The Briefing Room
State Chapters => Texas => Topic started by: Elderberry on February 19, 2021, 01:57:22 pm
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Houston Chronicle by Chris Tomlinson 2/19/2021
Tomlinson: Texas electric grid is an easy fix, if lawmakers will admit their error
Most people know the lowest bidder does not always provide the most reliable product.
Making sure a vendor can actually deliver the product also seems like common sense.
ERCOT, the Texas electric grid manager, though, does neither of those things because Republican politicians who have controlled state regulations for two decades have failed to heed 13 years of dire warnings.
Instead, they believed free-market advocates who argued financial incentives would encourage responsible planning.
The Texas Blackouts prove them wrong. Now our political leaders are giving us misleading scapegoating, political gamesmanship and another front in the culture wars.
Texas has the only American electricity grid with no rules for resiliency. Instead, the GOP majority argued that a system that pays higher prices when demand goes up would incentivize generators to make sure their systems work during extreme weather.
More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/Texas-electric-grid-is-easy-to-fix-if-lawmakers-15961368.php (https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/Texas-electric-grid-is-easy-to-fix-if-lawmakers-15961368.php)
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The "solution," according to Chron-job:
The reforms we need, though, are simple. First, connect to the rest of the country via the national grid and accept federal regulation so we can import electricity when we run out.
Texas should also require generators to prove they are prepared for the weather events climate change will bring before they can offer their power to the wholesale market. That would reduce the risk of failure and force generators to weatherize.
Power prices will rise, ever so slightly, but it will reduce the risk of another Texas Blackout.
To leftists, the answer is always "More Federal regulations."
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The "solution," according to Chron-job:
To leftists, the answer is always "More Federal regulations."
Yeah. That ain't right. in fact it's bass ackwards.
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The "solution," according to Chron-job:
To leftists, the answer is always "More Federal regulations."
:yowsa: And they always make things worse in the long run!
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:yowsa: And they always make things worse in the long run!
I included the last line, about prices rising "ever so slightly" so we'd know it's a BOHICA plan.