Thank you Elmer, while the problem with the wind turbines to the north of Texas such as in Iowa and Nebraska, as I am reading, is that there is not enough wind to keep them moving and some ice has built up. They do have the protective equipment to keep what has happened in Texas from happening to those in the Dakotas, Nebraska, and other points north. I do wonder what people were thinking since there are wind turbines in areas much colder and wetter than Texas all over the world that do fine every year.

El Paso is not having issues with power outages...and it is outside of ERCOT.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/texas-wind-turbines-frozen/

Frozen wind turbines in Texas caused some conservative state politicians to declare Tuesday that the state was relying too much on renewable energy. But in reality, the lost wind power makes up only a fraction of the reduction in power-generating capacity that has brought outages to millions of Texans across the state during a major winter storm.

An official with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Tuesday afternoon that 16 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, mostly wind generation, was offline. Nearly double that, 30 gigawatts, had been lost from thermal sources, which includes gas, coal and nuclear energy....

... the shutdown of a nuclear reactor in Bay City because of the cold, and finally got to what energy experts say is the biggest culprit, “Low Supply of Natural Gas: ERCOT planned on 67GW from natural gas/coal, but could only get 43GW of it online. We didn’t run out of natural gas, but we ran out of the ability to get natural gas. Pipelines in Texas don’t use cold insulation —so things were freezing.”....

It's estimated that of the grid's total winter capacity, about 80% of it, or 67 gigawatts, could be generated by natural gas, coal and some nuclear power. Only 7% of ERCOT’s forecasted winter capacity, or six gigawatts, was expected to come from various wind power sources across the state.

Heather Zichal, CEO of the industry group the American Clean Power Association, said ... “It is disgraceful to see the longtime antagonists of clean power – who attack it whether it is raining, snowing or the sun is shining – engaging in a politically opportunistic charade misleading Americans to promote an agenda that has nothing to do with restoring power to Texas communities...

I hope all the corrupt TX politicians with their isolationist, capitalistic, faux-patriotic shenanigans will finally face some serious public backlash. But I won’t hold my breath.

Well, maybe when customers see how much they'll be paying for what little electricity they have, they might have something to say:

A 100-megawatt wind farm in Texas that might have normally made almost $40,000 over a two-day period in February could reap more than $9.5 million on Monday and Tuesday alone, said Nicholas Steckler, a power-markets analyst at BloombergNEF. Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-16/skyrocketing-texas-power-prices-may-enrich-some-bankrupt-others

It won't happen Kadefol, at least from true freedom loving Texans. Maybe a few communist indoctrinated refugees who moved there with the same similar beliefs as you will complain, but not a true Tex. They won't complain that government should take care of them, that electricity is a right and tear down society, but will solve the problem after this historic cold front and do not need any help from people who hate everything they love.

The only human right is the right to life and freedom, something people die for because wanting more takes them down the same path as California where most live under layers of fear and repression and why Newsom is being recalled. Or New York where thousands of old people died at the hands of dictator Cuomo. These are what Texans don't want including people like you meddling in their affairs.

Kevin:

...that electricity is a right and tear down society...

Do you think society has been torn at all by millions without power and many dying as a result?

We've already seen some go from wanting to secede to demanding help from the federal government, so some people do change their minds, at least when it's expedient to do so. Others maybe not so much.

...will solve the problem after this historic cold front ...

El Paso seemed to have fixed it after the last cold snap and were prepared for this one. Is there a reason why the rest of TX didn't?

"down the same path as California where most live under layers of fear and repression"

annie, it's an extremist's angry attitude, not looking for conversation. There's no need to read more than this to understand. Is there?

"Don't Mess with Texas" is taking on a new meaning of late.....just remove the "Don't"

ERCOT does not cover the entire state of Texas - El Paso is not included, as well as parts of the panhandle and east Texas.

Here's a tweet from Rice University regarding the Texas energy problem.

