2015 Warmest Year on Record

[Deleted member 2897]

Watts Bar Unit 2 began construction in the 1970s. That’s how long it took to be built. We’ll see if Vogtle ever comes on line LOL.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Did you read all the articles? If so you'll notice the the green wind turbines and solar were basically operating well below their output level if at all which put additional stress on other sources. If the wind and solar production wouldn't have failed the rolling outages wouldn't be required.
To blame natural gas and coal power generation facilities for the problem is turning a blind eye to the realities of what happens when the back up capabilities are removed from the system due to $$$ penalties, etc.

The natural gas plants are not producing as needed due to 2 factors:

a. Offline for regularly scheduled maintenance
b. Shortage of natural gas

How can a state that’s got more energy resources that just about any other be short of natural gas? Pander all you want, but there’s people hell bent on making life as miserable for all of us as possible so they can personally profit.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

The natural gas plants are not producing as needed due to 2 factors:

a. Offline for regularly scheduled maintenance
b. Shortage of natural gas

How can a state that’s got more energy resources that just about any other be short of natural gas? Pander all you want, but there’s people hell bent on making life as miserable for all of us as possible so they can personally profit.

Electricity prices necessarily need to sky rocket. LOL.

The Today Show had an expert on to explain Texas’ power situation today for several minutes. A Judge from Harris County. LOL. One of the stranger things I’ve seen.

 

[armeck]

Did you read all the articles? If so you'll notice the the green wind turbines and solar were basically operating well below their output level if at all which put additional stress on other sources. If the wind and solar production wouldn't have failed the rolling outages wouldn't be required.
To blame natural gas and coal power generation facilities for the problem is turning a blind eye to the realities of what happens when the back up capabilities are removed from the system due to $$$ penalties, etc.

If you read the articles, you would see that ALL sources were failing to provide. That was the point of my post - to counter the increasing false narrative that the crisis is due to "Green Energy" that folks like Tucker Carlson, et al., are trying to push.

If you want to bash wind turbines, you need to criticize Texas' implementation of them not the actual concept itself. They are currently in use in places that get and stay much colder than it is in Texas.

 

[slugboy]

You can’t run natural gas electrical generators without gas & efficient gas generation requires a pipeline; coal fired electrical generators, need coal & a lot of powerful people hate coal. Oil fired generators need oil & they require environmentally friendly pipelines or tons of environmentally unfriendly trucks/rail. Connect the dots. This is a self-inflicted crisis. We got what we asked for.

Texas has natural gas pipelines running from West Texas across the state. Texas’ main sources of power are gas, wind, and coal. Coal is a large #3 power source. Texas is also one of the few states with uninsulated natural gas pipelines, and they froze.
Texas’ natural gas power generation is offline. They store almost no buffers. Texas’ coal powered plants are mostly offline, because they aren’t winterized. Their nuclear power is largely offline.

Rolling Texas blackouts: 2 million without power statewide as multiple power sources trip offline

The Texas grid was crippled overnight by nuclear, coal and thermal energy generators falling offline, as demand reached record highs.

amp.statesman.com

ETA: I have also read that the natural gas plants had alternative supplies, but weren’t willing to pay higher surge prices

 

[orientalnc]

Electricity prices necessarily need to sky rocket. LOL.

The Today Show had an expert on to explain Texas’ power situation today for several minutes. A Judge from Harris County. LOL. One of the stranger things I’ve seen.

I believe a Judge in Texas county government is the head of the executive branch. Similar to a county manager in NC. Lina Hidalgo has been on TV often. Especially during the beginning of the pandemic.

 

[TechnicalPossum]

Watts Bar Unit 2 began construction in the 1970s. That’s how long it took to be built. We’ll see if Vogtle ever comes on line LOL.

I think Vogtle will finish because Southern Company has too much coal infrastructure they will be forced to take offline.

 

[armeck]

Electricity prices necessarily need to sky rocket. LOL.

The Today Show had an expert on to explain Texas’ power situation today for several minutes. A Judge from Harris County. LOL. One of the stranger things I’ve seen.

