4 ms·

OMG. This is as bad or even worse than Texas or California...

by brodo 6y ago

pistoriusp 6y ago
It is far worse, but South Africa has an inept and corrupt government, I wonder what the excuse is for Texas?
- signal11 6y ago
  I suspect the truth is, in the narrow domain of electric power distribution, Texas too has an inept government that’s beholden to certain vested interests in the garb of “free markets”. This is a state that has fetishized “light touch regulation” so much that it, for most of the state, has its own grid to avoid dealing with Federal authorities. And repeatedly failed to take action to get power companies to winterize their equipment even though cold snaps in Texas are not unheard of — they’ve had disruption in 1989 and 2011, in addition to other near misses. Let’s not even get into the wisdom of a market that allows Griddy to offer wholesale prices without caps to retail customers.
  - vermilingua 6y ago
    So hang on, why is it that South Africa is “corrupt”, but Texas is “beholden to certain vested interests”?
    - mokus 6y ago
      Did any one person say both of those things?
    - edoceo 6y ago
      That's just more words for corrupt
    - lovegoblin 6y ago
      The distinction-without-a-difference between these two phrases is exactly the point of the comment you're responding to.
      - CamTin 6y ago
        ...and presumably also the point of the comment it was responding to.
  - youdontknwtexas 6y ago
    The worst part of living through a few cold, powerless days in Travis county is now having to listen to insufferable fuckheads like you wax on about the "fetishes" in our government. Texas isn't actually all that conservative compared to a lot of states, it's just a stereotype. The three big cities, which make up a huge portion of the population, are racially diverse and politically Democrat. For instance Texas has mandatory annual vehicle inspection and front plates, regulations that don't exist in some states in the Midwest. I do hope we address the winterization gaps in our infrastructure because the state regulations, which are stronger than the Federal ones, weren't enforced, but we can do it without the comments from the peanut gallery. The other grids have suffered blackouts in the last thirty years, too. I remember one in the nineties in part of the Eastern grid that lasted two weeks that family lived through, and blackouts in the Northeast and California in recent memory. Get off your high horse.
  - marcusverus 6y ago
    > I suspect the truth is, in the narrow domain of electric power distribution, Texas too has an inept government... This is an absurd comparison. South Africa owns and runs its power utility. The result is that they struggle to provide electricity on an ongoing basis. According to Wikipedia, small business owners in South Africa said that load shedding was the number one challenge that they faced in Q1 of 2019.[0] Texas does not own or run its utilities. They are privately run, and are given wide latitude by the state. The result is that the worst of the utilities are tragically only able to provide 99.95% uptime, with some power consumers experiencing outages for a few days per decade. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_energy_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_energy_crisis
    - signal11 6y ago
      Yes, Texas in the realm of power distribution is probably a paradise by comparison with South Africa, but compared to its peers (other US states), Texas has a very non-resilient, or fragile, power distribution system that we know will "crash" when faced with a cold snap. Given that they have known this since at least 1989, I think it's not unfair to use the word "inept". The giant power bills are just icing on the cake of bad policy-making.
- dylan604 6y ago
  Why would you think it is any different? ERCOT was recommended to protect its power generation capabilities from severe winter weather for over 10 years, yet the Republican leadership did nothing about it. That's either corruption or sheer ineptitude.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
unethical_ban 6y ago
There is no comparison.

OMG. This is as bad or even worse than Texas or California...

by brodo 6y ago

OMG. This is as bad or even worse than Texas or California...

pistoriusp 6y ago

It is far worse, but South Africa has an inept and corrupt government, I wonder what the excuse is for Texas?

signal11 6y ago
I suspect the truth is, in the narrow domain of electric power distribution, Texas too has an inept government that’s beholden to certain vested interests in the garb of “free markets”. This is a state that has fetishized “light touch regulation” so much that it, for most of the state, has its own grid to avoid dealing with Federal authorities. And repeatedly failed to take action to get power companies to winterize their equipment even though cold snaps in Texas are not unheard of — they’ve had disruption in 1989 and 2011, in addition to other near misses. Let’s not even get into the wisdom of a market that allows Griddy to offer wholesale prices without caps to retail customers.
- vermilingua 6y ago
  So hang on, why is it that South Africa is “corrupt”, but Texas is “beholden to certain vested interests”?
  - mokus 6y ago
    Did any one person say both of those things?
  - edoceo 6y ago
    That's just more words for corrupt
  - lovegoblin 6y ago
    The distinction-without-a-difference between these two phrases is exactly the point of the comment you're responding to.
    - CamTin 6y ago
      ...and presumably also the point of the comment it was responding to.
- youdontknwtexas 6y ago
  The worst part of living through a few cold, powerless days in Travis county is now having to listen to insufferable fuckheads like you wax on about the "fetishes" in our government. Texas isn't actually all that conservative compared to a lot of states, it's just a stereotype. The three big cities, which make up a huge portion of the population, are racially diverse and politically Democrat. For instance Texas has mandatory annual vehicle inspection and front plates, regulations that don't exist in some states in the Midwest. I do hope we address the winterization gaps in our infrastructure because the state regulations, which are stronger than the Federal ones, weren't enforced, but we can do it without the comments from the peanut gallery. The other grids have suffered blackouts in the last thirty years, too. I remember one in the nineties in part of the Eastern grid that lasted two weeks that family lived through, and blackouts in the Northeast and California in recent memory. Get off your high horse.
- marcusverus 6y ago
  > I suspect the truth is, in the narrow domain of electric power distribution, Texas too has an inept government... This is an absurd comparison. South Africa owns and runs its power utility. The result is that they struggle to provide electricity on an ongoing basis. According to Wikipedia, small business owners in South Africa said that load shedding was the number one challenge that they faced in Q1 of 2019.[0] Texas does not own or run its utilities. They are privately run, and are given wide latitude by the state. The result is that the worst of the utilities are tragically only able to provide 99.95% uptime, with some power consumers experiencing outages for a few days per decade. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_energy_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_energy_crisis
  - signal11 6y ago
    Yes, Texas in the realm of power distribution is probably a paradise by comparison with South Africa, but compared to its peers (other US states), Texas has a very non-resilient, or fragile, power distribution system that we know will "crash" when faced with a cold snap. Given that they have known this since at least 1989, I think it's not unfair to use the word "inept". The giant power bills are just icing on the cake of bad policy-making.
dylan604 6y ago
Why would you think it is any different? ERCOT was recommended to protect its power generation capabilities from severe winter weather for over 10 years, yet the Republican leadership did nothing about it. That's either corruption or sheer ineptitude.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

unethical_ban 6y ago

There is no comparison.