When I lived in Austin the the late 1980s, I rented a house that had central A/C and heating, and the central heating was electric. However, because the house was built in 1934, it had a floor furnace in the middle of the house that used natural gas, and so I lit the pilot in that furnace, once I discovered how expensive electric heating was. The floor furnace did not use electricity, as it did not have a fan, but it may have required electricity for its thermostat to work. Anyway, my electric bill was reduced by 80% when I switched to gas heating, and the gas bill was low all winter. The electric bill in the summer was never as high because I kept the thermostat set at 80° and used ceiling fans. The house was surrounded by trees, and I think that helped keep it cooler in summer.

My parents' house on a farm in central Texas had propane instead of natural gas, and they had a huge propane tank that had to be filled from time to time. For heating, they only had gas space heaters, but that was enough, from what I remember.

The local electric company belongs to something called the Southwest Power Pool not the ERCOT it stretches from parts on New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle up to the Canadian border. They cover parts of 14 states but each area has their own power company which can be drawn on if needed. Think of it as a grid for simplicity. They were the ones I received the information from about the wind turbines that did not have the correct equipment in Texas and Oklahoma to prevent the equipment from freezing. It will be interesting to see what if anything is done to prevent this from happening again in such a large scale.

This:

> Unfortunately, with this new administration and its “green at any and all costs“
initiatives, things are only going to get worse vis-à-vis energy/power supply and production.

In light of this:

> I also just read that few of the wind power operators in Texas chose to
included winter-hardy features for the turbines installed. Things like
blade warmers, antifreeze, special lubricants, are standard to use.
These steps were avoided to reduce costs.

suggests that it is not some externally imposed "green at any and all costs" mandate to blame for the problems, but instead short-sighted, greed-driven, "making the most green by cutting costs" capitalistic ethos that is at fault for the current problem in Texas.

kevin9408

It won't happen Kadefol, at least from true freedom loving Texans.

How does electing officials that push isolationism and lack of preparation for severe weather events translate as freedom loving?

Maybe a few communist indoctrinated refugees who moved there with the
same similar beliefs as you will complain, but not a true Tex. They
won't complain that government should take care of them, that
electricity is a right and tear down society, but will solve the problem
after this historic cold front and do not need any help from people who
hate everything they love.

You can't be serious. We pay a large amount in property taxes and other taxes to help support a reliable infrastructure. We have the right to expect clean water and reliable utilities. And we have the right to expect our leaders toprotect the people in this state to the best of their ability. At that, and most everything else, TX leaders are abject failures. All they care about is catering to big business interests and their big oil donors/cronies.

The only human right is the right to life and freedom, something
people die for because wanting more takes them down the same path as
California where most live under layers of fear and repression and why
Newsom is being recalled. Or New York where thousands of old people
died at the hands of dictator Cuomo.

How many people's lives has the TX "leadership" mishandling of covid cost? Abbott's aggressive push to reopen TX in May and his wishy-washy refusal to mandate masks and social distancing caused many, many nursing home and other deaths, overburdened hospitals, etc. And talking about dictators, instead of backing off after he botched the TX covid response, he refused to let mayors of various hard-hit cities enforce ordinances to try to keep the virus spread under control.

These are what Texans don't want including people like you meddling in their affairs.

You shouldn't presume to speak for all Texans because I know plenty of natives who are fed up with the sorry excuses for leadership we have had for years now. I hope TX turns blue in 2022 and I, and many other "real Texans", will certainly vote accordingly.

So Bob if central Florida had a once in a 1000 yr snow storm dumping 6" of snow and people were stranded because they had no snow plows would this also be short-sighted, greed-driven capitalistic ethos too? So how deep should we go to condemn politicians and companies here bob. Enjoy your witch hunt.

Kevin....you are correct! YOU nailed it! Texans are just another breed.

I hope Texas recovers quickly from this......

"Maybe a few communist indoctrinated refugees who moved there with the
same similar beliefs as you will complain, but not a true Tex. They
won't complain that government should take care of them, that
electricity is a right and tear down society, but will solve the problem
after this historic cold front and do not need any help from people who
hate everything they love."

