Progressives Big Lie #7519 – Texas Power Debacle

George Rebane

The 24feb21 Union ran this cartoon on its op-ed pages.

From this the newspaper’s uninformed and progressive readers have the clear takeaway that the Texas electric grid is in disarray and dysfunctional, as the recent blizzard demonstrated, because the electricity market is too ‘free’ and unregulated.  The disaster that hit Texans, and from which they still suffer, was caused by too much capitalism.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

The actual cause of the grid’s failure and its normal high cost to consumers is purely and solely a government manufactured travesty, brought to you by the scumbag politicians in Washington and Austin.  (Remember, if society has a problem, government is almost always the cause.)  To get a handle on this rather complex kerfuffle, we first have to understand that across the country there have come to be two kinds of energy suppliers – more or less deregulated ‘retail generators’ and the usual regulated public utilities.  The corporatist ‘free marketeers’ led by outfits like Enron, successfully lobbied for new fed and state laws that allowed the set up of the two-tier supply structure – the deregulated retail suppliers were supposed to compete and thereby lower consumer prices below those charged by the regulated utilities.

The corporatists anticipated their windfall by promising to set up a green power generating infrastructure that minimized reliance on coal and nuclear.  It was going to be all wind and solar with gas back-up.  The green power part was going to be heavily subsidized by the feds, and natural gas was a just-in-time fuel that could not be efficiently stored by the remaining back-up power stations.  And to transport the gas through pipelines required the operation of electrically powered compressors.  As dollar signs danced in their heads, and since the deregulation didn’t require it, the last thing in the minds of these new corporatist retail utilities was spending money to maintain and harden the electricity distribution infrastructure.   Are you beginning to get the picture? (more here)

Now step back about 30 years when people started analyzing the vulnerability of green electric grids not backed up by reliable coal and nuclear.  They started issuing warnings which were ignored by the politicians in charge of legislation and prudent regulation.  In fact, the eco and corporatist factions caused most of these longer term studies to be shut down lest their pesky findings would get too much publicity. To add insult to injury, many jurisdictions such as in Texas, consumers were not allowed to pipe gas into their homes for heating, and codes were put in place to prohibit the building of such houses – ‘clean electricity’ was going to be the solution to all energy consumption needs.

This insanity continued with governors (e.g. Cuomo) prohibiting the building/expansion of pipelines to bring back-up fossil fuels into their states and appropriately distribute it in the regions where subsidized green power was expanding.  The point here is, that contrary to the Big Lie cartoons like the one above, there has never been anything free about the energy markets when corporatists conspire with econuts and scumbag politicians to force consumers to choose between regulated utilities and ‘unregulated’ retail electricity generators who wind up with a captured clientele that can be charged sky-high market prices when primary (wind and solar) generators inevitably fail and back-up power turns out to be inadequate. (more here) 

So today politicians such as Cuomo and Warren inhibit the building of needed infrastructure ranging from pipelines to gas compressor facilities, and go on to ignore and shut down studies that produce results which don’t support their Agenda21 green narratives.

But more fundamentally, as taught by Rebane Doctrine, unfettered capitalism in any market will become rapacious as it inevitably coagulates into socially egregious, corporatist oligopolies on the road to monopoly.  (e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Google, …)  Capitalism, as an economic order to generate and distribute wealth, is an 800 lbs gorilla that always needs some minimal regulation by the collective in a stable and liberal society.  Capitalism is God’s paramount gift to mankind’s pursuit of happiness, but it does not come free.  We recall that the good part of capitalism is that it always tries to game the system, and the bad part of capitalism is that it always tries to game the system.  And there’s the rub for enlightened governance.

Comments

[The Estonian Fox]

George, You made a good analysis of the Texas situation. Their independent power system (46,000MW) has never been connected to the western power grid, and lightly connected to the eastern (800MW) & Mexican grids (436MW).

Gee, who knew there could be problems? Oh wait, the FERC knew. See this “Report on Outages and Curtailments During the Southwest Cold Weather Event of February 1-5, 2011” prepared by the Staffs of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. Yes, it was not a typo – that was a decade ago, not 2021. So again, when humans stumble over the truth, we get up, dust ourselves off, and continue on our way. N’er the worse for wear.

https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/ReportontheSouthwestColdWeatherEventfromFebruary2011Report.pdf

The 300MW Sharyland back-to-back HVDC Converter (dedicated 2007), 36MW Eagle Pass DC Tie (<2014) and 100MW Laredo VFT (Variable Frequency Transformer, 2007) connects the Texas AC grid and the Mexican AC grid. I don't know why there was no mention of the Mexican connection being used, even though it isn’t much power. Although someone may have used those ‘Mexican connection’ words to Pres. Joe, and he immediately went the drug route and stopped discussion.

Another oddity - the 5 commissioners on the Texas grid Board (ERCOT - Electric Reliability Council of Texas) all resigned. OK. But the odd thing is that NONE OF THEM WERE RESIDENTS OF TEXAS. Why, it's almost like Mario Cuomo was deciding to shut down restaurants in California. I have no idea why the Texans ever agreed to this.

[Scott O]

Texas is a big place, but the parts that had trouble with power outages got all the headlines. Our daughter and her family had one hour on/one hour off for a couple of days. They had watched the weather reports and stocked up with supplies ahead of time. They also have a nat gas fireplace they kept on 24/7. The house stayed above 60. Most of the neighborhoods in their town did alright. They are in north Texas. The areas that did have problems were not related to anything one could point to as a "Texas" problem. El Paso did OK.
Ah - nuke power. And good planning. It wasn't a state-wide issue.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/02/19/el-paso-electric-fared-better-than-texas-during-cold-weather/4507155001/

[Bill Tozer]

Might be on topic.

When AOC first proposed getting rid of cars and airplanes and have everybody take the trains, the first thing that popped in my noggin was, “Of course, she has always lived in a major city like New York where everybody rides the trains and subways and few own cars. I have known folks in their 30’s and 40’s that have never owned a vehicle...from Chicago and NYC. No need, especially with parking at 20 bucks a day and not necessary if one lives and moves and have their being in the metro area of a large city. I have a niece who does not have a car and it’s not necessary as she lives and moves around the Columbia U Campus for work, lives close by, and a vehicle not needed social life. Shuttle buses everywhere, bicycles, and mass transit. Same with Boston. With that said, the great Green Raw Deal is not one size fits all. No big deal to the Socialist Democrats....they be urban rats. Sewer rats. Call Uber and ride in someone else’s car, lol.

‘Economic Civil War’

https://americanmind.org/salvo/economic-civil-war/

[Bill Tozer]

‘Biden climate policy on track to punish blue-collar America, prop up Putin, experts warn’

“Moore said one of the ironies is that the Biden agenda will aid Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran to the detriment of U.S. markets.

Oil- and gas-dependent economies like Russia thrive when crude is north of $70 per barrel, and they suffer when it falls below $50, experts said.”

"There is no doubt in my mind that the irony of the Russia collusion nonsense was that there was no one who hurt Russia more than Trump and his America-first energy policies," Moore said. "Russia really is nothing more than a third world country, with oil and gas.

"Trump's pro-America energy policies were a disaster for Russia, and the truth is Biden is a godsend for Russia."