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To be fair -- Texas as a State and identity has been very outspoken about being pro fossil fuel and quite anti-renewables. The Mayor blaming renewables when it

by s_dev 6y ago

To be fair -- Texas as a State and identity has been very outspoken about being pro fossil fuel and quite anti-renewables. The Mayor blaming renewables when it was gas pipes that froze was simply disgusting. Many many Texans are not very envoirnmentally consciencious. It's very much a climate change disaster and many Texans felt insulated from such a global change. To be clear shadenfreude is in poor taste but there is also a lesson for anyone who feels that climate change is other peoples problems. What is happening is awful and Texans deserve all the help the US can give.

api 6y ago
That's just standard issue Republican politics and not at all specific to Texas. COVID is a hoax, there were WMDs in Iraq, the guy with horns in the Senate is the leader of Antifa, Trump won by a landslide, etc. I started calling the party "Soviet" way back in the Bush (or "Bushevik") era, and it's only gotten even more so since then. While the official party platform is quite different from the old USSR, the whole "the party platform dictates the facts of reality" thing is similar. I predict it will only get worse. Qanon is in the process of taking over the party. It can have only two outcomes: the victory of an irrationalist / anti-realist Qanon party and the ensuing collapse of the country, or Democratic single party rule which may lead to the same... due to what happens when you have single party rule.
undefined1 6y ago
the governor repeatedly said all energy sources failed, including gas and even nuclear. he gave specific numbers, pointing out that more energy was lost with natural gas compared to wind. of course people omit that because it's counter narrative. also, Texas is a leader in wind power. it produces more than any other state and more than most countries. If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas
caseysoftware 6y ago
Texas is NOT anti-renewables. We're #2 in the US for solar[0], #1 for wind[1], and #5 for nuclear[2] with roughly 25% of our power coming from wind alone. Unfortunately, since weather like this doesn't occur very often (every ~60-100 years), the wind turbines aren't weatherized as they are in Canada and elsewhere. When half of that went offline on Sunday morning, it fell to natural gas to make up the difference. When the temperature continued dropping, the gas flowed more slowly and couldn't keep the right pressure levels, removing roughly a third of that production. To be fair, your criticism would be more useful if it was built on facts. 0 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/solar-energy-production-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/solar-energy-produc... 1 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/wind-generation-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/wind-generation-by-... 2 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/nuclear-generation-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/nuclear-generation-...
- dataflow 6y ago
  > Texas is NOT anti-renewables. It's quite bizarre to read this a day after the Texas governor literally went and blamed renewables [1] [2] when in fact their renewables have been performing better than their (far more prevalent) nonrenewables. [3] And while frozen wind turbines have contributed to the state's energy crisis, that type of energy has only slightly underperformed against published expectations for winter output. Natural gas, the state's dominant energy source, has provided drastically less energy than expected, according to experts and industry data. "Wind was operating almost as well as expected," said Sam Newell, head of the electricity group at the Brattle Group, an energy consulting company that has advised Texas on its power grid. "It's an order of magnitude smaller" than problems with natural gas, coal and nuclear energy, he said. [1] https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1361868404534112257 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1361868404534112257 [2] https://www.yahoo.com/now/texas-governor-walks-back-fox-052453616.html https://www.yahoo.com/now/texas-governor-walks-back-fox-0524... [3] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fact-check-renewable-energy-not-blame-texas-energy-crisis-n1258185 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fact-check-renewable-en...
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

by s_dev 6y ago

api 6y ago

That's just standard issue Republican politics and not at all specific to Texas. COVID is a hoax, there were WMDs in Iraq, the guy with horns in the Senate is the leader of Antifa, Trump won by a landslide, etc. I started calling the party "Soviet" way back in the Bush (or "Bushevik") era, and it's only gotten even more so since then. While the official party platform is quite different from the old USSR, the whole "the party platform dictates the facts of reality" thing is similar. I predict it will only get worse. Qanon is in the process of taking over the party. It can have only two outcomes: the victory of an irrationalist / anti-realist Qanon party and the ensuing collapse of the country, or Democratic single party rule which may lead to the same... due to what happens when you have single party rule.

undefined1 6y ago

the governor repeatedly said all energy sources failed, including gas and even nuclear. he gave specific numbers, pointing out that more energy was lost with natural gas compared to wind. of course people omit that because it's counter narrative. also, Texas is a leader in wind power. it produces more than any other state and more than most countries. If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas

caseysoftware 6y ago

Texas is NOT anti-renewables. We're #2 in the US for solar[0], #1 for wind[1], and #5 for nuclear[2] with roughly 25% of our power coming from wind alone. Unfortunately, since weather like this doesn't occur very often (every ~60-100 years), the wind turbines aren't weatherized as they are in Canada and elsewhere. When half of that went offline on Sunday morning, it fell to natural gas to make up the difference. When the temperature continued dropping, the gas flowed more slowly and couldn't keep the right pressure levels, removing roughly a third of that production. To be fair, your criticism would be more useful if it was built on facts. 0 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/solar-energy-production-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/solar-energy-produc... 1 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/wind-generation-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/wind-generation-by-... 2 - https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/nuclear-generation-by-state/ https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/nuclear-generation-...

dataflow 6y ago
> Texas is NOT anti-renewables. It's quite bizarre to read this a day after the Texas governor literally went and blamed renewables [1] [2] when in fact their renewables have been performing better than their (far more prevalent) nonrenewables. [3] And while frozen wind turbines have contributed to the state's energy crisis, that type of energy has only slightly underperformed against published expectations for winter output. Natural gas, the state's dominant energy source, has provided drastically less energy than expected, according to experts and industry data. "Wind was operating almost as well as expected," said Sam Newell, head of the electricity group at the Brattle Group, an energy consulting company that has advised Texas on its power grid. "It's an order of magnitude smaller" than problems with natural gas, coal and nuclear energy, he said. [1] https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1361868404534112257 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1361868404534112257 [2] https://www.yahoo.com/now/texas-governor-walks-back-fox-052453616.html https://www.yahoo.com/now/texas-governor-walks-back-fox-0524... [3] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fact-check-renewable-energy-not-blame-texas-energy-crisis-n1258185 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fact-check-renewable-en...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]