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[–]ReeferMadness 7 insightful - 4 fun7 insightful - 3 fun8 insightful - 4 fun -  (9 children)

Just out of curiosity does the power situation make sense to you? I find it extremely suspicious that the state can handle the AC load but not heater loads. Do you guys not use gas to heat your homes?

[–]magnora7[S] 19 insightful - 4 fun19 insightful - 3 fun20 insightful - 4 fun -  (8 children)

It's because the power stations froze. Power generation was down like 35GW from normal at the peak, because several coal plants froze (their water cooling lines were not insulated), and same happened with a nuclear power plant, and also a lot of wind turbines were not winterized. Literally 1/3 of all texas power generation was offline at the worst of it. Some natural gas lines froze too, apparently. It was really bad. Pipes are not insulated down here because it never is below freezing for longer than a few hours, but it was below freezing for like 5 days straight during this storm, and it really messed up a LOT of water pipes

[–]JasonCarswell 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (7 children)

I can understand problems with civilian pipes, but it seems irresponsible that all power be so vulnerable. Any chance any of this was more than just an accident?

[–]magnora7[S] 12 insightful - 3 fun12 insightful - 2 fun13 insightful - 3 fun -  (6 children)

There's some talk a computer hack may have been involved. But really it's just that the regulations didn't require it. There were recommendations to fix it after a similar thing happened in 1989 and 2011, but the recommendations to winterize were not followed because there were not penalties for not doing so. That seems to be the core issue

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

In the USSR there was something that happened to a power plant because the parts were made cheaply and without thought for the most extreme of situations. Chernobyl.

Funny how the extremes of corporate capitalism and state communism end up boiling down to similar things: you get fucked up because they want to do it cheaply or easily, and frankly it's mostly good enough.

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah I'm really glad the Texas nuclear plant that had to shut down due to frozen cooling lines, didn't meltdown.

This whole week has felt very USSR to me. Empty grocery stores, no utilities... I was seriously beginning to consider burning furniture to keep warm. But now there's so much glue and plastic in furniture it would probably be toxic

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Thanks for this - and welcome back! - as it's not mentioned much by the MSM and in social media, which tends to focus on what happened rather than why it happened (or that Ted was MIA, or fundraising by AOC & Beto, or emergency aid, which are all worth noting, but Texans should discuss the history and potential solutions for this). Or as Jon Stewart used to refer to the MSM as like a reaction to spotting a squirrel, as a segue to anything (https://www.cc.com/video/ggx7it/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-squirrelly-situation). I hope that the discussion of potential penalties/regulations for State fiduciary irresponsibilities will continue, and that Texans will not forget this, as if if were an MSM discussion of a squirrel.

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Millions of Texans are PISSED. I would imagine some serious change will be coming. It's possible everyone will forget and move on if they can delay long enough, but this really seriously wrecked a lot of people's lives, and that won't be forgotten

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks for the Jon Stewart clip too, I miss him. I wonder why he doesn't have a podcast, he could rival Joe Rogan if he started his own. Probably has a gag order as part of his severance from comedy central, I'd bet. Probably also burned out as hell. But I miss his moderate yet intelligent opinions, everything's too polarized now. It's nice to see him make appearances on other shows occasionally though

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks for that perfect clear nutshell to remove my woo.