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You are correct about Texas not wanting the Federal gov't to have much control over their energy grid and that is a large part of the reason that we are not con
by doodlebugging 4y ago
You are correct about Texas not wanting the Federal gov't to have much control over their energy grid and that is a large part of the reason that we are not connected to other parts of the national grid.
Back a few decades ago when Clean Air regulations came into play (Texas was not on the national grid at the time) Texas used their control of the Texas grid to allow grandfathering in of most of the dirty coal generation plants with no requirements that they meet federal standards. Texas mined lignite for many of their plants and bought coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin for others. New plants under construction had to meet the new standards but old plants could keep on rocking along spewing their ash and pollutants all over the state and everyone downwind. Supposedly it was allowed because utilities argued that it was too expensive to bring them into compliance.
What a joke. This is the same state where a chicken billionaire walked the floor of the legislature passing envelopes of cash to representatives and at the time said that this was just the way to do business here.
And after last year's winter break-down they crafted a handy way to pass all the costs of electricity related to their failures to do simple maintenance and upgrades on to Texas taxpayers while at the same time lobbying and winning property tax reductions which conveniently enough, finances a large part of the state's operations. People keep voting for the same old losers and then griping when it bites them in the ass.
So many parts of Texas are broken and dysfunctional that it is sad but funny to hear someone say they want to move here for any reason. We used to be great but the clowns are driving the short bus here now and everyone wants to ride since it's cheaper than the last place they lived, maybe.
- pstuart 4y agoWhenever I see "see, regulation is bad" it's always seems to be framing the answer as getting rid of all regulations rather than making them less onerous and more effective.
- doodlebugging 4y agoThis is the Texas way lately. We have had a crop of libertarian leaning authoritarians come into power and it looks like one of those things that Ajax can't take off. Eliminating regulations is the goal. No one is trying to understand how to tweak the regulations so there is a beneficial outcome to the regulation. The only ones who are supposed to benefit in Texas are those who are in need of regulatory oversight and they are the ones who control the narrative around the process so everything is devolving into a mess where there is no accountability, no oversight and plenty of money in circulation to maintain that situation.
- pstuart 4y agoDoesn't Football have regulations? Perhaps removing them will make the game more efficient. /s
- rascul 4y ago> libertarian leaning authoritarians That seems to be a bit of an oxymoron to me.
- doodlebugging 4y agoYes it does. That pretty much defines the contradictions in the current GOP in Texas. They want a libertarian-style business environment where businesses are free to operate with few restrictions and the businesses get to define those restrictions and control the processes that could limit or monitor their operations. For private citizens they also prefer individuals be free to make their own choices about how they conduct themselves up to a point. Past that point, they become authoritarian, using religion as a basis for state-enforced mandates to control individual's rights to make what should be private decisions between an individual and qualified professionals. They want the state to control every aspect of an individual's life that they feel doesn't fit their own morals while at the same time allowing businesses free reign to operate within the state even if their operations harm the citizens of the state, the state's natural resources, or the state's economic interests. Hopefully it is more clear now. It still doesn't make much sense since their philosophy is riddled with contradictions or outright hypocrisy. They would impose restrictions on people they wish to control while ignoring the same behavior of people who otherwise publicly support them. Anyway, I'm probably wrong since I am not a political science expert. I'm just a native Texan.