Feds find true cause of the February blackouts, Texas officials deflect blame

[LetMyPeopleVote]

This is scary. Last Feb. freeze was due to preventable conditions and Greg Abbott has refused to force the industry to take steps to correct these preventable conditions. Greg is setting up another freeze and blackout that could be prevented if we had a real governor

Link to tweet

Federal investigators have revealed how recklessly unprepared natural gas suppliers triggered 58 percent of the power outages during the February freeze, proving once again that Texas officials are misleading the public.

The 300-page report released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission verifies what University of Texas at Austin experts reported in July. Texans did not spend four days in the cold without electricity due to a paperwork snafu, as then-chair of the Texas Railroad Commission Christi Craddick claimed at a legislative hearing.

The real culprits were natural gas facilities that froze and failed to deliver fuel to power plants, triggering a deadly, four-day crisis. In July, I demanded that Craddick withdraw her slander against electricity companies and crack down on the natural gas industry she regulates......

The February freeze was the predictable outcome. The blackouts were not unstoppable, as demonstrated in El Paso, which is connected to a federally regulated grid and experienced no significant outages in February.

The worst part is that a similar storm caused blackouts in 2011 and revealed all of these problems, FERC Chairman Richard Glick wrote. Yet, the state did not implement FERC’s recommendations, setting the system up for failure in 2021.

FERC’s report reveals how railroad commissioners refused to hold Texas natural gas companies to even minimal resiliency standards. For example, 43 percent of natural gas production declines were caused by freezing temperatures and weather because operators did not insulate the well equipment properly.

[ProfessorGAC]

1. This Is Merely Confirmation...

...of what we already knew, including the ignoring of the 2013 recommendations. And, why is the rail commission in charge of natural gas? That seems odd.

[LudwigPastorius]

4. "...why is the rail commission in charge of natural gas?"

It was due to mission creep back before the 1920s..

Nowadays they don't have a thing to do with the railroads, but they haven't bothered to change the name.

Maybe because they thought your average Texan wouldn't know where to look if they wanted to find the politicians who were making assloads of money from energy industry bribes.

[Trailrider1951]

5. The name Railroad Commission is a holdover from bygone days when they did regulate

railroads in Texas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_Commission_of_Texas

Now they regulate mostly oil and gas.

Hope this helps!

[lonely bird]

8. Correct me if I am wrong

Didn’t most oil in the 1800’s move by rail? Iirc, Rockefeller got pissed at railroads and started building pipelines.

[Trailrider1951]

13. Hmm, I really don't know the answer to your question

But there are plenty of smart people here at DU that have a better background in History than I have. Someone may be along shortly with the answer.

[Javaman]

22. No, what happened was the break up of the trust

I just listened to a multiparty series in this very topic.

Standard oil colluded with the train companies to trans port their oil.

It would have been easier to transport the oil via pipelines but the infrastructure had to be built. Why build it when you don’t have to. It was the dogged pursuit by journalists who uncovered the collusion between standard oil and the railroads.

That’s the basic background. Listen to the podcast “American scandal” for the series. I thinks 4 parts and each part is about 45 minutes long. It’s excellent.

Rockefeller was a sociopath

[regnaD kciN]

2. Yes, but blaming it on environmentalists and green power is so much truthier...

[live love laugh]

11. Very much like they're blaming inflation on those who allegedly don't want to work. nt

[Igel]

18. It's a statistical thing.

"Green power" (specifically wind) had a much higher fail rate. It's a smaller percentage of power production. Do you focus on the first part or the second? Which matters more?

The contrapositive, that fossil-fuel power had a much lower fail rate, but was a greater percentage of power production, is entailed. Do you forcus on the first part or the second? Which matters more?

Both are accurate. The rest is spin.

Focus on the first clause of each claim, and you conclude that had TX a much larger percentage of wind power it would have been much worse. This is a valid conclusion.

Focus on the second clause of each claim, and you might think that had TX not relied on methane, it would have been better. This is not a valid conclusion.

[LudwigPastorius]

3. ...and nothing will be done about it.

...because Big Oil & Gas stooges run the Texas government (AKA the GOP), and it would cost them a bit of profit to winterize the gas plants and prevent people from dying in the cold.

Fuckers

[Mopar151]

6. Feudalism, American style

Mistreating the peasants for filthy picture is polite conversation.

[Whatthe_Firetruck]

17. ...Filthy lucre? Nt

[area51]

32. Definitely feudalism

it's why TX didn't, and won't, expand Medicaid, and overall, it's why Americans don't have healthcare as a human right.

