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Thread: Snow on the Bayou

  1. #1
    B. W.'s Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Snow on the Bayou

    As far back as I can remember Texas politics was always dominated by the rural population. The large cities were Dallas and Houston and comparatively their population never exceeded the rural populations of the state's other counties.

    I also took comfort in the fact that our energy grid was largely independent from other states; meaning that calamities afflicting other grids wouldn't effect Texas.

    Starting in the 70s populations from northern areas and blue states started coming in and, of course, they moved into the cities. Now we have large metropolitan areas around Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and Beaumont and the resulting surge of left-wing controlled political regions. Along with that came the baggage of left-wing attitudes and thinking.

    With the election of Obama also came the Democratic control of key areas such as Harris County (Houston) and in 2014 the big push to green energy came in full force; so much so that now a quarter of Texas energy comes from wind farms. Sheer genius at work in a state that holds a quarter of the nation's energy supply!

    Along with the influx of Lefties over the years came the building of "all electric homes" and they bought them by the thousands. I remember thinking: "What idiot would buy an all electric home when natural gas is widely available?"

    Well, now it seems that all these conditions have finally achieved the inevitable. The wind turbines that provide a quarter of the energy have frozen; power is out in places too numerous to list because the people with the "all electric" homes overtaxed the "green energy" grid. There's snow and ice everywhere. My dog, having never even seen snow, exhausted himself playing in the newfound wonderment which has piled up everywhere.

    Unfortunately, along with the white lawn comes a loss of electric power. People everywhere are freezing because they don't have heat in their "all electric homes"; I read about it on the neighbor blog. I had to go out to the shed and breakout my generator; something I only have because of hurricane season.

    Meanwhile, my pipes have frozen because all these left-wing idiots don't know how to drip their faucets; they go out and turn everything wide open which drops the system pressure to everybody else resulting in frozen pipes for everybody. How considerate!

    But if you really want to know just how wise these lefties are that now govern the cities all you have to do is go outside in the freezing weather and look at the skyline. From my house I can see the glow of the Houston skyline 40 miles away:

    https://abc13.com/eerie-photo-of-sky...ages/10343210/

    So now comes the question, would you rather have a left-wing greenie idiot in charge of your energy supply or a competent practical person?

  2. #2

    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    You have some weird first instinct of hostility to people that move in. Maybe you should stay in your corner instead of really doing anything.

    Now, solutions.

    Then go upgrade your utilities before another hundred years pass. Because we both know it wasn't just the wind that was getting knocked out as far as power. And it wasn't just the power as far as utilities. I've seen stories of treatment plants failing in spite of power prioritization for water, as well as pipes bursting because Texas just isn't used to dealing with these extreme temperatures.

    Because, you know, more northern states are a bit more equipped.

    But you can go feel special.
    Last edited by Gaidin; February 16, 2021 at 04:34 PM.
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    antaeus's Avatar Cool and normal
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Certainly all the coal that China won't buy from Australia because they're leftists has helped me in a back handed kind of way.

    I've bought up mountains of the stuff in bulk for cheap and keep it in a heap it in my front yard so that when the greenie blackouts occur I have plenty of spare coal to burn to keep me warm in winter. As a bonus when my leftist neighbours go cold in winter I can capitalism the hell out of it by on selling to my neighbours. As a second bonus it is killing off my lawn and increasing my carbon footprint just to middle finger the greenies.

    B.W. I suggest you move to Australia. We have an evangelical Christian conservative prime minister who actually cares about fighting back against the leftists and greenies. And he's at war with China.

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    B. W.'s Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Of course we all know this disaster was predicted by the weather experts who propagate the global warming hoax...oh wait:

    https://twitter.com/weatherchannel/s...ce-and-snow%2F




    Quote Originally Posted by Gaidin View Post
    You have some weird first instinct of hostility to people that move in. Maybe you should stay in your corner instead of really doing anything.

    Now, solutions.

    Then go upgrade your utilities before another hundred years pass. Because we both know it wasn't just the wind that was getting knocked out as far as power. And it wasn't just the power as far as utilities. I've seen stories of treatment plants failing in spite of power prioritization for water, as well as pipes bursting because Texas just isn't used to dealing with these extreme temperatures.

    Because, you know, more northern states are a bit more equipped.

    But you can go feel special.
    In case you haven't noticed I live where I grew up. We didn't have these sorts of winter problems when I was a kid. Back then when you were told to "drip" your faucets that's exactly what we did. The yanks and foreigners who have come in seem to think that means open your faucets all the way. Any idiot could figure out what that would result in. I will admit that some of those folks are pretty good people, but the vast majority bring the left-wing thinking with them.