Please return our tax money that's coming in to Texas as "emergency help" from our Federal gov't. The rest of us pay taxes to provide things that apparently Texans don't want to tax themselves to pay for. So why am I now paying for it in your scenario?'

Just to be clear, I really don't want anyone, Texas isolationist or not, to suffer from these conditions because of their lack of intelligent, good leadership with foresight. But if you are going to assault and insult the people who are giving you a hand-out, well, think about how hypocritical that is.

eta: So Bob if central Florida had a once in a 1000 yr snow storm dumping 6"
of snow and people were stranded because they had no snow plows would
this also be short-sighted, greed-driven capitalistic ethos too?

Not Bob, but snow plows in Florida is a false equivalency to a power grid deliberately made non-functional for lack of willingness to cooperate with others and for profit greed. Can't wait to see the screaming by all the "real" Texans when they get the outrageous bills for the power they have been able to get during this debacle.

Using names intended to be pejorative labels adds nothing to a conversation. The causes are unrelated to today's politics, unrelated to today's politicians. It is happening in the private sector because that's where the energy sector is.

From what I've garnered - Texas wanted a relatively unregulated free power market and that's what it got. There's no financial incentive or reimbursement for installing equipment and systems that are more weather hardy so they all chose the cheapest routes, leaving much at risk for unexpected, rare events. And that's where things are. In colder climates, equipment is winterized, pipelines and equipment are insulated, and so can operate in cold temperatures. The Texas operators, not unlike elsewhere where more temperate weather is the norm, chose to go with the least expensive choices at each point. To run the risk of what was quite rare but possible.and that has happened.

So yes, it's just as if the balmy parts of Florida had a rare snow event. No snow plows because the likelihood of needing them is extremely low. No constituency would be happy to buy equipment used once every few decades. That would be a waste of money. Neither in business nor in anyone's personal lives are all possibilities prepared for. It's too expensive. No one is to blame. More hardiness could be required by the government but the fact that all the opt-outs were otherwise chosen is not surprising.

It has nothing to do with anything unique to Texas nor Texans. There are reasons why governments exist and need to regulate private sector operations that provide for public health and safety. Those who blindly want things to happen without any oversight, willy nilly, get just that - willy nilly preventable problems.

The mayor of a small Texas town who told residents they were owed "NOTHING" as many went without power or heat during a deadly cold snap has resigned.

“No one owes you [or] your family anything,” Tim Boyd, the mayor of Colorado City, Texas, wrote Tuesday in a since-deleted Facebook post. "I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!”

“The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes
you NOTHING!" he said while urging residents to "step up and come up
with a game plan" for acquiring power or heat.

“Only the strong will survive and the weak will [perish],” he added.

Just wow!

Yes he posted later to try to 'fix' it, but whined that people were attacking his wife for what he said and she's been forced to resign from her job. Perhaps someone should tell him that no one owes her a job...

He resigned before he made this statement. He was still listed as Mayor on ALL official records and people were still wanting him to "do-something." He wanted everyone to leave him alone...as he was NO longer mayor. He was frustrated.....it happens.

If you can’t take the heat.....

Tim resigned, happy? If any have a solution please apply for the job and while you're at it find a solution for the severe drought which started in early 2020. Haven't noticed?

Nearly a quarter of the U.S. is in a severe drought and pushing into west Texas.

Drought map The progression of the drought can be seen using the date tool to view pass archived maps.

I moved out of Texas for the sole reason of water, and the population was half what it is now. The summer which made me turn tail had no rain and a wall of red dust rolled in from the west and I won't lie, it scared me straight out. The next closest source of water was 800 ft. down onto the central Texas uplift aquifer which has a very slow recharge rate.

