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I don’t know. Are you suggesting that we blame neither the weather nor the known lack of winterization but instead a C-B analysis? Definitely the analysis is

I don’t know. Are you suggesting that we blame neither the weather nor the known lack of winterization but instead a C-B analysis? Definitely the analysis is important but this feels like moving the goalposts to divert blame away from the known lack of winterization. Edit: Getting off-track here, but “Is it worth paying 10% extra (for example) for electricity forever, in return for having 3 extra days of electricity for a few days in 2021 and 2051?” For the record, that 10% also buys you other perks, such as 47 human lives so far. To intentionally tug the heart-strings, check out https://www.google.com/search?q=texas+deaths https://www.google.com/search?q=texas+deaths where you can read about, for example, a little boy freezing to death in his home.

sokoloff 6y ago
I think this is fundamentally a problem amenable to a cost-benefit tradeoff discussion provided you get the costs and benefits right. If the argument is “this went badly because of a lack of winterization because the costs were improperly considered”, I can follow that logic and agree. If the argument is “this went badly and this is an engineering problem for which cost-benefit analysis has no proper place”, I disagree pretty strongly.
ashtonkem 6y ago
Also, lord knows how much spent in insurance payouts, property damage, and wasted food when the power went out. Plus the economic drag created by infrastructure being wrecked for the next couple of months, diminished tax receipts, etc. Have you seen the videos of hotels flooding after their pipes burst? Fixing that stuff isn’t going to be cheap at all. I would bet that those hotel operators are now going to spend a lot more fixing up their buildings than whatever reliable energy would have costed. Oh, and any damages building won’t be generating any profit until it’s fixed and everyone else is doing well enough to spend on discretionary items, which will take a while since every plumber is probably booked solid for months.

sokoloff 6y ago

I think this is fundamentally a problem amenable to a cost-benefit tradeoff discussion provided you get the costs and benefits right. If the argument is “this went badly because of a lack of winterization because the costs were improperly considered”, I can follow that logic and agree. If the argument is “this went badly and this is an engineering problem for which cost-benefit analysis has no proper place”, I disagree pretty strongly.

ashtonkem 6y ago

Also, lord knows how much spent in insurance payouts, property damage, and wasted food when the power went out. Plus the economic drag created by infrastructure being wrecked for the next couple of months, diminished tax receipts, etc. Have you seen the videos of hotels flooding after their pipes burst? Fixing that stuff isn’t going to be cheap at all. I would bet that those hotel operators are now going to spend a lot more fixing up their buildings than whatever reliable energy would have costed. Oh, and any damages building won’t be generating any profit until it’s fixed and everyone else is doing well enough to spend on discretionary items, which will take a while since every plumber is probably booked solid for months.