If this keeps happening Gov Abbott may find himself without a job.

[flying_wahini]

[link:https://poweroutage.us/area/state/texas|


A weather windstorm toppled a light pole across I-45 south Dallas to Houston.
My friends were stranded in standstill traffic for over 5 hours yesterday, with
Miles and miles of cars stuck on the freeway.
As they got to Centerville and thru Huntsville they said all these towns had
NO POWER FOR Several hours. Still many areas still without power this morning.

It was HOT a yesterday and having NO power for hours is not going to go down well in
Gov Hot Wheels country.


FIX THE GODAMN GRID.

[niyad]

1. and I see where the power company doubled prices yesterday.

[flying_wahini]

30. Yeah just in time for Abbotts big donor to make more money.

[raccoon]

2. "Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. "

[Hortensis]

3. Wow, poor things. I'm really sorry that all those who voted for better

have to deal with this. From your words to those who didn't.

[dutch777]

6. The poor and working class will bear the burden. The rich either have generators or just fly out

We had neighbors when we lived in WA state who were well to do. Snow and cold where we lived usually meant power outages and sometimes for days. When the weather forecast got cold and dire, they'd be in a shuttle to the airport within hours and headed to warmer climes. Didn't always work out as one time with over 5 days of no power and sub freezing temperatures, one couple came back to a flooded house. They did a heck of a remodel and refurnish on the insurance company's dime. Even when the lose they win.

[Hortensis]

16. Umhm, but the working classes will all

be hit, and they range from those barely scraping by, through the vast middle, and right up through those who are doing very, very well indeed.

So there is going to be change.

The vast majority of the electorate are going to be very unhappy in spite of AC that runs when power supplies are adequate, generators, vacation homes, malls that double as temperature shelters and so on.

It also took a bunch of decades last century for things to get bad enough to create big support for the New Deal reforms, but they happened when the hurt finally reached the comfortable middle working class. (Voters!) And these days a lot more working people consider themselves “middle class” and entitled to its privileges.

So I’m hopeful. So to speak. Took a tragic long while to arrive at a big-kicks-in-the-ass stage we never should have.

[orthoclad]

46. I think it was the limited but enthusiastic popularity

of the communists which convinced the US to finally back some relief for the masses. Fear of revolution was a thing.

See also Business Plot for context.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

[Hortensis]

49. The electorate (voters!) shifted and gave Democrats strong triumvirate

control of the federal government -- presidency, senate and house -- through three national elections for TWELVE CONSECUTIVE YEARS.

That's how we did it. By a large, mostly unstoppable majority formed by people from all levels of society. Of course you're right about the effect on many among the big powers who'd controlled for several decades and run the nation into the ground. But the majority of voters were forced by disasters they'd allowed to build to finally engage, and they chose reform of their existing economic system, voting against the authoritarian socialist and fascist movements they were watching other nations fall to.

That was also the era when black voters moved to the Democratic Party, from I think about a quarter to third of those who voted to almost all, forming the strong black voter bloc that's been acting through the Democratic Party ever since. (Speaking of history, how about them and the intractably racist Southern conservative faction in one party, both fighting for big changes they needed and against each other?!)

Always important to remember on this topic, btw, that at all times (including then and today) many (not most but many) wealthy leaders are anywhere from moderately conservative and moderately progressive to outright liberal and progressive in orientation. They now, and even some strong conservatives normally do also to some degree because it's true, that business prosperity has a very positive, synergistic relationship with widespread private prosperity and are glad when waves of positive changes happen that they can get behind.

[keithbvadu2]

18. Or just fly out

[CTyankee]

4. This makes me, a third generation Texan, feel SO HAPPY to have left Texas and never went back

except to visit while my parents were still alive.

I am sorry for the good people there who are trying their best to help.

[Random Boomer]

48. Same here

My great-grandparents settled in Texas back in the early 1800s. I couldn't wait to get out.

