Important updated information at the end
ORIGINAL STORY
The DOE limits the amount of fossil fuels Texas is allowed to use. In emergencies, they can go to full capacity, but then the power companies can raise rates. The rates went up 10,000 times.
The federal government controls how Texas generates electricity if they exceed pollution limits. It wasn’t just about windmills. The DOE would not allow the power facilities to operate at full capacity until the emergency passed or the rates went up to pay for the pollution.
Texas isn’t part of the National Power Grid but they are not independent as one might have thought.
2/ Biden’s EPA refused Governor Abbott’s request and instead offered to allow certain power generation facilities a waiver if they raised the prices they charged to Texans to more than $1,500/MWh resulting in massive statewide power outages and a failure of the grid. pic.twitter.com/AW70kuwERW
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
4/ Gov. Abbott knew that if the EPA would allow our natural gas and coal power plants to operate at peak efficiency they could meet 110% of the demand the state faced last week. The EPA refused. pic.twitter.com/jBvkZkoF58
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
6/ My question? Why didn’t @GovAbbott simply order all Texas power generation facilities to operate at peak efficiency and force Biden to send his army to Texas to stop us? Does anyone think Biden would have sent the army to shut down our national gas power generation facilities? pic.twitter.com/T3JJkKcXWL
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
7/ SHOCK: President Biden refused @GovAbbott‘s request that he sign major disaster declarations for 177 Texas counties after refusing to allow Texas power plants to operate at 100% capacity during the polar vortex resulting in massive power outages. https://t.co/oSydD6zfxE
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
9/ CORRECTION: I used EPA instead of DOE in this thread. Also, to be clear the DOE refused Abbott’s request to allow power plants to operate at full capacity without charging at least $1500/MWh – a price that would have bankrupted the retail electric industry/consumers.
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
11/ While we lost much of our renewable supply (wind and solar) our natural gas and coal are required to operate at 60% capacity to reduce emissions. They CAN operate at 100% if they get a waiver from the federal government (as Abbott requested). Biden refused…
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
12/ This morning on the Sunday political TV shows Biden surrogates claimed that the power outages and the lives lost rest solely on @GregAbbott_TX. The media won’t look at evidence that the DOE refused the governor’s request to allow for additional power generation. Sick.
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
The worst part was the $1500 was a totally artificial price designed to deter use. It is all about reducing pollution. In a time of crisis let generators sell at normal prices…
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
UPDATED INFORMATION
ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, did not weatherize the plants as they were supposed to and that was a big part of the problem. If they had the three coal plants recently closed down online, they would have had enough power.
Some Texans are getting $7,000 power bills. The Federal guidelines don’t allow for subsidies. That has to be addressed immediately.
We are waiting for a call back from ERCOT, but the latest information indicates that ERCOT first asked for the $1500 Mwh. The power companies were allowed to up the charges as demand increased. It doesn’t change the fact that these Green laws don’t have an escape clause when emergencies occur.
Business Insider reported:
Spiking bills won’t hit state residents who had fixed-rate electric plans. The problem for many comes from index or variable-rate plans, in which rates to power their home or business change with the price of the wholesale market. In good times, a customer’s bill can be lower than it might be otherwise — but if the cost to produce electricity skyrockets, so too do bills.
Last Monday, as freezing weather rolled through Texas and much of the US, the wholesale price of electricity shot up 10,000%. It went from about $50 per megawatt hour to $9,000 — a system cap, according to data provided by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the operator of Texas’ electric grid.
Some critics say ERCOT was asleep at the wheel. Watch the video below.
Watch for more information:
CORRECTION: UPDATED INFORMATION WAS ADDED AFTER PUBLICATION. THE PROBLEM IS COMPLICATED.
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The biggest problem in America today is a lack of State’s Rights. The Federal Government controls far too much through Departments like the EPA and DOE. Gov. Abbot should have told the Federal Government to pack sand, but Republicans tend to be Law & Order people; unlike Democrats! The Power Grid in Texas is not part of the National Power Grid and the Federal Government should have no say so in it including controlling emissions. The Federal Government should not be providing “Green Energy” subsidies to people in Texas. The only reason that Texas has Solar and Wind is Federal Government meddling. Actually, the Federal Government shouldn’t be allowed to provide any subsidies to anyone. The People should tell the Government what to do, the Government shouldn’t be “bribing” people to do what the Government wants.
But let’s look at what really happened. I wasn’t rural people freezing to death in Texas, it was mostly people in cities dependent on Government; Democrat run Cities like Houston. I live on acreage. I have generators. I have a wood pile. I know better than depending on Government. I’ve worked for the Federal Government for over 20 years. Government is a pain in the ass and we have allowed ourselves to become too dependent on Government and because of that have given Government way too much power. Consider that what happened in Texas is only the tip of the iceberg of what happens with Big Government. You think what happened is Texas (and California with the Wild Fires) was bad; let the Communist Democrats take over and this will be America wide, even in rural America. If the Communist Democrats take over people like me won’t be allowed to own land. We won’t be allowed to have generators or burn wood in a fireplace to keep from freezing. EVERYTHING will be rationed according to your “Social Score” and the Social Score of the 75,000,000 will be ZERO! And where does Traitor Joe get off with not immediately declaring a Disaster in all 254 counties in Texas? Did Traitor Joe just declare an emergency in Democrat Counties? NO GOVERNOR should ever have to ask for permission to act in an emergency and that should also include protecting our borders from Illegal Aliens!
In the next 2 years, Democrats are going to do a lot of damage to America and the worse part is that it is by design. State Governors can stop a lot of this. The question is will they? One thing President Trump was good about, declaring emergencies so FEMA could assist The People. Democrats only care about Democrats.
The Main sewer Stream fake Media will utter nary a word and the Stasi/Kgb/Gestapo censors and factless checkers will be scoring facebook et al to silence references…
Why does this sound entirely plausible?
I doubt if this account of the Texas weather catastrophe is correct. Abbott could simply have ordered the plants to operate at full capacity regardless of the EPA’s BS regulations. The correct answer is that once the wind mill generators failed the idiots running EPCET, a state chartered group ordered power diverted to the major cities and cut off power to Midland and the Permian Basin where most of the natural gas is produced.The result is there was no power to run the gas compressors and a huge gas shortage developed that crippled power generation throughout the state. Time for Texas to throw the entire EPA out of the state, round up their and put them onbuses to DC, NY and CA. Once tha ti sdone close downall federal offices and dare Biden todo anything about it. Libtarts all all cowards and will hide in their closets.
Unfortunately, Republicans are all gutless cowards too. Nobody will do a thing about this. They will all just whine and complain until its out of the headlines. Texas will NEVER secede, never be free, and never again be a Republican stronghold.
Republicans are mostly gutless wimps. Texans are mostly gutless wimps with big mouths who talk tough but fold under the slightest pressure. I wish I were wrong.
No electric for you deplorable kulak untermenschen!
What a nice state you have there and it would be a shame if anything happened to it before we can fundamentally transform it with future lifetime democrat voters waiting at the border.
No more talk of secession now, capiche.
What, you got a $17,000 electric bill, well pay up or we take you out back and rough you up.