I doesn't matter if Texas is red, blue or green it won't change what is coming. A one world order can collect all wealth in the world as a carbon tax, and shut down every carbon emitting source world wide and it still won't matter. Climate change has always been the determining factor for migration of the human race since we came into existence, with 1000's of civilizations turning into ghost towns because of a change in climate, and long before the industrial age

I feel sorry for those who think any of what is and will happen in the future can be stopped with human intervention. With all we know about the earth's evolution and the knowledge available to everyone because of internet how can anyone be so ignorant as to blame any person or party for a historic cold front hitting the south.

I feel sorry for those who think any of what is and will happen in the
future can be stopped with human intervention. With all we know about
the earth's evolution and the knowledge available to everyone because of
internet how can anyone be so ignorant as to blame any person or party
for a historic cold front hitting the south.

We can't control what happens, but we can mitigate it by preparing for it. The arctic front in 2011 was a warning which should have prompted TX leadership to realize that an isolated powergrid is not a good idea. They could have - and should have - taken steps to prevent a repeat. The 10% who are not on the TX powergrid are the ones who are doing fine, with no to minimal power outages, because they were able to import power. We can only hope that this disaster will prompt those currently in charge of TX to reevaluate.

You can't prepare for a once every 50 to 100 year event. To put it in terms some can understand shouldn't New England have been prepared for "Super Storm Sandy"? Do remember that wasn't even an hurricane.

The last serious event was in 2011 and should have prompted changes. Being part of a nationwide power grid is prudent. TX isolationist thinking is not going to serve the state as climate change causes more and more disasters. Unlike Ted Cruz, most Texans can't afford to fly to Cancun to escape brutal weather at the drop of a hat.

Some of you seem to be ignoring that the OP is in Oklahoma, part of the Southwest Power Pool. The SPP was affected by this storm. The OP was experiencing rolling blackouts in OK. Were the majority of Texas connected to the SPP, the outcome would have been the same and possibly worse for those outside of TX.

Others are ignoring the fact that TX is a very large state encompassing 5 gardening zones. What makes sense for Amarillo, in the TX panhandle doesn't make sense for McAllen, TX. Accusations that 'Texas didn't' ignores this.

Most are ignoring the fact that this is a short term event. That this storm was quite unusual. That the storm intensified beyond all forecast expectations leaving planners with only one day's notice of what the true scope of the storm would be.

As for the wind turbines, lubrication, blade warmers, etc. The projected life span of wind generators is 20-25 years. The last time the weather was this cold in TX was 32 years ago. Do you know that the lubricants in wind turbines is changed every 3-7 years, depending on the type of lubricants used? Or that TX has almost 3 times more wind generation capacity than the next leading state? (Iowa). Planning/ procedures/ protocol will be very different for a farm in the TX panhandle than for a farm 5-600 miles south.

If you lived in Houston, would you keep a set of snow tires? Would you insist on owning a car with seat heaters? Or keep a snowmobile in the garage? Probably not. Because it wouldn't make economic sense.

Do you know that the power situation has drastically improved:

As of 11 a.m., there were only about 32,000 CenterPoint customers in the Houston area still without power. It's still a big number, but this is a drop of more than a million from 24 hours earlier.

Per something I read this morning, there had been only one traffic fatality in Houston since the storm began.

The critical situation now is water outage. My son lives slightly west of midtown Houston. He had had power for the duration. As of early yesterday evening, he had been without water for 26 hours. He said that he bought two cases of water on Feb 4 and had 1.25 cases remaining.

FEMA has been called in; I don't know what FEMA is assisting with but, as of yesterday evening, water distribution is not something FEMA was doing.

Also, consider that 1/3 of the directors of ERCOT do not even live in the state of TX. Possibly something that should be addressed.

For perspective, compare this natural disaster with the heat waves that hit France (roughly the same size as TX albeit a larger population). 1500 French citizens died because of the heat wave summer 2019. 15,000 French citizens died in the heat wave in 2003.

"Others are ignoring the fact that TX is a very large state encompassing 5 gardening zones."

ERCOT covers one of the smallest geographic regions of the power regions of North America. By comparison, the Western Interconnect runs from the deserts of California and Arizona to the tundra in the Yukon. Much more than 5 gardening zones, more like ALL the gardening zones. I'm not sure how or why that would be relevant anyway.