[CTyankee]

50. It is really too sad. There were genuinely good hearted Dems in my family, relatives who

were in journalism and law, New Deal folk, people who knew a younger LBJ. They weren't the progressives we know now, when we think of progressives, and legal segregation was a fact of life. Brown v. Board was decided the year I graduated from public high school and went off to college in the Northeast. I never went back to live there again.

[mopinko]

5. anybody know what the solar sitch is there?

i assume they have the market tilted against it, but imho the biggest benefit of solar is that it correlates to peak demand.
in illinois, the state gives a credit based on kwh’s when you install. it’s about 1/3 of the cost.
if every heat pump came w an array big enough to power just it, that would take a worthwhile bite out of the peak.
they give the big power co’s tons of money to add capacity, so they just scaled that down, and give it to small generators.

if i lived there, i’d have as big an array as i could afford in bloody self defense.

[Jirel]

13. A LOT of people here have invested in solar.

There are some nice incentives, and the local power companies are supporting it. But, there’s no law in TX that requires power companies to credit excess electricity produced, or incorporate excess power produced into the grid, so without batteries in most installations, there’s a lot of generation that may go nowhere at times.

Most installations are not big enough to provide 100% power.

Some, like us, have looked into solar but the companies selling and installing in our area are too inflexible. We want to do an installation on an area of roof that isn’t “optimal,” but will produce lots of electricity anyway. We don’t want to install where THEY want to optimize the generation, because it would mean cutting down lots of 100 year old pecans that shade the house. If we did that, the excess heating would offset any gain we have with solar generation, so there’s no point. We’re better off with less hours of peak generation, and a smaller array, with a battery system, rather than cooking the house in the hot summer (and sometimes spring and fall as well).

[jaxexpat]

17. Brilliant expose to some of the many complexities...

while evolving into a more efficient power system. Trees are so important and are a variable in almost every rooftop solar istallation. Effective agreement with the power companies are not always available or enforced. It's all so simple except that it requires agreement from so many diverse actors.

[orthoclad]

47. Rooftop solar excels at

providing power to the grid at peak demand on hot sunny days. This not only benefits the homeowner, it reduces the load on the grid.

Home solar becomes affordable when power companies have to accept input to the grid and credit small generators at the same rate that power companies charge consumers. Combined with tax credits, a home system usually pays for itelf in 7-10 years.

It's not difficult to produce 100% power consumption from a home when combined with some energy efficiency measures. I run my house - appliances, heating, cooling - and 90% of car miles from on-site solar production, averaged over the year.

That said, a LOT of people still can't afford to install solar, or don't have the physical space. Community solar helps, where a homeowner can buy a share of the production of a remote solar system.

I've been reading that Texas is doing all it can to cripple the home solar market.

[Shipwack]

37. I had solar installed a few months ago.

It’s a mixed bag. Up until last week when temps went above 100, I was generating more power than I used, even with the air on part of the day. My power bill is still $30 a month due to “connection fees”.

No batteries, because it would have driven the cost up by a third, and they only work at full capacity for about ten years. I’ll wait until the tech gets better, and buy an emergency generator for emergencies. I’m looking at DIY battery storage, but I’m an electronics technician, not an electrician, and am smart enough to know what I don’t know…

My payments are deferred for a year, so I’m catching up on my debts. When they do start up, they will still be less than what my electric bill was.

[Liberal In Texas]

7. As you said, it was a storm that knocked the power out. NOT THE GRID!

Every time power goes out around here it isn't the fault of an inadequate grid!

Severe thunderstorms knock down trees and they take out power lines all the time.

Maybe we should blame global warming more than the grid issues.

[jaxexpat]

21. Grids that are poorly designed have too many ....

points of failure. A tree taking out a single isolated line should never effect a large area. A single storm system should never take out half the power in a state the size of Texas. The fact that vested interests will not make the investment in an infrastructure over which they have monopolistic control is Texas' problem. It's a matter of Texas voters taking control away from these monsters. It's an electoral justice which will require unseating racial politics from their traditional place of divisive prominence.

