Posted on 02/03/2011 6:28:53 AM PST by detective
Wind farms. Worldwide you can look to see how poorly they provide any degree of reliable power. Just ask Spain, Britain and Ireland - all of who’s spending on fossil fuel plants has not decreased, and has actually increased since spending billions on wind farms.
With average temperatures continuing to decline every year, we need generation of power. Contrary to popular belief, it takes a lot more power to heat homes than to cool them with AC.
Those plants do have to come down at some point during the year for maintenance. It’s better to do it now rather than in July/August when people could die of heat stroke.
Well, it started Tues and Dallas shut down. No thaw until Sunday...Dallas is still shut down. Here in E TX the daily supplies (to stores, etc.) from Dallas have not occurred since Tuesday.
Certainly, we can survive this...but it is lasting more than a day.
>>It’s not the end of the world if people can’t watch Oprah for fifteen minutes or heat up their chicken pot pie. It will all be over in a day so everyone just needs to man up.<<
I think you forgot your /s/ tag.
Did you read about the fried electronics? I would be pretty miffed if my plasma tv got fried.
Wait a minute.
We just need to spend MORE on windmills.
Yea, that should fix it!
It won’t matter then because they’ll all be friz to death.
I predict the political response will be to build more windmills.
My “rolling” blackout lasted for 7 1/2 hours.
Wind energy is far more expensive than the energy it replaces and it is totally unreliable.
You would think someone at ERCOT wold have seen this possibility especially after similar blackouts were narrowly averted on February 28, 2008 when a weather front idled most of the state’s wind turbines. This is just another demonstration why wind energy is NOT a reliable let alone cost effective means of generating electricity. It is bad enough when the US with its vast reserves of oil has to import oil because of idiotic government policies, but in the future we may be importing our electricity too.
Issue has nothing to do with Oprah or chicken pie. Some of us actually have to work which requires power. We expect this after a hurricane but there is no reason whatsoever for anyone in Texas to not have an adequate power supply during the other times. Legislature is currently in session. Steps to correct this in the future should be their first order of business.
Surrender to environmentalists? LOL, they prefer you weren't on the planet.
We're the Saudia Arabia of both natural gas and coal...let's use it!!
I smell a rat! Previously ERCOT and Generators like Reliance and TXU only came down for Planned Maintenance Outages in April and May when power usage was greatly decreased, UNLESS the Generators wanted to make a point about getting OK for new generation.
Well, on the one hand, that's an admirably stoic response. On the other, it's an attitude that lets the left continue to chip away at the modern civilization we've managed to build over several centuries.
I can see accepting natural catastrophes, but I would rail loudly against those created intentionally by man.
Here’s what happened. Coal/gas plants were off-line, so “emergency” generators were fired up, and the owners of these plants raised the rates from $30/MWH to $3,000/MWH, which allowed ALL generation companies to charge $3,000/MWH. Talk about adding injury to insult.
Then the 15 minute blackouts ran as long as several hours, while other areas had no blackouts.
ERCOT is a total failure, as is electric deregulation. Rates, instead of declining, are now at the highest in the nation, and electric reliability...well, you see the result.
If you are in Texas, call your senator/representative. It’s time to put a stake in the heart of this failed system.
And here I thought Texans weren’t stupid enough to buy into all that liberal wind and solar power crap.
I was wrong. You Texans have disappointed me.
>> It’s not the end of the world if people can’t watch Oprah for fifteen minutes or heat up their chicken pot pie.
You spew ignorant liberal bullshit.
The reason we have rolling blackouts in Texas like we’re some third world backwater like Mejico is NOT because of technical difficulties, or EXTREME inclement weather (0 to twenty? C’mon), or any other reason that our engineering prowess is beyond handling.
The SOLE reason we got caught with our pants down is that our sycophant lapdog electric utilities have bought into the Sierra Club globull warmism nonsense, and screwed us in our ability to bring peak-handling FOSSIL FUEL powered electricity online to handle the loads.
From your snotty ignorant comment, apparently you’re a Sierra Club koolaid drinker too, yes?
I will NOT be ashamed for DEMANDING that our damned electric utility handle my loads like I live in a civilized country, thank you very much.
Oh, and by the way, Sierra Club snotbag, do you have ANY EARTHLY IDEA how DISRUPTIVE (and possibly damaging!) these stupid unnecessary blackouts ARE to BUSINESSES? They don’t “watch oprah and warm chicken pot pie”, they make stuff and employ people. Oh I forgot, all you Sierra Club pukes work for the gubmint and get “snow days” if the power goes down. Excuse me.
This is silly.
So there wasn’t enough wind. There were multiple other problems, too, like coal and natural gas plants off-line and the BIG reason: brutally cold temps over the ENTIRE state.
A confluence of events, very unusual circumstances, cold more suited to Maine, and all of us having to deal with it.
Our forefathers — not that long ago — rode out these events by chopping wood and huddling together.
More snow tomorrow.
The problem is not 5-15 minutes. The problem is that some of their blackouts that are supposed to last a few minutes end up being hours. My neighborhood lost power for several hours because something tripped and power didn’t come back after their PLANNED blackout. It’ 15 degrees outside, you’re home with young kids, and the power is out for 4-6 hours ... because they wanted wind but won’t drill the Barnett Shale under our feet.
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