I believe a Judge in Texas county government is the head of the executive branch. Similar to a county manager in NC. Lina Hidalgo has been on TV often. Especially during the beginning of the pandemic.

County judge - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

County Commissioners' Court[edit]​

Each Texas County is presided over by a Commissioners' Court of four County Commissioners[7] and the County Judge,[8] plus the County Clerk as a non-voting ex officio member. Despite the terms "Court" and "Judge," the County Commissioners' Court has no judicial function, and although the County Judge presides over its meetings, the County Judge does not render judicial rulings. The Commissioners Court is just the title given in Texas to the county government, and County Judge the title given to the head of county government.[9] This body is responsible for administration of the county, controlling the county tax rate, the budget for its responsible departments, and exercising oversight over subsidiary boards and commissions.[7][10] The County Judge presides over meetings[8] but has no veto power,[11] Reviews and the court makes decisions by simply majority and is quorate with three voting members (except for levying tax where four members are required).[10] Consequently, a County Judge is primarily the chief administrator for the county, effectively the chief executive officer,[10] who exercises only limited judicial functions (varying between counties), though retaining the authority to conduct marriages and to conduct administrative hearings.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

County judge - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Also not in charge of the energy regulation agency, or an executive of any energy company. Why would you interview a county administrator or judge about a statewide or multi-state power issue?

 

[armeck]

Also not in charge of the energy regulation agency, or an executive of any energy company. Why would you interview a county administrator or judge about a statewide or multi-state power issue?

I have no way to answer that. I was adding context to your statement that it seemed incredulous to interview a judge, when in fact that judge is a chief executive officer. Not a crazy person to interview. The best person? Maybe not, but not certainly not one of the stranger things one has seen.

EDIT: Wait is this the interview?

‘Half our population is without power and water right now,’ Texas official says

Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top government official in Harris County, Texas, tells TODAY that “half our population is without power and water right now … over 1.2 million homes.” She cites issues with water, vaccine distribution and road conditions. “I don’t have an accurate estimate” for when power...

www.today.com

She is the in charge in Harris County, including Houston... she spoke about the effects on the people - how is that strange?

 

[Deleted member 2897]

I have no way to answer that. I was adding context to your statement that it seemed incredulous to interview a judge, when in fact that judge is a chief executive officer. Not a crazy person to interview. The best person? Maybe not, but not certainly not one of the stranger things one has seen.

EDIT: Wait is this the interview?

‘Half our population is without power and water right now,’ Texas official says

Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top government official in Harris County, Texas, tells TODAY that “half our population is without power and water right now … over 1.2 million homes.” She cites issues with water, vaccine distribution and road conditions. “I don’t have an accurate estimate” for when power...

www.today.com

She is the in charge in Harris County, including Houston... she spoke about the effects on the people - how is that strange?

The one I saw was about the states energy infrastructure. Many better options IMO.

 

[slugboy]

Watts Bar Unit 2 began construction in the 1970s. That’s how long it took to be built. We’ll see if Vogtle ever comes on line LOL.

My neighbor is involved in Vogle. He told me that most of the companies involved couldn’t run an 8 year old’s birthday party at the bouncy castle store.
Nuclear is a weird space—Vogle is full of people who have been building a nuclear reactor for years, but an almost total absence of anyone who has actually finished one. Also, like IT contracting companies, even with penalties, they’d just as soon stretch out the job as long as it takes. I don’t think they’re dumb—I just think a lot of them have years to go before retirement, and need to make the next year.

 

[LibertyTurns]

@slugboy I’ve been following Kinder Morgan’s travails on pipeline building waiting on a time to personally profit. If you think it’s private business stalling progress I’m really not sure what to say. The investment money is there.

Kinder Morgan And The Emerging Pipeline Shortage

On New Year’s Day, Kinder Morgan Inc brought its Permian Highway Pipeline on line. The 430-mile conduit carries 2.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from west Texas to the US Gulf Coast. Getting PHP up and running past fierce opposition testifies to the strength of Kinder’s management.

www.forbes.com

 

[slugboy]

@slugboy I’ve been following Kinder Morgan’s travails on pipeline building waiting on a time to personally profit. If you think it’s private business stalling progress I’m really not sure what to say. The investment money is there.

