Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre of 2021: Biden Energy Policy Brings a Dark Winter to Texas

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OPINION

The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre of 2021: Biden Energy Policy Brings a Dark Winter to Texas

By Paul Dowling

“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.”  – Thomas Sowell

Poison-Pen Massacre: Biden Energy Secretary Signs Veritable Death Warrant of Dozens

On Saint Valentine’s Day, 2021, Biden’s energy secretary used a veritable poison pen to sign an order prohibiting Texas from exceeding environmental emissions standards to save human lives.  Dozens have died in the wake of this deadly deed.  To Texans, the deceased are more than faceless unknowns; they are wise neighbors, helpful friends, civic contributors, and hometown heroes.

A Vietnam War Hero Dies in Crosby, Texas

A Vietnam veteran died in Crosby, Texas, due to the icy grip of the recent Big Freeze that was exacerbated by the bootless corruption of government actors.  According to Breitbart News, Toni Anderson “found her husband Andy Anderson in his pickup truck outside their home.”  Apparently, he had gone to his truck “to use a portable oxygen-producing machine after his main unit died during a prolonged power outage.”

Mr. Anderson had breathing difficulties that were a result of his exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and needed to have ready access to oxygen for his own survival.  Warnings that Texans received indicating there would be planned rotating outages had led the Andersons to believe – as did most Texans – that any blackouts that were about to happen were planned and would be only temporary.

“We didn’t know the power would be out for days like it was,” lamented Ms. Anderson, who will now be faced with grieving her husband’s death and having to make funeral preparations while, at the same time, having to address home repairs and pipe replacements, in the aftermath of the winter crisis.

Deaths in the State Are Far from Being Isolated

The Epoch Times reports that “[o]f the around 70 deaths attributed to the snow, ice, and frigid temperatures nationwide, more than a dozen were people who perished in homes that had lost their heat, and most of those were in Texas.

They include an 11-year-old boy who died in his bed in Conroe, near Houston, and two older men found dead in their homes in the small West Texas town of Buffalo Gap in Taylor County.”  The death toll is expected to increase in the days following this government-created crisis, as relatives and neighbors discover the bodies of their family members and beloved friends.

Choosing Death out of an Abundance of Political Correctness

So, what happened to convert Texas’ Big Freeze into a major harvest for the Grim Reaper?  It was the people’s misplaced faith in public servants who were entrusted to choose life, by acting with reasoned responsibility and ethical integrity; but instead, these morally-bankrupt officials acted with reckless abandon and political correctness, leading Texans down a nightmarish road to hell, paved with the good – or even ill – intentions of government decision-makers.

It was Joe Biden’s secretary of energy, David Huizenga, who created the conditions for the entire debacle by issuing “DOE 202(c) Emergency Order – ERCOT 02.14.2021” on Saint Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2021, ordering the Lone Star State to purchase energy from outside of the state at a higher cost, as its only means of relief from the Big Freeze, thereby reducing energy output throughout Texas.

And it was the ironically-named Electric Reliability Council of Texas’ blind obedience to what can only be described as an immoral order – given the life-or-death circumstances – that turned a deadly winter into a Biden-promised “dark winter.”  (Although Biden seemed to be predicting an uptick in Wuhan Coronavirus cases when he first pronounced these words, Biden’s utterance has since taken on a whole new dimension, in light of his administration’s issuance of the deadly order that senselessly brought about the terminations of so many lives.)

This is not the first irresponsible act that Biden and his Merry Mandators have committed, since they began wielding their executive pens and phones to reverse the personal and economic well-being of Americans.

On Biden’s first day in office, he embarked on an America-last agenda that would ensure the loss of America’s energy independence, the increase in America’s energy costs, and the empowerment of China over America’s electric grid.  Matters have only deteriorated for Americans ever since.

Governor Greg Abbott’s issuance of a statewide disaster declaration on February 12th (two days prior to the Biden Administration’s deadly diktat) had sent a clear signal about the seriousness of the impending weather emergency.  As a result of Abbott’s declaration, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (aka ERCOT) “was readying gas utilities in preparation for a demand surge.”

However, Biden’s Department of Energy refused to issue a waiver that would allow Texas to exceed normal restrictions on emissions for the period of the emergency, requiring that the state instead purchase more expensive energy from outside the state, in lieu of generating its own cheaper energy: “All entities must comply with environmental requirements to the maximum extent necessary to operate consistent with the emergency conditions.

