by Robert Wheeler
The Great Reset is continuing apace and every sign that austerity is in the cards for the Western world is flashing. The recent winter weather is just one more example of how the formerly richest country in the world is now lowering itself to third world standards and doing so all on the altar of climate change. Of course, that isn’t openly stated. But the growing race from tried and true methods of power in favor of “green” energy is beginning to show the signs of degradation of America’s infrastructure.
A huge swath of the country is experiencing rolling power outages.
For instance, we are now witnessing intentional and planned power outages effecting tens of thousands of residents simply because the weather has gotten colder and power companies need ways to “preserve the power grid.” We saw rolling power outages in California when PG&E didn’t want to be blamed for more wildfires, and now the trend is spreading.
Take a look at what happened in Nebraska when Omaha Public Power District announced planned outages on the morning of February 16. Nebraska Public Power said they were also informed by Southwest Power Pool that they had to implement emergency coordinated interruptions of service also. Many of the rotating outages began with no warning to customers.
“Officials” are claiming the outages are happening because there is not enough power available to keep up with customer demand.
But why is there suddenly not enough supply? According to the CEO of OPPD, Tim Burke, there is a lack of wind. In other words, OPPD is relying on wind power and, even during a winter storm, there is not enough wind to provide power to residents.
OPPD asked customers to add blankets, dress warmer, and lower their thermostats in order to help conserve electricity.
This is going to be good advice as America moves closer toward utilizing disproven technologies like wind to provide power to vast swaths of the country.
The same thing happened in Texas where many residents have been without power for 24 hours.
Some of the warmest places in Texas, where rolling power outages are occurring across the chilly state, are inside cars and trucks parked in the driveway of a home without electricity.
. . . . .
Rolling power blackouts were ordered across Texas on Monday as a winter storm and frigid temperatures gripped the state and knocked out service to more than 4 million customers.
. . . . .
The rotating outages could continue until the state’s weather emergency ends, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a major grid operator that controls about 90% of the state’s electric load.
It’s interesting that the warmest places are cars and trucks. After all, they are powered by evil fossil fuels while the homes they are parked in front of sit dark, due to frozen wind turbines.
Is “going green” the cause of all these outages?
“Frozen wind turbines and limited gas supplies have hampered the ability to generate enough power, according to a statement from ERCOT,” CNN reported.
In the age of virtue signaling and woke capitalism, even the red state of Texas is moving in the direction of California. While Texas has always been known for its huge petroleum and natural gas resources, it is the lack of wind power that is currently bringing the state to its knees. The exact same thing happened in California in 2020 when wind and solar could not keep up with demand during record heat.
But the move toward “green” forms of energy for total supply of power to the population is not merely some foolish attempt at environmental friendliness that will be realized and abandoned in a few years. It is a part of a much bigger agenda.
As researcher and historian Alan Watt stated on his podcast, Cutting Through The Matrix way back in 2007,
If everyone truly wanted to know why all these bizarre laws have been pushed even locally on them, on your water supply; on your septic supply, your sewage takeaway, your land itself, the land you sit on , your housing standards – all the things which are being pushed now and fines that go along with it for not complying, massive fines on a daily basis – you’ll find it all comes from the United Nations. The United Nations was set up to be a front for a global government run by the same psychopathic families that have brought us to war for centuries with each other.
They want control of everything which gives you independence, including growing your own vegetables ultimately. Agenda 21 gives you the United Nations plan for the habitat areas and there will be two types. There already are in fact. The big cities will be the big slums, very overcrowded slums of the near future, if they get their way, for the bulk of the populace, and very expensive habitat areas with ultra modern houses and solar heating and parks are already made and they’re for sale for the very, very wealthy, who will ultimately eventually be the bureaucratic classes that serve the world system. This is all coming into being now. It’s happening now.
Daisy Luther has written about the possibility of a time when power, running water, and a return to “normalcy” are only for rich people and it’s looking more and more like that could be the case. It’s likely that most people would prefer to have reliable energy during extreme weather than green energy that only works when the weather is good.