"1/3 of the directors of ERCOT do not even live in the state of TX."

How is this relevant? I promise you that you do business with many companies whose HQs and those whose leadership folks are not only resident in your state.

"If you lived in Houston, would you keep a set of snow tires?"

Would you live in an unheated house in an area that only needs heat 10 days a year? 3% is the same as 3 times in 100, or on average every 33 years. Last cold weather in Texas was 10 years ago.

The severe weather event in 2011 should have prompted all action possible to avoid the same from happening again. The huge costs that will be associated with this freeze and the massive power outages could have been avoided by the much lower expense of winterizing equipment, and also joining the Western powergrid. As evidenced by the areas of TX who are connected to the Western powergrid being able to obtain power and therefore avoid all the misery that has plagued people on the TX powergrid.

There is NOTHING wrong with being part of a national powergrid and being able to obtain power during shortages in winter and summer. Even if only part of TX was able to do this, it would lower power consumption for the entire state and allow powergrids in other areas to stay up or only experience short outages, instead of days of no power.

> You can't prepare for a once every 50 to 100 year event.

That's absolute rubbish. People, companies and governments should and can and do prepare for highly unlikely events. Cars come with seatbelts and air bags even though the expected number of serious accidents in a driver's lifetime is less than one. People install smoke detectors in houses even though the vast majority of houses never have a catastrophic fire. I'll agree that the amount spent on preparing for any particular unlikely event should take the likelihood of that event occurring into account, but it should also take the costs of foreseeable negative consequences into account.

I guarantee that those running power plants, or wind turbines, or gas pipelines did consider the likelihood of weather like this occurring into account. And they decided that the benefits to them personally in terms of bonuses for cost savings from not doing anything to prepare, outweighed the risks and costs to them personally -- the one making the decisions -- if their gamble didn't pay off. They'd probably no longer be at the company when the unlikely event occurred, and even if they were, they personally wouldn't shoulder any of the costs of their short-sighted, greed-driven behavior, and perhaps even the company itself won't be held responsible for much in terms of the costs. Its an "Act of God" they'll say, and side-step being held liable for their decisions.

An all-too-common part of the Capitalistic ethos is to figure out how to privatize the upside, the gains, while shunting the costs and risks onto others. So right now in Texas energy providers who have long since pocketed and spent the savings they garnered through skipping measures to prepare for temperatures they are seeing now, are buying energy at exorbitant spot-market prices, and surely plan to pass those dramatically increased costs on to their customers.

That's absolute rubbish. People, companies and governments should and can and do prepare for highly unlikely events.

In 2011, during the last polar vortex, then governor rick perry was
advised by federal regulators to require operators to winterize wind
turbines and other equipment, but he declined. Current Gov Abbott did
the same. Industry regulation for the greater good should be mandatory,
not optional. Requiring winterization of equipment like all other states already do (and some of them have power prices that are as
low or even lower than TX) is not a federal takeover nor socialism.

Is it is socialism for the rest of the country to respond with help when any of our states is in need, even though we are then all sharing in the costs of bad planning, poor management? Is it federal take-over to have some rules and expectations on how that aid will be used to benefit the people it's supposed to? I don't think so.

kevin9408

Kadefol,
I thought maybe you were somewhat neurotic and displaying some anxiety,
a little fear followed by anger and pointing a finger of blame,
understandable and a emotional response from a crisis. I thought wrong,
I see nothing from you but a calculated attempt to attack a political
party using this cold front as an excuse. Rahm Emanuel said "never let a
crisis go to waste" and you're milking it dry, and I'm convinced you
have no compassion for the people of Texas, just a tool.

