Comments by "Xyz Same" (@xyzsame4081) on "NBC News"
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4:42 so Trump bothered to send out 2 tweets: at 2 : 38 pm and 3 : 13 pm. At 4 : 08 Biden goes on TV (the White House let (R) Gov. Hogan of Maryland wait 90 minutes for permission to deploy the National Guard to DC, he had them ready to go when he got an urgent call from Steny Hoyer and Chuck Schumer. Problem, even when they have the permission, they have to drive over, they need briefing, so there is a delay until they can be helpful anyway. - I assume Biden had gotten phone calls from Democrats).
At 4 : 17 Trump releases a video message, he repeated his claim that the election was stolen, that it was a landslide, but they should go home in peace, we love you, you are very special.
That will give them solace in jail, or when they pay the legal bills, I am sure.
At 5 : 40 the Capitol Building was cleared, at 6 : 00 pm there was a curfew in D.C.
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39:00 Putin playing dumb, and making disingeuous arguments. The woman (Ashley Babbit) that was killed really pushed her luck, as a vet she should have known better. She saw the agent at the other side of the glass, gun drawn (he was at one of the entries of the chamber, then likely still unsecured). She cast a glance at thim and then proceeded to crawl through the openeing they had just created by smashing the glass. Then and only then the police / security used deadly force.
Mere tresspassers were not held but released on bond, and the act of unauthorized entry is relevant when the building houses a part of the U.S. government, a superpower and prime target for terrorists. The "peaceful" trespasser still made it impossible for police to controll who went where in the building or came close to the VP or elected representatives. Or critical infrastructure. Not even all staffers of politicians are allowed in the chambers of Senate / The House, only a few get the ID that gives them floor privileges.
And the "peaceful" trespassers also took advantage of the fact that the police was engaged and kept busy by some vicious attacks.
The Trump fans could have chosen a LOT of public and private spaces to utter their protests. But not the Capitol, the pentagon, the FBI or CIA headquarters.
When a German landed on the Red Square in Moscow with a tiny aircraft (the radar had not picked him up) he was lucky that he was not shot. He got a trial and went to prison. In Russia they have a tradition of dumb dares by young males. Matthias Rust had time to think about his dumb stunt (and anyone that thought it was cool). he spent some time in prison and then he was pardoned and could return to Germany.
His stunt had no political background, he was no terrorist - but Russia had to prosecute him nontheless to discourage people doing that "for fun". He did them a favor because they became aware of a vulnerability.
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providers failed to prepare. Texan politicians wanted a race to the bottome regarding electricity prices. Preparedness was not mandated, it would cut into profits. Worse: some providers have problems with the margins already, they are not going to invest if it is not a level playing field (with mandates).
Federal regulations would have avoided the worst, at slightly higher prices. TX politicians want to attract industries that use a lot of energy and those companies (big donors) resent modestly higher prices (that would include the costs for reserves and making the equipment cold / heat proof). They could easily pay, they just do not want to. They pay those prices in all other states and in other nations.
And TX politicians wanted those extremely low prices (with cutting corners) as special attraction of Texas (plus MORE big donors ! for them) so they can lure in companies from other states (states that are now supposed to bail them out via federal government). Tx politicians look good, lots of jobs, also jobs in construction.
For geographic reasons some nations or regions must have a stand alone grid (separated by deserts, mountain ranges. Or islands) - but a nation or region that can, will connect to a larger grid. Only Texas - or maybe North Korea (If China accepts them, they would gladly cooperate with them, not sure if they are connected).
Stand alone grids COST more, they also have to provide for all the reserves for emergencies by themselves (they miss out on the backup of other states). Or one nation or province has a surplus, so it helps with costs if they import and export.
The Texas sitution is unique, because they have so much fossil fuels and they have a lot of consumption to match that. So they CAN be cheap despite being a closed "market".
Their politicians will also do nothing to promote energy saving. After all their buddies cannot export much - not part of a larger grid - so they NEED high ongoing consumption IN Texas.
but when they lose so much production they have extreme scarcity.
They also do not store oil or gas. They get that from ongoing extraction. Well they had a lot of technical problems with that too because of the unusual cold.
Then the providers returned to the grid. Households and companies got power again (sometimes). But the closed "market" had much higher demand than usual. Because of the cold and because they also lost natural gas for heating.
No imports from out of state possible - the prices would be slightly higher but no extortion prices, the Southwest grid is large and includes Canada, some providers have reserves - 'cause federal regulations - and would gladly activate them for a reasonable price.
If in a large net all keep some reserves and can deliver the resources (power, food, staff....) in an emergency to the other participants than all participants can make do with less reserves and can still have a high level of resilience - compared to when they are on their own in an emergency.
Some consumers have those "flexible" plans where the consumer prices are tied to the auction wholesale prices. Consumption is very differently throughout the season in Texas, normally it is the highest in summer. I guess it made sense for some consumers and no doubt was skillfully marketed.
The wholesale auction prices rose to extrem levels because of the scarcity - because of an epic failure of political and industrial leadership.