[elleng]

7. the state did not implement FERC's recommendations

This should be posted in TEXAS.

[live love laugh]

9. "...setting the system up for failure in 2021..." and beyond. Where the media?

Covering the VP’s Thanksgiving pots I suppose.

[BComplex]

10. Texas needs a good Beto.

God I hope!!!

[Demovictory9]

12. Yep

[ShazzieB]

14. That's exactly what it needs!

I would never wish another energy disaster like last winter's on Texas (or anywhere else), but IF there is one, I hope Beto can use it to help his campaign.

Greg Abbott is a monumental idiot and deeply evil 😈, and I would take huge pleasure in seeing him lose.

[malaise]

21. Will be the upset of 2022

I think

[BComplex]

31. ...

[SpankMe]

15. Democratic voters in TX...

...please move to NM, CO, CA, OR and WA. Leave the reds in TX to die when the next grid breakdown happens.

My compassion is all but exhausted.

[FakeNoose]

16. Smart people in Texas could invest in their own solar and wind power generators

... then they can vote the asshole Repukes out for good.

[Igel]

19. don't see new.

It was known by March 2020 that the primary reason for the failure was that ice accumulation in natural gas lines led to a natural gas shortfall.

Wind was worse than anything fossil-fuel related. Fossil-fuel had a non-zero fail rate. Wind in certain areas had a nearly non-100% fail rate. Thermal generation plants had water intake pipes frozen, whether based on methane or .

Nuclear had issues with coolant intake pipes freezing.

But natural gas was an issue because of condensation. And one of the problems was that my cooking gas was prioritized over my lights.

As for Craddick's testimony, note that she was in full CYA mode. What she said might not be wrong, but it might not be actually right.

I'm assuming she's (R). Do (R) lie or tell the truth?

[UTUSN]

20. And yet they will likely reelect ABBUTT

Last edited Sun Nov 28, 2021, 11:22 AM - Edit history (1)

[Luz]

23. I'm not fooled. I lived thru 3 freezing days with no power.

Now I have solar power for my electric and propane for heat/cooking. I won't go thru that again.

[Baitball Blogger]

24. Good for you.

Do you have a link to company that sells these panels? It would be nice to get off the grid.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

25. I purchased a generator

It will not be installed until the end of January but after this generator is in we should be okay

[LetMyPeopleVote]

26. Abbott's failure to fix power grid could be key issue in next year's gubernatorial race

Greg has done nothing to fix the grid. All of Texas is at risk due to Greg's failures

Link to tweet

O’Rourke, for his part, says that this will “absolutely” be a central issue in his campaign. In addition to the harm caused by the freeze itself, there’s the fact that state leaders haven’t fixed the electric grid yet, and have left Texans to pay for it—via “an Abbott tax,” as O’Rourke has put it.

“It’s still very much on people’s minds,” he said on Friday. “And they will be reminded of it every single month that they pay their utility bill and see the surcharge that is covering up for the incompetence of our current governor and the greed of those who profited from the misery of so many people in this community.”

He added that we continue to learn more about the freeze, and its aftermath. This week Brad Jones, the interim CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), told NBC 5 in Dallas that he has concerns about a law passed this year which in theory requires gas companies to weatherize. The companies could, instead, simply fill out a one-page form and pay a nominal fee—which is, as Jones put it, an “easy out.”

“More news comes out every single day,” O’Rourke said. “We got a report from ERCOT earlier this week that the gas supply CEOs were let off the hook--(for a nominal) $150 and they no longer had to invest in weatherization of their wellheads and protecting the gas supply. We also learned that a failure to supply gas, because of the lack of investment and weatherization, was one of the primary causes of the power outages that we found in Texas.”

An October poll from the University of Texas/Texas Tribune found just 18 percent of voters approve of how state leaders have handled the issue.

[Cha]

28. Rt TY.. I remember the Houston

Chronicle when I used to live there with my Mom and Dad family Many Moons Ago!

Good on Beto.. pound 'em with facts Beto!

[pecosbob]

29. We used to get the Houston Post when I was a kid.

Like many cities Houston had two papers once upon a time but it's progressive newspaper was bought out by the conservative Hearst newspaper, the Chronicle.

[Cha]

30. That's too bad.. more Propaganda..

Less real news.

I don't even know why I remember it.. I had just learned to read a couple of years before we left and went back to Colorado.

[Cha]

27. Of course Texas officials are

trying to Weasel out of it.. that's what sociopathic cowards do.