Patriotism involves emotions of love for people and a connection to
your community, something you fail to have and what you have already
denounced. So take your seed of hate to a local town meeting, stand up
and denounce capitalism and your disdain for the community, then tell
them how you really feel, I can here the boo's now. I have many
relatives in Texas from Dallas to Killeen who are doing fine, just a
little inconvenienced so who are you trying to fool here?

kevin9498, how impressive for you to be able to diagnose me with neuroticism, anxiety, lack of connection to, and disdain for, my community, seeds of hatred, and denouncing capitalism, all via reading posts on a forum. Where did you receive your psychology degree?

It's okay to ignore him, you'll be in good company of many others who do.

Son has decamped to friends' place in Spring (north part of Houston) where all utilities are functional.

Being part of a nationwide power grid is prudent.

Texas is slightly larger than France, so it is larger than a lot of 'nations'. As I said above, if Texas had been part of the Southwest Power Pool, the outcome would have been the same. Or worse. Because the SPP could not meet demand either.

kevin9408

Haha.
You yourself denounced capitalism and a disdain for patriotism, you
said it and your words. Everyone has some level of Neuroticism along
with sub traits so it doesn't need diagnosed it applies to everyone.
Your level seems to be high and suggests you're not a professional, but
anyway the information comes from having an internet connection.

If the Aztec people had the internet with access to information they
wouldn't have fell for the sun god/human sacrifice thing preached by the
noble class to control them. I'm sorry you can't use the damn thing
your Majesty, but may I call you Karen?

Yeah, thanks. I will take Elmer's advice and ignore you.

ci_lantro

Being part of a nationwide power grid is prudent.

Texas is slightly larger than France, so it is larger than a lot of
'nations'. As I said above, if Texas had been part of the Southwest
Power Pool, the outcome would have been the same. Or worse. Because
the SPP could not meet demand either.

Enrolling those parts of TX to which it is accessible
in the Western powergrid would not have resulted in the same outcome.
That, along with winterization of equipment, would have mitigated much
of this.

I have many relatives in Texas from Dallas to Killeen who are doing fine, just a little inconvenienced so who are you trying to fool here?

Same here and they are doing their best to to stay positive and get through this best they can. They are also doing all doing their best to ignore the ignorant fools who will let no crisis go to waste with their lack of compassion or empathy. The hateful commentary I have seen here and on FB is shameful. But that is how they are.

wildchild2x2

I
have many relatives in Texas from Dallas to Killeen who are doing fine,
just a little inconvenienced so who are you trying to fool here?

Same here and they are doing their best to to stay positive and get
through this best they can. They are also doing all doing their best to
ignore the ignorant fools who will let no crisis go to waste with their
lack of compassion or empathy. The hateful commentary I have seen here
and on FB is shameful. But that is how they are.

It's hard to stay positive when your power has been out for 3 days, your house is freezing, and you can't even go to a motel because their power is out as well. And you have no water and the roads are too bad to drive anywhere else. I sure hope this situation prompts compassion and empathy in our leaders, and the determination to do their best to be better prepared next time. Because there will be a next time.

Our town has no gas, trucks won't be able to deliver til next week, if there is any gas available to deliver at that time. Grocery store shelves are empty because the supply chain has been disrupted. New deliveries won't be made til next week. On the bright side, we finally have our power and water and our cellphone connection and internet back.

I don't have high expectations, Texas as a state has a history of inept politicians.

Former Gov. Perry, a person of very limited capability and intellect but Secy of Energy , said that Texans preferred to be without heat and power for days rather than give any power to the federal government. Senator Cruz, another mental midget, showed his solidary with his constituency by getting on an airplane for a vacation in Cancun. He returned immediately when his airport presence was outed on the internet. He'd said his home was without power but then I heard maybe that wasn't true.

Another article I came upon, maybe yesterday, had as a premise that Texas has long held itself out as a state that was perfectly capable of taking care of its "business" and people on its own but that this crisis was yet another in a long line of examples showing that in fact that wasn't really the case.

After experiencing this long stretch of ugly weather, I'm bugging out for AZ in a couple of weeks. (The last time that I was outdoors was February 4th!) Not unlike the tens of thousands of people who left the cities and headed for the woods to escape Covid. Or those who are sitting in their second or third or fourth house escaping the weather back 'home'. Just because I can. Because I am sick of cold weather & winter.

