{"id":48528,"date":"2021-02-22T08:58:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T08:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=133390"},"modified":"2021-02-22T08:58:08","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T08:58:08","slug":"who-messed-with-texas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/22\/who-messed-with-texas-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Messed with Texas?"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
\n
\n
\n
\"\"

Image Source: NOAA – Public Domain<\/p><\/div>\n

Texans like to brag endlessly about how great their state is, its \u201cindependence,\u201d and warn, \u201cdon\u2019t mess with Texas.\u201d But as millions of Texans now huddle freezing in the dark of this self-proclaimed \u201cenergy capital of the world,\u201d it might be worth thinking about how this tragedy happened, who and what caused it, and why Republican politicians are trying to blame renewable energy for a problem caused by poorly built and maintained fossil fuel generation facilities and the predatory capitalism of its deregulated energy system.<\/p>\n

The news has been flooded with heartbreaking pictures and stories of Texas families suddenly caught in a deep freeze caused by a climate-change induced outbreak of the polar vortex. But it would be disingenuous to think that somehow Texans had no idea what it means to get hit by ice and snow \u2014 and the problems it can cause for unprepared utilities, businesses and citizens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The simple truth is that a similar cold-weather incident wracked Texas in 2011. It was so bad the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission researched the fallout from the event and prepared a detailed report concerning the many problems it caused.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In a nutshell, the problems in Texas are primarily caused by utility deregulation and a lack of insulation in the industrial, energy and domestic sectors. So why wouldn\u2019t Texas\u2019 coal and natural gas power plants \u2014 which produce by far the majority of the state\u2019s electricity \u2014 take the simple measure of insulating the pipes that carry their process water? According to an article in the Texas Tribune, they don\u2019t want to spend the money because in the deregulated Texas utility market, the cheapest power available is what gets pumped into the wires by the obviously misnamed \u201cElectric Reliability Council of Texas.\u201d In the deregulated energy market where \u201ccheapest is best\u201d there\u2019s actually a financial disincentive to invest in prudent measures to ensure actual reliability for utility customers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
Likewise, because energy conservation seems to be disparaged in the poorly governed Lone Star State, homes, schools and businesses also avoided the added costs of insulation thinking they\u2019d never need it because it doesn\u2019t get cold in Texas \u2014 everybody knows that, right?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

Insulation certainly would have kept their homes significantly warmer during the electricity blackouts \u2014\u00a0but an insulated home is also much easier to keep cool in very hot weather, something which Texans and their decision-makers seem unaware. Insulation would have kept their water treatment plants running, too \u2014\u00a0so millions wouldn\u2019t be under \u201cboil\u201d advisories for whatever water they might get.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Here in Montana people are justifiably mystified why Texans are so unprepared. Thanks to prudent investments, our wind turbines don\u2019t freeze up and the pipes at our water treatment plants, generation facilities, homes, schools and businesses are insulated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Having decided to be independent of federal regulation and the regional electricity grid that serves most of the West, Texas decided to go it alone. Unfortunately, now their people are paying a horrific price for foolish, ideologically-driven policies. And while Texas\u2019 Republican politicians take no responsibility for their lack of preparation, they\u2019re more than willing to ask for and take FEMA disaster relief from the federal government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Montana has its own experience with Texas-style deregulation brought to us by the Republican legislative majorities and then-governor Marc Racicot about 25 years ago. And we\u2019re still paying the price for that policy disaster, having gone from the cheapest power in the northwest region to the most expensive, even though we re-regulated our utility sector. Mess with Texas? No thanks \u2014\u00a0their Republican politicians are doing a bang-up job of that already.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Who Messed with Texas?<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texans like to brag endlessly about how great their state is, its \u201cindependence,\u201d and warn, \u201cdon\u2019t mess with Texas.\u201d But as millions of Texans now huddle freezing in the dark of this self-proclaimed \u201cenergy capital of the world,\u201d it might be worth thinking about how this tragedy happened, who and what caused it, and why Republican politicians are trying to blame renewable energy for a problem caused by poorly built and maintained fossil fuel generation facilities and the predatory capitalism of its deregulated energy system. More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Who Messed with Texas?<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,266],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48528"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50743,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48528\/revisions\/50743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}