    And no, all the newcomers haven't been a blessing. When I was a kid we didn't bother locking our front doors and left the keys in the car. It was pretty common knowledge that anyone breaking into someone's house or stealing a car would be shot dead.

    Sure there were some busted pipes at some of the plants, but that is not the reason the system failed. When you take a quarter of the energy supply and turn it to wind power and then build houses that are all electric it is a recipe for disaster. I worked in industry and saw busted pipes in winter; I've seen icicles 50 feet high. That didn't shut down operations.

    Texas has always been hard scratch country and the false sense that it is pretty beautiful given by developers in suburban areas doesn't mean the newcomers should ignore the common sense "rules to live by" established by Texans for over a century. "If you go to Rome, do as the Romans do" is a good rule to live by. Unfortunately, the newcomers think their way is better.

    And as usual, they blame everybody else for their stupidity.

  5. #5
    antaeus's Avatar Cool and normal
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Climate studies 101: Global warming is a misnomer.

    Climate change is the appropriate title. While on average the world will warm, because the climate is incredibly complicated, counter intuitively some areas might experience unusual cooling as a side effect of things like less ice in the poles or warmer temperatures in the ocean for example. Certainly there will be more extreme weather events relative to the norm - both hot and cold weather events.

    The complicated nature of climate change makes it difficult to educate people. When people look outside and see an unusual snowstorm, and they've been told that the problem is global warming, and haven't kept up with the science around climate change then it's reasonable to understand their doubt. But that unusual snow storm might actually be caused by warming in northern latitudes, or warming of ocean temperatures 4000 miles away.

    Anyway... sorry B.W. I know you're not interested in climate change and you're suspicious of mainstream science and all. But you do seem to be reflecting poor communication of the science from back in the late 70s or early 80s.
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    B. W.'s Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Quote Originally Posted by antaeus View Post
    Climate studies 101: Global warming is a misnomer.

    Climate change is the appropriate title. While on average the world will warm, because the climate is incredibly complicated, counter intuitively some areas might experience unusual cooling as a side effect of things like less ice in the poles or warmer temperatures in the ocean for example. Certainly there will be more extreme weather events relative to the norm - both hot and cold weather events.

    The complicated nature of climate change makes it difficult to educate people. When people look outside and see an unusual snowstorm, and they've been told that the problem is global warming, and haven't kept up with the science around climate change then it's reasonable to understand their doubt. But that unusual snow storm might actually be caused by warming in northern latitudes, or warming of ocean temperatures 4000 miles away.

    Anyway... sorry B.W. I know you're not interested in climate change and you're suspicious of mainstream science and all. But you do seem to be reflecting poor communication of the science from back in the late 70s or early 80s.
    I was just communicating the Weather Channel's prediction for February weather in the US. It was very mainstream.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Quote Originally Posted by B. W. View Post
    I was just communicating the Weather Channel's prediction for February weather in the US. It was very mainstream.
    Have they explained why Texas's wind turbines are working better than Texas's natural gas lines yet? I mean...you know... if you want to go on and on about how the lack of power being about green energy, you might want to be honest and note that the once-in-a-century storm has caused the natural gas infrastructure to collapse.
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    B. W.'s Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Quote Originally Posted by Gaidin View Post
    Have they explained why Texas's wind turbines are working better than Texas's natural gas lines yet? I mean...you know... if you want to go on and on about how the lack of power being about green energy, you might want to be honest and note that the once-in-a-century storm has caused the natural gas infrastructure to collapse.
    Natural gas is working fine. It's the only thing that has never failed; all the lines are underground. It's how I'm heating my house right now. I'm using the burners on the stovetop and the bathroom heater. I've closed off all the rooms and just heating the kitchen and the living room. Me and the dog are on the couch and I still have beer; and a generator.

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    antaeus's Avatar Cool and normal
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Quote Originally Posted by B. W. View Post
    Of course we all know this disaster was predicted by the weather experts who propagate the global warming hoax...oh wait:

    https://twitter.com/weatherchannel/s...ce-and-snow%2F






    In case you haven't noticed I live where I grew up. We didn't have these sorts of winter problems when I was a kid. Back then when you were told to "drip" your faucets that's exactly what we did. The yanks and foreigners who have come in seem to think that means open your faucets all the way. Any idiot could figure out what that would result in. I will admit that some of those folks are pretty good people, but the vast majority bring the left-wing thinking with them.

    And no, all the newcomers haven't been a blessing. When I was a kid we didn't bother locking our front doors and left the keys in the car. It was pretty common knowledge that anyone breaking into someone's house or stealing a car would be shot dead.