If you can't contribute in a meaningful way to solving problems in a crisis--like being a plumber who is thawing out frozen pipes & repairing leaks--or a city worker who is working on warming up the generators that run the pumps that distribute the water--or a utility worker in Oregon clearing downed trees and helping to restore the power to the thousands of people there who are currently without... Get out of the way. Don't continue to consume resources that are in limited supply. Resources that other people, those who can not leave, need. No points awarded for wallowing in misery when you have options.

ETA: Non-stop flight from Houston to Phoenix leaving Sunday. $167 round trip.

ETA: I would have left sooner except for getting the second dose of Covid Vax Saturday + 14 days for immunity to build.

If you can't contribute in a meaningful way to solving problems in a
crisis--like being a plumber who is thawing out frozen pipes &
repairing leaks--or a city worker who is working on warming up the
generators that run the pumps that distribute the water--or a utility
worker in Oregon clearing downed trees and helping to restore the power
to the thousands of people there who are currently without... Get out of
the way. Don't continue to consume resources that are in limited
supply. Resources that other people, those who can not leave, need. No
points awarded for wallowing in misery when you have options.

I don't understand this comment at all. Who is standing in the way of power restoration? And who is wallowing in misery even though they have options?

Politifact news source has the answer. Here is a part of this article.

"Natural gas, not wind turbines, main driver of Texas power shortage

Texas does have a bodacious amount of wind power. In winter, it supplies about 25% of the state’s electricity. And nearly half of that capacity shut down when ice coated the turbine blades. As residents tried to heat their homes, demand surged and the agency that manages the state’s power grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, imposed rolling blackouts.

The numbers show that natural gas plants were the biggest cause of the power shortfall, not wind."

PolitiFact | Natural gas, not wind turbines, main driver of Texas power shortage

I understand what Cilantro is saying...why stay in an area which has limited resources that others need, if you can leave and get to a place where there are more resources? If you don't have skills that are needed in an area in crisis, get out if you can. It's not always selfish self interest, but both the community in crisis and the person leaving will benefit when you leave.

The complication is Covid 19 and the recommendation that we stay put. But if you are conscientious about safety, maybe it's still can be the right thing to do.

I do not think this applies to elected officials who should stay and work as hard as they can for their constituents instead of fleeing, just because they have the privilege to do so.

I do not think this applies to elected officials who should stay and work as hard as they can for their constituents instead of fleeing, just because they have the privilege to do so.

I agree to a point. By no means should the governor take off. He/ she is a state official; his job is in his state. Not so much when the official has been elected to represent the state in DC. A good part of the time, a person elected to federal office is not in residence in his/her home state. More than a few who have been elected to serve a state in DC have been accused of rarely returning to their home state...only showing up for re-election campaign season.

I'm going to presume that a good deal/ most of what needed to be done in an official capacity was the job of the Governor & his state apparatus. And that the Governor could certainly request assistance from the senators & reps to DC as he saw need.

Congress is currently on a scheduled break and is not in session. In the case of the accused, he gets credit for actually having been in his home state when the storm, coincidentally, happened. So he was first hand witness, well-apprised of the situ. For all we know, the family trip to MX may very well have been planned weeks/ months in advance. And that his family had been eagerly anticipating it. In this era of instant communication, location is mostly irrelevant. And perhaps preferred given that cell & internet & power services were compromised back home.

TX Senator Cornyn had a Twitter presence...might have been him behind the keyboard or might have been office staff. Where was/ is he, physically? Where are Oregon's senators? Oregon has a large outage of services due to a devastating snow & ice storm. Twitter 'help' is no help to people who are without communication resources wrought by the weather. As if they would dial into what their US Senator is saying IF they had communication ability.

Can you imagine: 'Honey, the water line is frozen & the sewer line is clogged. Quick, call The Senator!' More like that person in need is thinking: 'I sure hope my representatives are talking to FEMA...' 'I sure hope my representatives are organizing a convoy of plumbers & plumbing repair supplies.....'