Wind and solar and the rolling blackouts that ensue from them are very much a part of this agenda. Not because they are to replace oil and gas for the good of the environment… but because they are designed not to.
What do you think?
What do you think is the cause of the massive infrastructure failure? Share your thoughts in the comments.
About Robert
Robert Wheeler has been quietly researching world events for two decades. After witnessing the global network of NGOs and several ‘Revolutions’ they engineered in a number of different countries, Wheeler began analyzing current events through these lenses.
It’s happening in Europe as well, as the energy system is having issues with the instability of supply (cycles, current, tension) of “green” energy sources, conflicting and causing issues with the stable supply of “regular” sources (mostly nuclear).
Not only that, the whole infrastructure is dated and/or in bad shape everywhere. Our only hope is indeed to become as self-sufficient as possible in our small circle in regards to the basics. For many it will still be hell, though.
The dated grid and the malign neglect are the biggest part of the failure. Energy independence in small areas (homes and neighbourhoods) is the best response.
BINGO !
.
Funny thing, small scale thoreum reactors have been under development for a while, and are now probably a viable solution, if TPTB would get out of the way.
I read about experiments using one to power a car.
The news is reporting that wind turbines in Texas have frozen up due to water in the system. Why? The wind turbines are working fine in other, much colder locations.
If they are freezing up at all, which could be fake news, or its a maintenance failure due to either incompetence, corporate greed or deliberate sabotage. If it’s true, heads should roll and jail time imposed.
The news is reporting that natural gas pipelines in Texas have frozen up due to water in the lines/system. There is no provision for bleeding water out of the line built into the gas meter at your home. There is no provision that I have ever heard of to bleed water out of a transcontinental pipeline. I suppose there could be such a thing in substations in a natural gas distribution system. But, it seems unlikely to me. If they are freezing up at all, which could be fake news, or its a maintenance failure due to either incompetence, corporate greed or deliberate sabotage. If it’s true, heads should roll and jail time imposed.
Burning firewood for heat. I think you will find penalties for that in this Green New Deal, when that gets passed.
As I understand it, wind turbines in the northern latitudes use some of the energy produced to power heaters in the housings and blades.
There is a town to the north of us that uses wind turbines to power their grid.
Never seen them frozen, and still working in the dead of winter.
We get single and even negative temps here.
Now, the turbines in TX, more likely they never thought of a situation like this happening, hence they did not spend the monies for the heating units in the turbines.
Yes, this seems more like a case of “the perfect storm”. These locations normally do not get this cold so no one prepared for the worst case scenario (which, in their defense, would probably have cost the tax payers even more money…)
I would say that you need to study weather more.
Survival during SHTF will require a good working knowledge of weather and what it means.
Many climates are colder, Cold air is usually DRY air.
But the problem here is the water (rain) and then the cold air freezes it..
Also with having normally warmer temps, humidity in the gas lines is a common occurrence but not a problem.
But once it freezes, then that becomes a problem.
I study the weather every day as I live in a cold climate.
We also get ice storms up here.
I suggest you get some real world experience.
Your last sentence bothers me. But I bet you are right.
My son was just able to call us about what was going on after we were worried for a couple of days not knowing if they were OK, had heat or what was happening to them and their 3 young children. We found out that they had an ice storm before the snow started and that is why the turbines were frozen up. It rained as it was freezing. They were without power for days in an all electric home. They did have a fireplace that allowed the house to stay in the 40’s and fortunately they had cereal, milk and peanut butter to eat since they couldn’t cook. They had to warm the babies formula by heating a pan on the fire in the fireplace and then putting water in that to warm and making up the formula that way. All the pipes are frozen in the house and all the houses in the area from what they can gather, so it may be weeks before everyone has water in their homes since it will take time for burst water pipes to get fixed.
