The leaders of the utility companies and State just went through several simulations on what it may take for the grid to fail. Especially, since not much of anything has been updated within the grid. One of my closest friends is the CEO of one of these utilities and he suggested to leave the State ASAP upon projected failure since the State will declare martial law once it fails. It spooked the crap out of him just how likely it may be that it can fail.

Hopefully wholesale electricity plans no longer exist. All those people who were saving $20 a month during the summer who got $10,000 electricity bills that the rest of us ended up having to pay can go EAD.

austinrb10 said:

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The leaders of the utility companies and State just went through several simulations on what it may take for the grid to fail. Especially, since not much of anything has been updated within the grid. One of my closest friends is the CEO of one of these utilities and he suggested to leave the State ASAP upon projected failure since the State will declare martial law once it fails. It spooked the crap out of him just how likely it may be that it can fail.

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This article and what you are saying should scare the crap out of people. This is a perfect example of why having privatized profit seeking entities controlling every facet of our lives is not the best way to go.

I just love it how literally nothing has happened since the great freeze, except Abbot, Cruz, Patrick and Paxton took another 10 million each in campaign donations.

Winterize - nope
protect the gas supply - nope
come down on energy solutions and the rest for stealing billions - don't care, got my money


It will happen again soon enough, you will all complain for a month, then nothing will happen.

Nothing in the world more corrupt than a Texas politician, nothing dumber than the guy voting for him.

You know, the funny thing is, so many will defend these companies because free market, business, freedom what ever BS slogan they want to slap on it but there was nothing about this that should be celebrated by pro-business freedom loving Texans. This is pure on corruption and idiocy.

In fact, this whole fiasco cost Texas and it's businesses a F ton of money.

https://www.chron.com/politics/article/Texas-winter-storm-freeze-deaths-financial-cost-16585329.php

Has anyone floated a number for what it would cost to winterize the Texas grid? And to what standard would that number take us? Or does everybody confine their *****ing to the cost of this one storm's impact?

normaleagle05 said:

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Has anyone floated a number for what it would cost to winterize the Texas grid? And to what standard would that number take us? Or does everybody confine their *****ing to the cost of this one storm's impact?

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Prob around $10 billion. It could be done with a surcharge. Of course, it's much cheaper to put in the equipment when these plants are built, but who's gonna do something silly like that.

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/investigates/texans-could-see-higher-electricity-bills-to-pay-for-power-plant-winterization-experts-say/287-5e7fd5ed-2c43-4fad-a786-a27308f9c234

But you know, if Texas didn't have this insane fetish about being 'independent' we could be a part of the overall grid and we would be fine even without the winterization.

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/verify/verify-what-it-would-take-for-texas-to-join-the-national-grid/287-8a9d10bf-095c-4c18-a8f4-84356b0f409a

knoxtom said:

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Nothing in the world more corrupt than a Texas politician, nothing dumber than the guy voting for him.

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Except for almost every Democrat. The sleaziest people in the entire world are Democrat politicians. Their corruption would turn the stomach of even the most devout mafia, ISIS, and Mexican cartel members. The stupidity of those that vote for them has likely never been surpassed. We're talking single digit IQ folks.

aggieforester05 said:

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knoxtom said:

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Nothing in the world more corrupt than a Texas politician, nothing dumber than the guy voting for him.

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Except for almost every Democrat. The sleaziest people in the entire world are Democrat politicians. Their corruption would turn the stomach of even the most devout mafia, ISIS, and Mexican cartel members. The stupidity of those that vote for them has likely never been surpassed. We're talking single digit IQ folks.

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So most D's are worse than ISIS and the Mexican Cartels....This is why our country is f'ed.

Macarthur said:

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aggieforester05 said:

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knoxtom said:

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Nothing in the world more corrupt than a Texas politician, nothing dumber than the guy voting for him.

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Except for almost every Democrat. The sleaziest people in the entire world are Democrat politicians. Their corruption would turn the stomach of even the most devout mafia, ISIS, and Mexican cartel members. The stupidity of those that vote for them has likely never been surpassed. We're talking single digit IQ folks.

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So most D's are worse than ISIS and the Mexican Cartels....This is why our country is f'ed.

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Cleary hyperbole in response to his/her incredibly ignorant post.

Macarthur said:

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But you know, if Texas didn't have this insane fetish about being 'independent' we could be a part of the overall grid and we would be fine even without the winterization.

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/verify/verify-what-it-would-take-for-texas-to-join-the-national-grid/287-8a9d10bf-095c-4c18-a8f4-84356b0f409a

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Which regional utility authority do you want to move us to? And do you mean the entire state, or just the portions under ERCOT?

Sorry, hard keep my sarcasm meter sharp these days.

Abbott watching the Weather Channel

Can we get MacArthur to go bump political argument threads on the Politics board instead of here on the General board?

I try to not go over there….

Macarthur said:

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wbt5845 said:

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Hopefully wholesale electricity plans no longer exist. All those people who were saving $20 a month during the summer who got $10,000 electricity bills that the rest of us ended up having to pay can go EAD.

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I think you are severely missing the mark here. Laying the blame on a single mom that tries to find a way to save a few bucks on her electricity bill while these companies are making insane profits while sharing virtually zero cost assoicated with this is frankly kind of insane.

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You really have no idea what you are talking about .

Love the single mom angle

knoxtom said:

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Nothing in the world more corrupt than a Texas politician.

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Slight derail, I was reading one of LBJs biographies and it was talking about when LBJs dad was a state rep and how corrupt everyone was.

"Low salaries didn't bother many of the legislators, for it was not legislators but lobbyistslobbyists for oil companies, railroads, banks, utilitieswho did the presiding in Austin: in the capital's bars and brothels, where they dispensed "beefsteak, bourbon and blondes" so liberally that some descriptions of turn-of-the-century legislative sessions read like descriptions of one long orgy; in its backrooms, where decisions were made; even on the floor of the Legislature, which lobbyists roamed at will, often sitting at legislators' desks and sometimes even casting votes on behalf of absent Representatives."

Politicians have and will always be corrupt.

Valtrex11 said:

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Macarthur said:

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wbt5845 said:

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Hopefully wholesale electricity plans no longer exist. All those people who were saving $20 a month during the summer who got $10,000 electricity bills that the rest of us ended up having to pay can go EAD.

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I think you are severely missing the mark here. Laying the blame on a single mom that tries to find a way to save a few bucks on her electricity bill while these companies are making insane profits while sharing virtually zero cost assoicated with this is frankly kind of insane.

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You really have no idea what you are talking about .

Love the single mom angle

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Help me understand...

forget about the single mom. How about a family of 4 that doesn't have a lot of disposable income but wants to save $20 a month. Tell me how THEY are the problem here.

If you don't have a generator in good working condition hooked up to your house and stockpiles of diesel, you deserve to freeze to death. Why should companies we pay to supply us with energy be responsible for providing us with energy? If you're dumb enough to rely on someone else to provide energy then you deserve to pay thousands of dollars whenever they screw up.

THE_CHOSEN_ONE said:

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If you don't have a generator in good working condition hooked up to your house and stockpiles of diesel, you deserve to freeze to death. Why should companies we pay to supply us with energy be responsible for providing us with energy?

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What about the people that can't afford a generator? They DESERVE to die? Is that a joke?

Maybe they should work harder and buy a generator, or learn to build a fire or something. Whatever poor people did before generators.

Nice.