How many elected officials have departed for foreign soil during the congressional break---on private planes?

Because of the problems with communication, I did not try to contact my son in Houston. (Is he able to charge his phone/ his laptop? Is the limited cell service getting jammed? What other problems are they having that I haven't even thought of?...) I waited for him to contact me.

And then we all know of the rap laid down on officials that show up for disaster scene tours--how they distract from the on-going efforts and divert the time, effort of on-the-ground-officials whose time would be better spent solving immediate problems.

IOW's, it's a bunch of crap. Partisan bickering, political tit for tat. Totally unproductive. Distraction. Zero, less than zero value so far as solving the problems of restoring services and getting people's lives back to some semblance of normal. And intellectually lazy 'reporters' who sit behind a keyboard in a nice warm place reading Twitter feeds rather than hitting the pavement looking for real stories.

Vada, the Texas Tribune has an informative article regarding all of this.

Millions of Texans were left in the
dark for days after winter storms triggered power outages. But people in
El Paso, the upper Panhandle and parts of East Texas kept their lights
on — thanks to power drawn from other parts of the country.

...The main culprit for the power outages
in ERCOT’s coverage area was failures across Texas’ natural gas
operations and supply chains due to the extreme temperatures. From
frozen natural gas wells to frozen wind turbines, all power sources
faced difficulties during the winter storm. Texans largely rely on
natural gas for power and heat generation, especially during peak usage,
experts said.

...Energy and policy experts told The Texas Tribune
this week that limited regulations on companies that generate power and
a history of isolating Texas from federal oversight help explain the
crisis. They said Texas’ decisions not to require equipment upgrades to withstand extreme winter temperatures and to operate mostly isolated from other grids in the U.S. left the power system unprepared for this week’s outages.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/18/texas-power-grid-outage-ercot/

The story in Texas has moved on. The problem now confronting millions is the lack of running water. At least some of the problems stemmed from municipalities not being able to keep the water running because they couldn't start back-up generators (due to the cold temperatures) to keep the pump systems operational. If water supply had not been interrupted, there would have been far fewer frozen pipes. Pipes--main line distribution & in homes that froze & broke & are now leaking which is making it impossible to maintain water pressure in the lines.

When Austin got the pumps up & running, 325 million gallons leaked away in just one day. Normal daily consumption in Austin is around 100 million gallons to give a sense of perspective. Further complicating the problem for Austin is that this depleted the reservoir system they rely on. That, and cold temperatures caused the purifying chemicals used to not perform as they usually do, the possibility of contaminants leaching into the system because of the line breaks--hence the boil order for those fortunate enough to have running water.

Yes, it is a bad situation.

It's a balmy 35 in our area, so the PD is out doing welfare checks and distributing bottled water to those who need it.

We're on the upswing here, too. 18 outside; maybe 20 tomorrow. I do have to go out tomorrow for the 2nd Covid vax. So relieved that I didn't have to go last Saturday!

And it is good to hear that water is getting distributed.

I need to check on some other family members. They are full time RV'ers. Were in central OK visiting their daughter & decided last week to try to outdistance the storm, according to the forecast. So they headed south to Temple, TX & then got hit with the revised forecast and, presumably, caught down there. They didn't want to stray too far from base because their second Covid vax appointment is coming up back in OK. Just a real life example of how people got caught by bad weather because the forecasts didn't see how the storm was going to intensify and push farther south.

When my husband told me about it, I said they should have headed west & bought round trip plane tickets to come back for the shots--(as the event unfolded in real life.)

My brother and his wife have been snowbirding in their travel trailer on South Padre Island since mid January. I haven't heard how the polar vortex has affected them this last week. They originally planned to break camp on Feb. 12 but decided to stay 2 more weeks because it was just going to be too cold at their Wisconsin home. They now plan to leave SPI this Wednesday and stop by here (KC) on Friday for a 2 night stay.