We are so glad they are safe and OK, but they just happened to have bottled water and they had just happened to keep some wood from pallets they had and a tree they cut down in the fall. What a mess and it’s all because of relying on an energy source that is not at all reliable, nor is it truly green.
What kind of energy do they think it takes to make the gigantic turbines anyway? They are clueless, my son and his family are still without heat and only had enough energy to get the cell phones charged. They have heard that their energy bills will be going up dramatically so the energy companies can fix the backup problem.
I’ve never heard of the Alaska Pipeline from the Arctic down to Valdez freezing up. It can be minus 40 there.
Timely article. A friend of mine in Texas is currently going through intermittent power outages – it’s a real pain. She’s having to take hot showers at the hospital where she works. Other acquaintances of mine were dealing a rolling power outage just last night. It’s a chilling thought at the end of the article and I wonder about that too.
I think that Texas’s problem with power is the same that California has as well. A hyper reliance on commercial businesses that have cut corners and dodged quality standards while socking their customers with higher prices every season. They have done a terrible job of investing in their infrastructure and they are simply looking for a blame rather than acknowledging what everyone knows about corporate utilities which is the fat cats get fatter and everyone below them funds it.
Green energy is 10% of Texas’s supply. As Texans can attest, 100% of the power is off.
I also think this points to a bigger argument and a reason why I read this blog daily. Most of these people are not prepared, they don’t know how to handle different weather, they don’t even know how to turn off the water in their homes when they have a leak. For such an independent minded state like Texas, it is disappointing to see how poorly people are prepared.
Stay warm folks. Be prepared for anything.
The deification of greed has reached terminal status.
Endless more from less is an impossibility
My friends in Texas are telling me that this has nothing to do with renewable energy, and everything to do with the deregulation of the power grid which allowed corporations to escape accountability. They chose not to weatherize their equipment (gas, coal, OR wind) and keep the money that proper preparation would have cost, to line their own pockets.
Lynn–I’ve read the same thing. There was no requirement or motivation to keep equipment operational in extreme conditions.
This is the correct state of affairs. Because 10 years, 20 years pass between severe problems, they decide not to invest in the weatherizing that prevents these issues in colder climates.
I think that as Preppers we should be focusing not on the current issues, as they will pass, but on how this would affect you, if it occurred on top of another SHTF scenario.
Lets say the Power is already out, due to a SHTF scenario, and a Polar vortex comes sweeping through.
What are our options?
If there is no electricity, there probably will be no natural gas pressure in the gas lines either. Now if it has been long enough there might not be gasoline for generators or vehicles either.
Since the clouds and snow will basically render solar useless and freezing rain might stop your wind power, What would you do? Many suggest burning wood. But do you really have enough wood? will it really heat your home?
Is that wood stove really large enough to do the job against these kinds of temps? What if it was not a passing storm but the ” new normal ” weather pattern?
If we are, as some suggest: headed for a mini Ice age, These become very relevant questions…
So true. We are thinking about this here and are putting a wood stove in the detached garage for now. We cant find one we like for the house yet. It needs to he big enough to heat as you say and not one of the new ones that have EPA standards. They don’t even make good stoves anymore. We we t shopping for one and were shocked at the all electric “wood stoves.” How can it be a woodstove if it’s electric?
The one we got for our detached garage, we bought used from our neighbor and it needs some repairs which is why it’s going there and not in the house. We will keep searching. Maybe one day we will have to move that one to the house, but at least it is here on the property so we can do that at a later date.
The primary problem we are experiencing in Texas is related to green, but not Green energy. It is the love of the greenback dollar. Plain and simple greed. Because it historically has happened so seldom, power suppliers won’t spent money to winterize our power supply. Everything is done to maximize profits. My electric is supplied by a rural co-op. We are experiencing problems, but FAR less than average Texan. Steps that are routine in the northern states, seldom get considered in Texas. Because my co-op, and others like it across Texas, are member owned, profits are returned to us. Maintenance takes a priority. The largest factor is that the natural gas pipelines are not constructed to operate in the unusually cold temperatures we are experiencing. Until it warms enough to get fuel to the power plants, Texas is going to continue to be cold and dark. The question is, will anyone learn from it?