    Sure there were some busted pipes at some of the plants, but that is not the reason the system failed. When you take a quarter of the energy supply and turn it to wind power and then build houses that are all electric it is a recipe for disaster. I worked in industry and saw busted pipes in winter; I've seen icicles 50 feet high. That didn't shut down operations.

    Texas has always been hard scratch country and the false sense that it is pretty beautiful given by developers in suburban areas doesn't mean the newcomers should ignore the common sense "rules to live by" established by Texans for over a century. "If you go to Rome, do as the Romans do" is a good rule to live by. Unfortunately, the newcomers think their way is better.

    And as usual, they blame everybody else for their stupidity.
    Interesting.

    It does go against the narrative I've seem spoken of a lot lately... that a lot of Texas' immigration boom is from people from more liberal areas looking for a new home that is more business friendly, and traditionally conservative. I.E. people are leaving California (or India or the Philippines for that matter) because they want to be a part of the traditions that Texas holds dear. I've heard a lot of this spoken in the same articles that ask why after 40 years of immigration from liberal areas, does Texas still vote conservative?

    Rather than being a left/right thing. Most of what you're saying just reads like "I was here first, get off my lawn"
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  10. #10

    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Quote Originally Posted by B. W. View Post
    Of course we all know this disaster was predicted by the weather experts who propagate the global warming hoax...oh wait:
    Weather=/=Climate.
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    B. W.'s Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Quote Originally Posted by antaeus View Post
    Interesting.

    It does go against the narrative I've seem spoken of a lot lately... that a lot of Texas' immigration boom is from people from more liberal areas looking for a new home that is more business friendly, and traditionally conservative. I.E. people are leaving California (or India or the Philippines for that matter) because they want to be a part of the traditions that Texas holds dear. I've heard a lot of this spoken in the same articles that ask why after 40 years of immigration from liberal areas, does Texas still vote conservative?

    Rather than being a left/right thing. Most of what you're saying just reads like "I was here first, get off my lawn"
    That's a cheap shot. I'll give you an example. Not long ago I read an article citing one of the new immigrants from New York City. He said he was voting for Biden because of the state income tax deductions in New York had been reduced because of Trump. He moved to Texas because there is no income tax and now he makes more money than he was making in New York because of the state taxes.

    Now that may sound fine to you, but it sounds like an idiot talking to me.

  12. #12
    antaeus's Avatar Cool and normal
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Quote Originally Posted by B. W. View Post
    That's a cheap shot. I'll give you an example. Not long ago I read an article citing one of the new immigrants from New York City. He said he was voting for Biden because of the state income tax deductions in New York had been reduced because of Trump. He moved to Texas because there is no income tax and now he makes more money than he was making in New York because of the state taxes.

    Now that may sound fine to you, but it sounds like an idiot talking to me.
    I prefer to call it a "cost effective shot"

    I can tell you about some random guy who moved to Texas from Connecticut because he got fed up with the local government's attempts to raise taxes to cover a green initiative that impacts on his business' profitability. But that would be making an uncited random analogy that is non-representative, argumentum ad passiones and meaningless without broader statistical analysis. Now that may sound fine to you, but it sounds like an.. ... ... ... . . ... No I can't let my cynicism go that far.
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  13. #13

    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Quote Originally Posted by B. W. View Post
    Natural gas is working fine. It's the only thing that has never failed; all the lines are underground. It's how I'm heating my house right now. I'm using the burners on the stovetop and the bathroom heater. I've closed off all the rooms and just heating the kitchen and the living room. Me and the dog are on the couch and I still have beer; and a generator.
    Texas's natural gas grid isn't designed to handle these temperatures yet you're buying into the idea that it's working in spite of...millions of home's power going out?

    O...K...

    Port Arthur oil refinery shut down Monday due to unprecedented freezing temperatures, stopping about 2.5 million barrels between Houston and Louisiana. Drillers in the Permian Basin have gone offline as the temperature has gone below zero, the supply shortfall sending prices above 60$ per barrel.

    23% of the power in Texas was from Wind. But given the average warmer temperatures Texas doesn't doesn't spend necessary cost to winterize it like Iowa or Denmark so many turbines have frozen.

    Natural gas and coal power plants need water to stay online, yet those water facilities froze in the cold temperatures that other regions would winterize against, and the power is lost. That's an even bigger deal to Texas than wind, as the combined natural gas(40%) and coal(18%) power is most of their power. Texas also depends on Nuclear power(11%), and at least one unit is shut down for frozen water that Texas was not prepared for.

    When you're in West or South Texas are you really going to spend money to winterize your equipment? Or is it sort of a gee-golly-wizz hindsight question?

