin friends had it even worse.

Thanks. I live in an Ivory Tower so really, I just had very first world problems. I've gone through power outages before (in Seattle and Bay Area) but normally, its not a complete shut down. And even if it is, the roads are in okay shape where its easy to go somewhere else. And you can goto a mall or something to stay warm. Here...the roads weren't driveable. All these fucking RWD cam trucks abandoned in the streets and we had a good 6" of snow in some areas. It never occurred to me to buy snow chains in texas.

 

However, the senior center near me, the county did a wellness check and lets just say it isnt good. There was no staff there, they had no power, water, heat for half a week. And most of them are not independent. The amount of CO poisoning is similar to what I see in Seattle. Maybe worse. Even the hospitals here were losing water.

 

And while the power company shuts off our power so we don't send the entire state into the dark ages, the college football stadium, and semi conductor factories never lost power lol...

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

19 minutes ago, foosh said:

 

I have more to say but it would mainly be emotional nonsense

[Kal-El814]

In a better world, everyone would realize that anyone who said, “what was Cruz supposed to do lol,” is unfit for office and they’d be voted out of office.

 

These clowns are un fucking believable.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

In a better world, everyone would realize that anyone who said, “what was Cruz supposed to do lol,” is unfit for office and they’d be voted out of office.

 

These clowns are un fucking believable.

 

I'm seeing this line from normies a lot now, dudes who I know were literally saving lives and property. And they think a senator can do nothing. I don't even think they are being disingenuous, they really believe it it.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

1 minute ago, sblfilms said:

 

I'm seeing this line from normies a lot now, dudes who I know were literally saving lives and property. And they think a senator can do nothing. I don't even think they are being disingenuous, they really believe it it.

They're right in terms of how they were taught american civics. He's a member of the legislative branch, he can't do executive things! All he can do is committees, speeches, and votes! Not much time, in my experience, is spent telling people that these reps can (and should!) Be connecting their constituents to federal programs and resources. Usually this constituent services is helping seniors sign up for social security and Medicare, but an extension of this is getting fema relief and other services. And yeah you can do it somewhat remotely, but not only is it bad politics to not be on the ground, it's not as effective to quite literally phone it in

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

They're right in terms of how they were taught american civics. He's a member of the legislative branch, he can't do executive things! All he can do is committees, speeches, and votes! Not much time, in my experience, is spent telling people that these reps can (and should!) Be connecting their constituents to federal programs and resources. Usually this constituent services is helping seniors sign up for social security and Medicare, but an extension of this is getting fema relief and other services. And yeah you can do it somewhat remotely, but not only is it bad politics to not be on the ground, it's not as effective to quite literally phone it in

Cornyn was at least using his website and social media to direct people to needed resources. I mean, baseball players like Alex Bregman were organizing water bottle delivers around the Houston area.

 

Flyin' Ted was busy trying to get them sweet business class upgrades.

 

 

[CitizenVectron]

Do American Senators and Congress people not directly aid people? I know in Canada they actually use most of their staff and office funds on just helping constituents get approval for stuff, coordinate assistance, etc, to the point where they struggle to write new legislation because so much of their staff remains at home.

[thewhyteboar]

Helping your constituents? Smells like socialism to me.