“Everything is done to maximize profits”
and those in charge of “green” energy view the entire planet as theirs and do everything in their power to maximize THEIR ownership and control.
I am also on a rural TX electric co-op and have not lost power at all. Some friends in DFW are in the dark though.
Another ice storm here in East Texas. My daughter has no water because the city water mains burst. But her brother restocked with cases of bottled water before this whole cold snap started, so they are OK. They have gas heat, and flashlights they can recharge from their cars if needed, so they will be fine.
My husband and I have been snowed in since Saturday, but that is fine with us. Haven’t lost power, but have a kerosene heater and CO detector set up in a small cabin on our land just in case.
House is set up with electric heat. Dreading to see our bill next month! Setting up a propane heater/fireplace is on the agenda this year.
The ‘switch’ to green energy is largely an illusion. How much of Texas’ grid is wind powered? I expected better of Organic Prepper. Hysteria about the ‘green’ agenda isn’t really helpful. The truth is the electrical grid has suffered decades of malign neglect and was never design to function in this type of extreme weather.
The other harsher truth is that fossil fuels are not limitless. The sooner we stop being dependant on the public grid the better it will be for us. Let’s talk about some serious prepping for the long emergency: the slo-mo SHTF Selco and Daisy have been talked about is real and it’s not going away. Things will get better but they’ll never be the same.
To Daisy’s quote above: “It’s likely that most people would prefer to have reliable energy during extreme weather than green energy that only works when the weather is good.”
With all due respect: Why does it have to be an “either/or” decision? Why are we poo-pooing green energy sources just because we don’t want to give political authority to Greta & Gang?
Just as it is wise in an uncertain economy to have multiple streams of income, I think it is wise in our risky global nightmare to invest in multiple sources of power, even if you are not able yet to go totally off-grid. I mean, really, how many of us can live without petroleum fuel for their vehicles? Propane for their back-country home/farms? Natural gas for heat and cooking? We could revert to riding horses, but city dwellers already found that messy and cumbersome. We could ride bicycles, but what to do in the rain and snow and on long trips? We could heat and cook with wood, but then we will have to better manage our forests.
At least for a while, I think that we ought to keep up the nature-based fuels research as we diversify our power-source usage.
“Why are we poo-pooing green energy sources just because we don’t want to give political authority to Greta & Gang?”
uh, yeah, that’s exactly why people are opposed to “green” power – because they don’t want political hostiles to be in command of whether anyone gets electricity or not. it’s not about “green”, it’s about raw power and control.
I think it’s partly folks over using what they take for granted. Partly a massive, unexpected large area freeze , but many just don’t understand being prepared for the unexpected. And, yes, this green new deal is a pile of bs.
“many just don’t understand being prepared for the unexpected”
one can’t prepare for everything imaginable. what is the limit to the “unexpected”?
As a suggestion, think about the immediate and basic needs. All the basic things you need to keep reasonably safe, healthy and sane.
Shelter, food, water, medicine, basic health and hygiene, energy, finance (money, etc.), personal safety and maybe some entertainment.
Those aren’t too hard or overly expensive/time consuming to cover, if you think ‘basic’ and for a limited period (that will depend on your personal context and/or needs).
When it comes to energy, density, stability, reliability are defining characteristics. Also storage and distribution are important, but related to different areas.
Fossil and nuclear are high-density, high-stability and high-reliability sources, thus better for large-scale supply and demand. “Green” is a lot less dense, reliable, stable, thus more apt for individual/small scale use.
Nuclear is the cleanest and safest, despite bad rep in contrary. The future is not solar nor wind, it´s probably small (as in compact), limited-lifespan fuel generators. As in each city having its own nuclear power plant, perhaps one as backup. There are initiatives in this front with very promising results already.