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@gw6667 so the professionals that do it for a living, have training, that got and dismissed the 2011 federal report and recommendations, the companies and politicians that can buy the expertise of lawyers, engineers, climate scientists, planners - THEY failed miserably.
But the consumers should have known better.
Well, yes - to think that anyone doing the free market gibberish had any clue what they were talking about. Regarding economics (for a natural monopoly) or regarding preparedness.
There was a major problem in 2011. Maybe consumers naively believed their government and the providers had learned from that.
Now El Paso for instance did LEARN. they had major problems in 2011 and they invested. Winterized. For geographical reasons they are part of the SouthWest Grid (the ERCOT grid handles 90 % of TX load, but they are lucky they are not on it) so they are subject to federal regulations and I think they were also willing, the feds did not have to pressure them.
As part of the grid they were also able to get large imports (from Arizona via NM) to meet higher than usual demand. Not only did they not lose production, they were able to access the reserves in other states.
Which means that those 2 states and the region also had the infrastructure in place and poles and powerlines that could resist some weight - ice rain buildup, wet heavy snow - and wind pressure. (should be a given in Texas because of Hurricanes).
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kettle r Biden did nothing regarding renewable energy. And the Obama admin had no impact, except that the gov. of TX sued the EPA so they wouldnot have to prepare for extreme cold. The wind turbines produce cheap power and if they would have winterized them (like they do in other countries and states where it can get cold occasionally), they could have relieved the situation.
Wind cannot save the day - they are not enough of the energy mix. But they could have helped.
The failure of wind turbines (in Texas ! they were running just fine in lower temps eveywhere else) and the failure of coal, gas and nuclear!! power plants to function during cold snaps is on TX politicians. To make things worse: they had that in 2011, and it was pretty bad already. Nothing learned.
(Except for El Paso region, for geographic reasons they are on the Southwest grid, so connected to other states, and subject to federal regulations. They winterized, they CAN import so they did - they coped well.)
To make things worse the natural gas pipelines are also not laid into the frost free zone in the ground, they also were not forced to winterize - so Texans lost also gas for heating. So even more demand, while production was massively reduced..
TEXAN POLTICIANS did not force the industry to prepare, that is at least 20 years in the making. Rather longer the had problems in 1989, 2011 and now in 2021. They created a race to the bottom regarding prices (that is why they are so hellbent to not accept any common sense federal regulation) - so the providers of course do not invest, if they do not have to.
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@12HappyDonuts the politicians and providers do not prepare. When the big challenge comes (punctually after 10 years) the providers fail miserably. Again ! This time it is worse than in 2011. At the height of the crisis they lose 40 % of electricity production AND have also failed to winterize the pipelines. They are not in the frost free zone (cutting corners for construction costs, once in 30 or more years lifetime) so instruments, controls fail, water condensates IN the gas and causes problems.
NO gas for heating, so even MORE demand for electricity.
When they come back to the grid they ask for extortion prices.
They (politicians likely on behalf of their big donors) arranged for Texas to be a closed region (not a market).
In order to be on the large national grid they would need to accept federal regulations that would mandate to prepare for extreme events (cold, heat, hurricanes) and likely to have some reserves. Maybe also some consumer protection.
Refusing to abide by common sense regulation (that could have saved them from losing electricty and gas for heating because of avoidable problems with low temperatures) meant also no access to the large grid - so no backup form the other Southwestern states and Canada.
In their Stand Alone Grid they do not routinely export and import a lot of electricity - so they do not have the infrastructure to import a lot in an emergency.
Since electricity is now a scarce resource in that small "market" hit by a cold snap they neglected to prepare for - the providers demand extortion prices if and when they can do their job (again).
Why ? Because they can- and way beyond costs of production.
So they missed out on revenue for a few days, but they can make up for that. And they never had to invest the money to avoid most of the problems and the scarcitiy to begin with.
They pushed for flexible tariffs. And allowed for contracts w/o caps. such contracts seem to be reasonable. If Texans reduce A/C use when demand is high they can save costs. Of course they can also save costs if the kwH is slightly more expensive (costs of peparedness added) and that motivates them to consume less hours. Not only to delay use, but to cut it out.
On the other hand much more could be saved if the state would mandate other building codes (they should have 30 years ago, would save a lot of energy for A/C in summer, and would have helped now. If it helps agains the heat it also helps against the cold).
But the providers and politicians do not want that:
Texan can only run the Stand Alone Grid * at low prices because it has so much energy, but it also needs a lot of consumption (squandering). The providers cannot export - so they want to sell a lot in Texas. They cannot grow into another market, if Texans would become more energy efficient.
The less energy you need to function the more resilient the system is.
* New Zealand or Iceland or the islands of Hawaii also have a Stand Alone Grid, they can't help it as islands. But they would connect to a grid if they could. and likely it costs them because they have to provide the reserves all by themselves. In a larger grid one can profit from the reserves of out of state to get help during an emergency.
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