Kinder Morgan And The Emerging Pipeline Shortage

On New Year’s Day, Kinder Morgan Inc brought its Permian Highway Pipeline on line. The 430-mile conduit carries 2.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from west Texas to the US Gulf Coast. Getting PHP up and running past fierce opposition testifies to the strength of Kinder’s management.

www.forbes.com

There’s INTERstate and INTRAstate. Here, we’re talking about pipelines from West Texas to other parts of Texas. The regulation and permitting here is from Texas.
They have a Texas grid and they have Texas pipelines. This isn’t federal.
I don’t have any evidence of any issues getting pipelines built inside Texas.

 

[LibertyTurns]

I don’t have any evidence of any issues getting pipelines built inside Texas.

It’s really not that hard to find if you care to be informed. This took all of 5 secs to locate. There’s literally mountains on “evidence”.

New Lawsuit Aims To Halt Construction Of Kinder Morgan Pipeline In Texas

The Permian Highway Pipeline Project faces another legal challenge, this time from the Sierra Club. The lawsuit, filed in federal court on April 30, seeks…

www.tpr.org

 

[orientalnc]

It’s really not that hard to find if you care to be informed. This took all of 5 secs to locate. There’s literally mountains on “evidence”.

New Lawsuit Aims To Halt Construction Of Kinder Morgan Pipeline In Texas

The Permian Highway Pipeline Project faces another legal challenge, this time from the Sierra Club. The lawsuit, filed in federal court on April 30, seeks…

www.tpr.org

I think you may need a better example. There has probably never been a pipeline project not sued by someone at some point in time. Usually those suits are unsuccessful.

Kinder Morgan - Kinder Morgan Announces Commercial In-Service of Permian Highway Pipeline

ir.kindermorgan.com

 

[Deleted member 2897]

My neighbor is involved in Vogle. He told me that most of the companies involved couldn’t run an 8 year old’s birthday party at the bouncy castle store.
Nuclear is a weird space—Vogle is full of people who have been building a nuclear reactor for years, but an almost total absence of anyone who has actually finished one. Also, like IT contracting companies, even with penalties, they’d just as soon stretch out the job as long as it takes. I don’t think they’re dumb—I just think a lot of them have years to go before retirement, and need to make the next year.

We tried to build one in my state. After several years and something like $10 Billion, the company fessed up they might need another $10 Billion, so we just gave up.

 

[LibertyTurns]

I think you may need a better example. There has probably never been a pipeline project not sued by someone at some point in time. Usually those suits are unsuccessful.

Actually, it’s the perfect example. Frivolous lawsuits designed to inflict delays, cost money, etc for something that’s anti what they’re trying to achieve. You got a bunch of pawns funded by powerful people suing to prevent clean energy from making it to market so we can have more dirty energy instead. Environmentalists at their best!

 

[orientalnc]

Actually, it’s the perfect example. Frivolous lawsuits designed to inflict delays, cost money, etc for something that’s anti what they’re trying to achieve. You got a bunch of pawns funded by powerful people suing to prevent clean energy from making it to market so we can have more dirty energy instead. Environmentalists at their best!

The reason I believe that is a bad example is that the suit was filed in response to a 36,000 gallon spill into the Blanco River by the construction crew. It was not just environmentalists filing another frivolous lawsuit. It concerned the locals so much that they temporarily suspended KM's permits. Ultimately, KM addressed the concerns in the lawsuit and construction proceeded. Five months after the lawsuit natural gas was flowing in the PHP.

Just so we do not get into a political spat over this, I am a proponent of natural gas and pipelines are basic to the industry. Just as with railroads and electricity powerlines, some landowners have give up some or all of their property rights in order for those projects to be built. As long as they are adequately and fairly compensated, and local environmental concerns are properly addressed, I am in favor of things like PHP.

 

[LibertyTurns]

The Sierra Club sued due to alleged claim of insufficient permitting processes by the Corps of Engineers, specifically their dissatisfaction with environmental review- alternatives to the pipeline, etc. It wasn’t due to the leak.