The main obstacle to that is perhaps popular perception. People relate “nuclear” to danger, accidents, leaks, etc. Smaller plants could reduce these risks, which are already low, and increase acceptance.
Either way, we should face unstable grid in the near future, untill these matters are sorted. The interface of green power with current grid will bring up issues and crashes, because the system is designed for old-style fossil/nuclear/water energy distribution.
Until then… yes, it´s a good strategy to have a backup plan in place, especially those living in colder climates. But I have the feeling that this will face a real pressure test in the coming months with the arrival of SUMMER.
“Nuclear is the cleanest and safest, despite bad rep in contrary”
most of the time, sure. until it’s not, then it’s an incredible and incredibly long-term mess. I like it, I’ve worked with it, but it’s not worth it.
Absolutely, and this is exactly what the new technologies are trying to overcome by increasing safety and reliability.
I’m still favorable to the idea. There are no perfect energy generation system that’s 100% reliable, safe and environmentally friendly. Building batteries require extensive resources as well. Wind farms affect wildlife, populations, etc. Thermal plants pollute and depend on fuel. Dams cause damage to big areas, cost a lot and can also break and cause extensive long-term damage, and so on. And all those still generate a lot less energy than even mid-sized nuclear power plants.
Having been born in the 70’s I’ve witnessed all the development path of nuclear age. We’d lose sleep over the prospect of not only a nuclear conflict (“The Day After”) but also some very present and imminent threats as well (“China Syndrome”).
Some of the worst nuclear disasters happened between that time and the early 90’s, even with the increase in nuclear usage the safety has increased a lot and accidents became rarer.
Also I haven’t gone over the data but I’ve seen a couple of studies showing that long-term, the problems created by fossil fuels are way worse to the populations and the environment everything considered.
“Building batteries require extensive resources as well. Wind farms affect wildlife, populations, etc. Thermal plants pollute and depend on fuel. Dams cause damage to big areas, cost a lot and can also break and cause extensive long-term damage, and so on”
sure. but when these fail they cause only local temporary problems, they don’t cause intercontinental 1000-generation disasters.
This is how civilization ends. It is more than just wind generators going bad. This too is engineered.
Its is absolutely related to horrendously inefficient green generation resources. Green is AT BEST a undependable supplementary source to the real heavy weights Nuclear and Coal … in that order.
The grid system needs redundancies on top of redundancies to meet peak demand requirements.
Demento Joe has made it clear he drinks the green koolaid and we will see much more of this instead of less. Be assured the regulatory hammer will fall even harder to create more first level generation issues like Cali has face for most of 2020
There will be a day not far from now where you will have to generate some of your own power if you want it to be reliable.
Tell a Tesla owner that his car is powered by coal and listen to him howl.
;
What percentage of our electrical power do you think is derived from coal? A lot more than most people realize.
And it isn’t going to change anytime soon.
Climate changes. Ever been to the petrified forest? Seen Dino bones in Montana? Walked on the beds of sea fossils at Ft Hood?
Greed and stupidity are a constant though.
They figured out that wells were being limited here, some water towers not filled before the storm and so on.
My plans were tested but solid.
What happens if I lose weather forecasts though? Literally the days before I watched migrating robins and hawks, looked at trees budding and had gnat swarms.
Reference: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/02/16/texas-power-grid-why-state-has-its-own-operated-ercot/6765007002/
From the above article:
The reasons Texas controls its own grid, the journalist Kate Galbraith observed in a Texplainer piece for the Texas Tribune in 2011 have to do with the same theme that colors so much of Texas’ history and public policy: a distrust of federal interference.
The predecessor for ERCOT was formed in the 1930s, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Power Act, which charged the Federal Power Commission with regulating interstate electricity sales.
