Texas Power vs EPA

[Axtremus]

This report has this to say:

https://abc13.com/texas-disaster-declaration-governor-greg-abbott-winter-weather-winterizing-roads/10342268/

"On Sunday, Abbott sought and received a waiver from the U.S. Department of Energy that allows Texas power generators to increase production. Unfortunately, some of those generators are unable to increase production at this time because their operations have been frozen by weather conditions. ..."

At least for the waiver request that Abbott made on Sunday (Feb.21?), Abbott received that waiver from the Department of Energy.

[George K]

@axtremus said in Texas Power vs EPA:

At least for the waiver request that Abbott made on Sunday (Feb.21?), Abbott received that waiver from the Department of Energy.

The waiver was requested on 2/14.

[Axtremus]

Thanks, @George-K. With regards to the Feb.14 request, the EPA DOE also approved a bunch of stuff (going by the images of the document provided in the 2nd tweet you linked above). Your opening post charactering the EPA's DOE's response as a "nope" is incorrect.

[A Former User]

Anyone read the letter from the DOE (not EPA)? Or the comments on the original tweet? Some useful information there.

[jon-nyc]

Wow it’s almost like Abbott is trying to shift some blame.

[jon-nyc]

At least this is more plausible than blaming the Green New Deal. As if a slide show and a slogan caused the outage.

[Loki]

@jon-nyc said in Texas Power vs EPA:

At least this is more plausible than blaming the Green New Deal. As if a slide show and a slogan caused the outage.

Who is responsible for making sure those renewable sources of energy are weather proof. My Texas friends say they can’t get them to work yet hence the waiver request.

[jon-nyc]

My guess is the operator and not the EPA.

Kind of a silly question.

[Doctor Phibes]

Natural gas, nuclear and coal power stations outages contributed more than the renewable stuff did.

Who do we blame for that?

[jon-nyc]

Seems like the same answer - the operators.

[Doctor Phibes]

If you have competing commercial operators, it stands to reason that they will compete on price, and not on how well they're going to cope with a once-in-a-50-year weather event. It also shouldn't be a surprise that if they compete on price, their ability to deal with highly unusual events is liable to be compromised.

Not that competition is bad, of course. I'm really just stating the obvious.

[kluurs]

@doctor-phibes said in Texas Power vs EPA:

If you have competing commercial operators, it stands to reason that they will compete on price, and not on how well they're going to cope with a once-in-a-50-year weather event.

Not every 50 years - more like 10. Source

**was hit with a cold-weather event “unusually severe in terms of temperature, wind, and duration.” This forced the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, to resort to “system-wide rolling blackouts to prevent more widespread customer outages.” Unfortunately, “generators and natural gas producers suffered severe losses of capacity despite having received accurate forecasts of the storm.” ERCOT had reserves in anticipation of the storm, but those “reserves proved insufficient” once the cold hit. Many generators had “failed to adequately apply and institutionalize knowledge and recommendations from previous severe winter weather events, especially as to winterization of generation and plant auxiliary equipment.”

That description of the cascading failures of Texas’s power grid is not from the past week. It is actually taken from a 2011 report from FERC, investigating an outage during a prior cold snap.**

[Loki]

All the news is meant to crush Texas for being off the grid. And given the various pains people are suffering that is more than understandable
.
As facts come out things will inevitably change.

Is the water system off the grid too?

Keep that in mind when reacting. So interesting that force majeure is being excluded as a possibility.

[jon-nyc]

This is an oversimplification but less so than statements Abbott has made. And funny.

[Loki]

Isn’t the real misery now all about water. I think people in Texas would appreciate a social media attack on that.

[jon-nyc]

I’m sure if Abbott transparently lies about the water situation social media will oblige.

Have you reached out to the governor’s office?

[Jolly]

@doctor-phibes said in Texas Power vs EPA:

Natural gas, nuclear and coal power stations outages contributed more than the renewable stuff did.

Who do we blame for that?

Uh, how much energy was the renewable stuff putting out?

Zero?

[Jolly]

@loki said in Texas Power vs EPA:

All the news is meant to crush Texas for being off the grid. And given the various pains people are suffering that is more than understandable
.
As facts come out things will inevitably change.

Is the water system off the grid too?

Keep that in mind when reacting. So interesting that force majeure is being excluded as a possibility.

You sir, are right.

The MSM and social media campaign is in full swing. Texas MUST CONFORM!!!!!

[Doctor Phibes]

@jolly said in Texas Power vs EPA:

@doctor-phibes said in Texas Power vs EPA:

Natural gas, nuclear and coal power stations outages contributed more than the renewable stuff did.

Who do we blame for that?

Uh, how much energy was the renewable stuff putting out?

Zero?

Roughly 20% of Texas' electricity comes from renewable, mostly wind power. 30 GW was lost by gas, coal and nuclear, 16 GW by wind.

It's a good advert for not being totally reliant on renewable, but also indicates that blaming the crisis on renewables is bollocks.

Personally, I'm a big fan of nuclear, or as they say in Texas, nucilar.

[Loki]

I think Texas is the fastest growing state. It’s been noticed.