4 ms·

While the proximal reasons may be technical, the systemic cause is our dual focuses on meeting demand no matter what and growth but not focusing on resilience.

by spodek 6y ago

While the proximal reasons may be technical, the systemic cause is our dual focuses on meeting demand no matter what and growth but not focusing on resilience. The result is that when demand is always met, we grow (population and consumption) until we hit problems like this. Then we build more capacity. It costs a lot to go from 99.99% uptime to 99.999%, but we do it every time. The savings to go from 99.99% uptime to 99.9% is also huge. Most of the world does fine with under 99% and we could too if we built our systems and lives to handle power going down sometimes, even unpredictably. Hospitals, elderly, etc would need special treatment. The rest of us could reduce our needs and learn from how people lived all the time for hundreds of thousands of years. We'd save tons of money, live healthier, and pollute a lot less. We'd learn to treat nature with a bit more humility and respect. I did a podcast episode expanding on this, "How to Fix Texas" https://shows.acast.com/leadership-and-the-environment/episodes/439-how-to-fix-texas https://shows.acast.com/leadership-and-the-environment/episo...

ryan93 6y ago
What’s the point in fleshing out this idea that like .01% of voters want.
- hshshs2 6y ago
  yeah but with a podcast someday it might be .02%
walshemj 6y ago
Doesn't explain why European countries don't seem to have the systemic failures that the US is prone to.
- simonbarker87 6y ago
  Maintenance. European countries seem much more bothered about maintaining things than America ... perhaps because US culture focusses more on new and making money with new rather than maintaining the existing. When I travel to the US I am always astounded at the level of disrepair, things just look broken and dilapidated, not everything but just enough that it feels like I'm in a "poor" country, which it is clearly not. Miami is the worst level of richness and poverty next to each other I've seen, New York looks like it is falling apart and San Fransisco clearly has no social services for the homeless at all. I've loved my time visiting America but there is a vibe of wear and tear that I don't feel in other developed nations.
  - da_big_ghey 6y ago
    There are a number of reasons why this is the case. America is very spread out: we have hugely more infrastructure to maintain per person than Europe. We also underwent a colossal post-war expansion fueled by a once-in-a-nation's-lifetime economic boom, and the results of that are very costly to maintain. I also believe that Americans are more price-sensitive with respect to taxes than Europeans are: we are willing to put up with worse stuff to avoid tax hikes. You're right that there is a problem, but the traditional solution of just maintaining it better does not appear to be a workable answer.
- disabled 6y ago
  The European Union has strong regulation, and you pay for the stability in your taxes. As a dual US|EU (Croatian) citizen, who is culturally American, the EU can be quite a good deal. They have dealt with populism before, unlike the US, and have much more resilience against this. Even places like Croatia do not look so bad in comparison to the United States. Regardless, my family lives in Texas, while I am living abroad. I am already making serious plans to take care of my family for the next time this happens. It really is ridiculous, when you think about it.
maxerickson 6y ago
If my grid was 99% reliable I'd get over my reluctance to buy a generator.
- Corrado 6y ago
  I would schedule a solar panel and PowerWall install ASAP. That way I could survive "on my own", at least for a while.
  - maxerickson 6y ago
    A 2 or 3 kilowatt generator installed with a transfer box for key circuits is in the range of $3000 and will run for a long time on 5 gallons of gasoline. (The install cost is the hard thing to know the price for, but it's not a big or complicated job, there are 25 minute youtube videos showing how to do it) So it's a lot more approachable for me up front, and then there are tradeoffs on the operation side. If gas is available, the generator can supply 10x the power of the power wall every day for a span of days. If there isn't gas available, the solar panels are going to be nice. But there's a lot of bang for the buck in a small generator (I'm basing my price above on Honda).

by spodek 6y ago

ryan93 6y ago

What’s the point in fleshing out this idea that like .01% of voters want.

hshshs2 6y ago
yeah but with a podcast someday it might be .02%

walshemj 6y ago

Doesn't explain why European countries don't seem to have the systemic failures that the US is prone to.

simonbarker87 6y ago
Maintenance. European countries seem much more bothered about maintaining things than America ... perhaps because US culture focusses more on new and making money with new rather than maintaining the existing. When I travel to the US I am always astounded at the level of disrepair, things just look broken and dilapidated, not everything but just enough that it feels like I'm in a "poor" country, which it is clearly not. Miami is the worst level of richness and poverty next to each other I've seen, New York looks like it is falling apart and San Fransisco clearly has no social services for the homeless at all. I've loved my time visiting America but there is a vibe of wear and tear that I don't feel in other developed nations.
- da_big_ghey 6y ago
  There are a number of reasons why this is the case. America is very spread out: we have hugely more infrastructure to maintain per person than Europe. We also underwent a colossal post-war expansion fueled by a once-in-a-nation's-lifetime economic boom, and the results of that are very costly to maintain. I also believe that Americans are more price-sensitive with respect to taxes than Europeans are: we are willing to put up with worse stuff to avoid tax hikes. You're right that there is a problem, but the traditional solution of just maintaining it better does not appear to be a workable answer.
disabled 6y ago
The European Union has strong regulation, and you pay for the stability in your taxes. As a dual US|EU (Croatian) citizen, who is culturally American, the EU can be quite a good deal. They have dealt with populism before, unlike the US, and have much more resilience against this. Even places like Croatia do not look so bad in comparison to the United States. Regardless, my family lives in Texas, while I am living abroad. I am already making serious plans to take care of my family for the next time this happens. It really is ridiculous, when you think about it.

maxerickson 6y ago

If my grid was 99% reliable I'd get over my reluctance to buy a generator.

Corrado 6y ago
I would schedule a solar panel and PowerWall install ASAP. That way I could survive "on my own", at least for a while.
- maxerickson 6y ago
  A 2 or 3 kilowatt generator installed with a transfer box for key circuits is in the range of $3000 and will run for a long time on 5 gallons of gasoline. (The install cost is the hard thing to know the price for, but it's not a big or complicated job, there are 25 minute youtube videos showing how to do it) So it's a lot more approachable for me up front, and then there are tradeoffs on the operation side. If gas is available, the generator can supply 10x the power of the power wall every day for a span of days. If there isn't gas available, the solar panels are going to be nice. But there's a lot of bang for the buck in a small generator (I'm basing my price above on Honda).