This Order does not provide relief from an entity’s obligations to purchase allowances for emissions that occur during the emergency condition or to use other geographic or temporal flexibilities available to generators [italicized and bolded emphases are those of the author].”

The effect of all this was to make energy scarcer, since no relief was granted to ramp up energy production to the necessary level for life preservation.  Apparently, “environmental requirements” are much more important to Biden and his regulators than survival requirements when it comes to saving the lives of his fellow Americans.

Texas Last: ERCOT’s Blind Obedience to Biden’s Deadly Policy

Even though Texas lost much of its renewable energy (wind, solar, and hydro-electric sources of power) during the Big Freeze, the state could have overcome the crisis, if ERCOT had only chosen to go to 100% operating capacity, instead of dialing it down to 60% for the sake of following politically-correct orders to reduce emissions.  Generally, to ramp all the way up to 100%, a waiver must be obtained from the federal government.  Abbott requested such a waiver, “Biden refused.”

According to USA Supreme, “After Texas Gov Abbott declared a state of emergency back on Feb 12, [the] Biden administration ordered ERCOT to throttle energy output by forcing it to comply with environmental green energy standards, knowing full well Texans could freeze to death in their homes with zero electricity as temperatures plunged into the single digits.

Going into effect Sunday, Feb. 14, Emergency Order 202-21-1 shows the Energy Dept. was aware of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide disaster declaration and that ERCOT was readying gas utilities in preparation for a demand surge.”

But why did ERCOT comply?  Could it have anything to do with the fact that a third of the board members, including its leadership, do not live in Texas and do not share the values of Texans as life-choosing people of the Golden Rule?

One ERCOT board member has a professorship in Cologne, Germany, and domiciles in Del Mar, California.  Is this a God-fearing individual who deeply cares about the preservation of human life, as most Texans do?  Nobody seems to know for certain.

ERCOT’s board members have no excuse for unquestioningly obeying the immoral dictates of an America-last administration that cares more about making the Chinese Communist Party happy than keeping Americans alive in the Friendship State.  Were the board members “just following orders”?  And why is this all right, when an obviously immoral order has been given that constitutes an unquestionable crime against humanity?  If ERCOT had ignored Biden’s deadly directive to choose low emissions over human life, what is the worst that could have happened?  A slap on the wrist, perhaps?  Any caring human being should prefer the injustice of an unscrupulous wrist-slap to the finality of a bone-chilling death-blow to so many innocent people.

Amid the mounting death toll, Texans are about to witness the consequences of having put their trust too much in the hands of government bureaucrats to manage life-or-death matters.  Perhaps private energy companies, responding to customer demands and legally permitted to choose life during a wintry crisis, would yield a much better outcome than government racketeers responding to special interests and legally empowered to choose death.  Given that the first Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929 yielded seven deaths to the Grim Reaper, this second eponymous massacre of five or six dozen, with the end of counting not yet in sight, definitely qualifies to be named the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre of 2021.

~~~ 

Paul Dowling

Paul Dowling has written about the Constitution, as well as articles for Independent Sentinel, American Thinker, Godfather Politics, Eagle Rising, and Conservative Notions.

 


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Bev
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Bev
3 years ago

The facts come out. Sad.

Memories 68 Comeback Special
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Memories 68 Comeback Special
3 years ago

Coming soon to any color coded state near you courtesy of comrade kommissar Xi Obiden and his merry band of Sobama retreads.
Enlightened beings weren’t asking for your input deplorable kulak untermenschen scum and the great leap forward fundamental transformation is all about unity (conformity) of the glorious comrade’s collective.
What has worked fine for almost 250 years is racist and imperialist and must be replaced with the woke good feelz equality of results for all build communism back even worse stale horse shit.
They haven’t a clue of what to do after burning it all down. Plan accordingly.

Tim Shep
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Tim Shep
3 years ago

What else is new? That’s all these whiny socialists do’ is preach doom and gloom. The sky is always falling with these clowns and they are the only ones who can save us.

jpacord
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jpacord
3 years ago

It is time for the Governors and legislatures to give the proverbial finger to the ChiComs’ agent Biden and nullify and defy these federal laws and mandates. What is Biden going to do? Send the FBI? Abbott has the Texas Rangers and 20 million armed Texans to defend the rights of Texans from the mandates that are all designed to satisfy the demands of Biden’s ChiCom masters. All patriots should cease paying any and all federal taxes and use the money to save their families and communities from the ChiCom agents who have fraudulently seized control of the federal government.