Please re-read the last line of the second paragraph above. Now take a look at:
https://www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/FEDPOWR.HTML
You don’t have to really go read all that insomnia curing blah-mania. The REAL reason Texas headed towards independent electrical power was the threat contained in the functions of the above. What your and my ‘best friend’, AKA those that con their way into very nice offices within the beltway in the District of Columbia, wanted to accomplish was taking total control of the US electrical power and be able to control what the consumer pays, TO THE GOV’T, to use electrical devices, and secure total control of all electrical generating facilities. And, if you can stay awake through those documents, you’ll find terminology that includes, to be generic, “future facilities for generation of electrical power”. (Sounds like a process Mitch McConnell would come up with, EH?) How would you like to send your electrical power bill to the IRS? How would you like to invest all your savings into an electricity generating facility and then be forced into watching the gubbermint come in and tell you what/how/when to do everything? Then tell you you have to sell your power to some place like New Jersey at 1/10 your cost and get paid 1/100 of what they charge? Not in Texas!
Now, what is ERCOT? It is “Electric Reliability Council of Texas” Who is running it?
According to meaww.com it just happens to be: “Five of the fifteen officials serving on ERCOT’s board of directors are non-natives of the state and stay in Toronto, Illinois, Maine, even Germany”. Now ain’t that just peachy keen? What happened to the Texans that started the silly group? You don’t want my opinion.
All I have to add is that several sources have indicated that after the situation in TX got to the point of ‘Whoa, dude. What’s going on?’ the number of page hits to ‘prepper sites’ went WAY UP. Maybe this is what they needed to pull their head out! At the rate things have been going, me and mine ain’t gonna have to go to “the store” for about 28 more weeks. Except for adult beverages. Gotta do a refill in that area.
Once ERCOT gets back to being a Texan thing, we be OK. Gotta git send them dang ferriners back to where they come frum.
That’s all.
After reading the article, and seeing what’s happening in California (other parts of the world too perhaps?) With the push of electric cars I see a problem with the current trend. What happens when you can’t “charge” your car? I’m willing to bet your S.O.L. But I guess we will see what happens when the cards fall, as they will. Sooner or later.
Every year more and more coal plants and some nuclear power plants are being shut down. It is all being done intentionally for control of the people. As plants age they reach a condition that it is cheaper to shut down rather than repair. The problem comes when new plants are not built to replace them. In the name of green energy all the reliable forms of power generation are being eliminated.
Yes, this is happening here as well. They want to shut down old reliable plants wothno plans to replace them with anything. Umm, hello? Where os the power going to come from? Are we all going back to prairie lifestyles now? I am, but not everyone will want to do that.
A couple of days ago i looked at the map of states that “may have” rolling black outs on their section of the grid. New Mexico and Texas North to Montana were there. Seems mostly Texas faced the brunt of that.
My son in laws sisters and their grown kids are all making it, but cold in Texas.
I’m in NM high desert. Weve been below zero. My area hasn’t lost power but I haven’t had electricity in nearly a year and a half. I heat wuth a ric K et stove that gravuty feeds pelkets with a hopoer or remove that and burn sticks 3 ft long and 2 in across. I have a stack of aged branches, a chipper as I can burn wood chips but due to injuries we’re burning pellets. I cook on the heat collector.
I’m working on DYI solar power. Batteries are the key to off times power. I’ve had an array before. Keep it cleaned off if it snows. Have enough batteries to carry need a for a few days. Not a cheap investment but connection to grid and setting atleast one pole will cost more. I live ok without, but lights and fridge are nice.
One well is on power. One well has a manual winch. A few more batteries and I may put solar on a well.
I heat our bedroom in cold weather with a heat buddy on propane.
By 2030 this state is to be off gas vehicles, no more propane, no natural gas, and no wood heat. Pretty crazy new ruIes for one of the poorest states around.
Instead of funneling money into our infrastructure those s-elected have chosen to feed the Military Industrial complex thus enriching themselves with corporate campaign contributions and stocks they purchase prior to awarding the contracts which by the way is legal for them as they are above the laws they make!
It’s unclear to me as to whether or not, Russia, and several far Northern European, have encountered the same problems as in Texas. My understanding is that they extensively employ wind power. Like get some expert advice!
Most of this is about more heat energy.