    Your focus on wind is a red herring. Texas just wasn't ready for this. It never was going to be. You can do your best to blame somebody that moved in. But that's just a shift.
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  14. #14

    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Since not too long ago conservatives were cheering California power outages and saying they were 100% the fault of liberalism, obviously they will now admit that the Texas power outages are 100% the fault of conservatism and prove conservatives cannot function in a modern technological civilization. I mean it's not like they're hypocrites or anything, right?

    https://thehill.com/homenews/news/53...d-winter-storm

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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Wait there's a Perm in Texas? вхат ин тарнатион?
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Natural gas is working fine. It's the only thing that has never failed; all the lines are underground. It's how I'm heating my house right now. I'm using the burners on the stovetop and the bathroom heater. I've closed off all the rooms and just heating the kitchen and the living room. Me and the dog are on the couch and I still have beer; and a generator.
    They are prioritizing natural gas to homes. Even at the expense of limiting volume to electricity generation. The shortfall has pretty much zero to do with wind generation in particular. The whole Texas power system is simply not hardened against winter. Back when I was getting and MS at Iowa State we had about a 6 week period were the temp never broke 0 degrees F and night time was dropping below -20. The 3 turbines in nearby Nevada never stopped spinning day or night. But I am sure there is a cost to that and I really doubt anyone in west Texas had cold mitigation high on their list of what they needed. There is after all why they don't sell (auto) block heaters in Texas but a lot in Alberta.

    Edit to be clear wind output went from ~7 GW to ~4.5 GW. But the deficit Texas is facing is some 21 GW. That was 2 days ago. And of course those turbines are not winterized by design.
    Last edited by conon394; February 17, 2021 at 12:05 PM.
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Texas's energy capacity was reduced to nill pretty much because Texas does not experience these kinds of winters, and as a result, you don't really invest in this kind of heating and insulation. If this would happen in the Caribbean for example, where it's perpetually warm, what do you think it's going to happen?

    How is it in any way shape or form the result of green energy policy? What?

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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Quote Originally Posted by Basileos Leandros I View Post
    Texas's energy capacity was reduced to nill pretty much because Texas does not experience these kinds of winters, and as a result, you don't really invest in this kind of heating and insulation. If this would happen in the Caribbean for example, where it's perpetually warm, what do you think it's going to happen?

    How is it in any way shape or form the result of green energy policy? What?

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ed-to-elements
    I’ll tell you why. One word. Obama. How? Exactly. You don’t know. No one does. That’s the whole problem. What were Democrats doing to jeopardize the Texas power grid at the exact same time it just so happens to snow on their so-called green energy scam. Pretty convenient eh? The fossil fuel powered stations never failed, and if they did, it’s probably because Democrats sabotaged them to make the plant workers look bad. Everyone knows people in the industry lean Republican, and now they can’t keep up with energy demand because wind mills. Coincidence? I think not. Everyone knows that there’s no way there was any problems with the natural gas or coal powered plants. Have you ever seen a 50 foot ice cicle? I didn’t think so. Check mate liberals.
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    conon394's Avatar hoi polloi
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Quote Originally Posted by Basileos Leandros I View Post
    Texas's energy capacity was reduced to nill pretty much because Texas does not experience these kinds of winters, and as a result, you don't really invest in this kind of heating and insulation. If this would happen in the Caribbean for example, where it's perpetually warm, what do you think it's going to happen?

    How is it in any way shape or form the result of green energy policy? What?

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ed-to-elements
    Thing is as anyone who as ever lived in Houston can tell you the place and the surrounding municipalities can't even manage to devise a competent drainage system for regular annual normal heavy rain(*). The ideal thay anyone would care a wit to think about wasting money on winterizing infrastructure for some fantasy weather event would have enbe laughed out of the building.

    *Compare in Washtenaw county Michigan when you wanted to add a subdivision re pavement and removing farm or woodland (able to absorb water ) you had to add the cost of storm sewers and a drainage pond to take on the water from snow melt or heavy spring to summer rain (plus side you get to go play pond hockey right next to home) - Texas that sounds like socialism.
    Last edited by conon394; February 17, 2021 at 12:06 PM.
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    Basileos Leandros I's Avatar Writing is an art
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    Default Re: Snow on the Bayou

    Quote Originally Posted by Texas Tribune
    Officials for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages most of Texas’ grid, said the primary cause of the outages Tuesday appeared to be the state’s natural gas providers. Many are not designed to withstand such low temperatures on equipment or during production.

    By some estimates, nearly half of the state’s natural gas production has screeched to a halt due to the extremely low temperatures, while freezing components at natural gas-fired power plants have forced some operators to shut down.
    So... it has nothing to do with green energy. Gas turbines were shut down frozen.

    https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02...s-power-storm/

    https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02...rbines-frozen/
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