4 ms·
> with Texas having their own for some reason. That reason is that Texas wants to avoid federal regulation [1] - regulation that would have prevented the large
by mschuster91 1y ago
> with Texas having their own for some reason.
That reason is that Texas wants to avoid federal regulation [1] - regulation that would have prevented the large ass blackout a few years ago in the winter. But hey, 702 deaths [2], a small price to pay for freedom of regulations!
> Everyone seems to know that this is both costly and necessary, but not much seems to be happening. Maybe these things simply take time?
They take money and political willpower. Both are in short supply - electricity rates here in Europe are already high (and rates in the US very low), so utilities try to avoid pissing off consumers even more, and political willpower for billions of dollars of investment isn't there either as thanks to decades of austerity and trickle-down ideology there is no tax base to pay for it any more.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis
- richwater 1y ago> regulation that would have prevented the large ass blackout a few years ago in the winter. They also produce the most renewable power in the country. If you account for externalities prevented by this (fossil fuel induced damage and deaths), who is looking good now? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_renewable_electricity_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_renewab...
- Veliladon 1y agoIt got so cold that the oil in the wind turbines froze. If Texas was connected to the rest of the country it would be subject to federal regulations that require winterization and even if the wind turbines weren't frozen it would have been able to import power from other places that weren't frozen over.
- petcat 1y agoFrozen wind turbines was a microscopic part of the problem compared to almost half of the fossil fuel natural gas plants being offline due to severe cold and freeze.
- Veliladon 1y agoThat too. Coal piles froze. Cooling pumps froze. Water vapor in the natural gas production pipelines froze because it's all fracked. But if they were connected to the East and West interconnections they probably could have rode it out.
- mschuster91 1y agoSo... what? Install heating equipment around the pipes. It would have been avoidable, it just would have cost money.
- petcat 1y agoSo... what, what? All I said was the natural gas plants freezing is what caused the main problem, not wind turbines.