Well, you know his dog hates him, so…
Abbott has been very vocal that it’s ERCOT’s failure and he’s launching an investigation. It seems the board is made up of cronies and energy industry hacks, rather than people with utility industry expertise. So how did that happen?
Well, the first thing that the Governor will discover in his 9/11-style inquisition, is that ERCOT reports to him and he appoints the board. I’m sure that will be a shock.
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My understanding is ERCOT can’t make utilities weatherize or have backup; that’s not their role. I suppose ERCOT could make more generators come on line for the winter, ensuring capacity to handle events of this frequency, but if they did, those generators would pass those costs to consumers (Texas would no longer be the cheap energy state) and everyone would bitch at the politicians, who would then make ERCOT back off.
Sorry to harp on this topic, but the issue is so much deeper than blaming ERCOT. HH is likely right in that nothing will eventually be done. In the end, the message to people with means is to ensure they can generate their own electricity or learn to live with these events. For those without means, well, they get nothing.
ERCOT can’t force anything. They are not a state regulatory agency, they are a trade association. They can “advise” and “recommend”. But their primary reason for existence is to ensure that there is not an oversupply or excessive backup capacity, which would lower prices. Their job is to make sure the grid is maxed out and prices stay high.
So, they don’t even have the authority to require more generators are available for the winter?
That may be the job of the Public Utility Commission and/or the no-longer-aptly-named Railroad Commission.
It’s definitely not the RR commission. Maybe the PUC, or maybe no one at all.
The PUC technically “oversees” ERCOT, but in reality, they are pretty hands off. ERCOT makes the plan for how much electricity generation will be needed, again, with the goal of making sure they don’t over forecast and have too much capacity available.
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There’s a whole lot of lunacy here, but the simplest solution would be to connect the Texas grid to the rest of the United States. So, if our generating capacity is eating shit, we can draw power from the rest of the country.
The reason we’re not connected - and why Rick “Oops, I forgot that it was the Department of Energy that I wanted to abolish” Perry is out there saying that Texans are happy to freeze to death for freedom - is because connection to the national grid brings with it Federal regulation. That may well involve winterizing our generating stations so that we aren’t a giant suck on the grid when the temperature drops.
Is it possible that this giant fuck up has exposed the Republican failure of governance in Texas, the same way that COVID did for Trump’s administration? Here’s MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on the subject:
They don’t have any sort of authority. They are a planning agency for their members. They forecast how much capacity they think they’ll need and the generators operate based on that. Above all, they don’t want extra capacity as it would lower prices, which in turn they say would destabilize the grid.
In making this plan for how much generation is needed, can they actually require generators to be active during the period of the plan?
Thanks.
I don’t think so. They don’t have authority to compel a private company to produce anything.
This is another thing I don’t understand. “People” are saying that we don’t want to incur the cost to winterize our generating capacity but, if it’s privately owned, it’ll be those companies that incur the cost as the price of doing business in Texas.
Ok, sure, that cost will be passed back to the consumer somehow, but we’re paying a heavy, heavy price for not having them do it right now.
Wait. I thought HH was always right?
Then they will get what they deserve.
A NASA engineer tells Dan to STFU…
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We’d rather suffer through this last week than to pay a few extra bucks throughout the year. Just ask Rick Perry.
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Poor Greg Abbott. He’ll be shocked to know the truth.
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If Trump tells him he’s a Democrat, Abbott will hang his head and claim to be a Democrat. He ain’t bucking his sovereign.
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