You need to look at conservation aswell. Building to LEED standards will decrease your need for energy for heating and cooling. NEVER BUIKD TO CODE it means you built to.lowest standard before you get sued and fail inspection.
Putting more insulation in roof and walls is a long term money saver. I suggest r60 for both makes area way easier to maintain with minimal inputs.
Think of it this way if you had to heat with wood you cut how long to get a chord done about 1 day if you have wood available in about 1 hour or less drive. If in a regular house 2000sft only wood heat you will need 3 to 4 chords a year with r 20 walls r 40 roof. At r 60 and triple pane windows it goes down by 50 percent in wood needed and your place stays cool in summer heat.
Now imagine if you had no fossil fuels how long would it take by hand to get a chord (full sized pickup box stacked high) done? If you use a mass heater ricket stove instead of logs you can burn fallen branches… how much easier is that to find drag home and burn… it also dries faster.
It isn’t really fair to blame the Texas outages on renewable energy generators. Yes, the winds farms froze up with ice and snow, but the main cause was the shortage of available natural gas the utility companies use to generate the bulk of their electricity.
This is the coldest weather in those parts of Texas since 1949 and people simply weren’t prepared to deal with loss of electrical power. Get a generator and learn how to use it. Install a wood stove. Stock up on food and water. Call it emergency situation insurance.
For good how to prepare guides check out Daisy’s books or this one titled: Bugging In: What To Do When TSHTF and You Live in Suburbia. Here’s a link. http://amzn.to/2dFHyJN
Dear Mr. Wheeler. Your bias against green energy is all too obvious. Other very reputable news sources have very clearly explained that the it is not the wind and solar sources that failed all that much but the traditional fossil fuels. Natural gas lines froze. etc. Green in Texas represents only 15% of the total energy consumed so it being the fault of green sources is just a crock of as the say in Texas caca de toro. Here in Quebec we have very abundant cheap hydro generated electricity and even here the national (provincial) electric company (Hydro-Quebec) is investing heavily in wind farms etc because its CHEAPER.
I live in San Antonio – experienced multiple rolling blackouts, some r and twelve hours intermittent and temperatures down to 8 degrees with high humidity sleet and snow. Our power was reduced by frozen windmills, and reduced pumping of LNG due to meters freezing on transit stations. Additionally, number 2 nuke generator of the STNP experienced a controlled shutdown as the cooling tower pumps tripped off due to freezing. We only have 3 plants in Texas.
I had a 100 watt solar panel kit and batteries to maintain some lighting and charging of phone, however, most telecomm towers also lost power, so signals went to roaming towers. My jet boil kit, soups and prepped food supplies helped along with 12 volt light bulbs.
In1985 we had 10 inches in SA and 5-6 in Austin, however it was much warmer in the North Texas with no issues.
Roads were icy and remote pumping stations were beset with extreme colds as were the windmills and oil Jack.
Certainly malinvestment has occurred in planning for hardening the entire grid for the coming shifts in colder future weather from the minimum and the weakening global electrical magnetosphere.
So drill baby drill – turned into drill and chill, let’s learn, reinvest and move forward with a robust and diverse fuel strategy-not one horse.
Protect the Grid… Protect the NHS … blah blah blah. For years we were taxed and charged heavily to develop this infrastructure, ostensibly to serve us in the future … turns out we exist to serve the infrastructure. When you are told it is illegal to harvest rainwater, you can pretty well be sure you are on the wrong side of the New Green Iron Curtain.
https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-of-failed-eco-pocalyptic-predictions/
I recall reading an article several years ago in my industry, electrical, where I thought I read National Grid was paying tens of thousands of dollars to wind farms NOT to run them because they were producing too much power in England.
The problem with the power shortage in Texas is not in Texas. It is in Washington, D.C. The green energy people in the Biden administration refused to let the Texas fossil fuel power generating plants run at full capacity because it would exceed their current “pollution output” permits. You people freeze, we have to save the planet.