[Ilsa]

26. Funny how in my county in Georgia, we hire

a company to trim back trees that are too close to power lines. They do this work in Spring and Fall.

[ShazzieB]

45. They do that in Illinois, too.

Trim the trees, I mean. I don't know exactly who does the work, but it gets done, and I'm sure it makes a difference.

[flying_wahini]

32. Yea, 70 mph winds aren't that unusual in Tx BUT when Millions of people left without power

Overnight for possibly several days? A week?
Longview got hit over a week ago and they are saying it maybe another week before they have power.

Back up generators are Big business the last few years around here.

[Lurker Deluxe]

59. Just love to bash some Texas

I live in Champions Forest, just a bit north of Houston ... a Houston address for sure but 25 miles from Downtown.

We have had two brutal systems roll through in less than a week.

The last one, Wednesday blew through north of Dallas and followed I-45 through Houston. Well over 400 miles. The storm was here for 30 minutes and produced 100 mile an hour gusts through its travels.

Crews were still performing repairs from the previous storm, the one the thread 3 days ago were about.

As of now some 40K people are without power from the panhandle to the north, the border with Arkansas to the east, and the Houston area to the south.

The area of 3 states.

Texas has its issues for sure, but freak storms do freaky things ...

It is a big f'n place.

[Wednesdays]

8. "It's all the lib'ruls fault!"

They'll merely blame Democrats.


Seriously. Just wait until Faux Noise talks about it.

[SCantiGOP]

28. Hillary's emails

probably told them how to cut the power off.

[Bristlecone]

9. Abbot's too busy fighting drag shows and water breaks for outside workers

No time for the power grid. Real issues, effecting real people in TX, don’t play with the base there.

[Native]

10. And didn't Beto promise fixing the grid would be priority 1?

You'd think that alone would have been enough for a landslide win.

[hatrack]

11. Nope. The JesusFreedomEagleGunWokeLibtardFetusTruck vote wins every time . . .

Oh well.

[UTUSN]

12. Doing things that help people ain't on ABBUTT's grid.

And his voters like it like that.

[Eyeball_Kid]

19. In Texas, suffering from a collapsed commonwealth is a source of pride. Go figure.

They do it for Abbott, and would rather die of heat stroke than concede that Dems might implement a solution.

[AllaN01Bear]

22. like split texas in to 4 smaller states?

[617Blue]

14. Most voters in TX not interested in competence from gov't

let them freeze, burn, starve whatever. I don't care.

Don't ask me to pay to fix it either.

Please secede.

[LakeArenal]

25. That's what many said during Koch take over WI.

It’s really mean spirited considering all that probably will die in Texas. Including poor people and a lot of immigrants “ yearning to be free”.

[LymphocyteLover]

15. if only... but that damn state re-elected that psycho recently after so many debacles

and they seem inexplicably content with him

[flying_wahini]

33. I dunno, Beto did VERY well but gerrymandering took care of that liberal vote.

[LymphocyteLover]

44. gerrymander shouldn't affect a statewide race... but there is definitely voter suppression there too

Heavy voter suppression

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

60. Gerrymandering is an indirect form of voter suppression

When you know that it doesn't matter how you vote, because gerrymandering has picked the winner for you, then why bother to vote outside of national elections?

This is why the turnout is so low in places like Texas. People know the winner is decided in the traitor party primary, not in the general election.

You could run FDR, JFK, RFK or even Abe Lincoln reincarnated on the D ticket in Texas, and he still wouldn't win outside of the districts where the Ds are packed in like sardines.

[LymphocyteLover]

61. yes but in a statewide race, there are no gerrymandered districts

it's purely a popular vote

[AllaN01Bear]

20. fix every thing , but the rs dont want to spend money.

[AllaN01Bear]

23. if i were to go into solar it would be stand alone only . . no grid tie for me

[Lonestarblue]

24. These stories can't be true--the Governor fixed the grid two years ago!

Republican voters in Texas would vote for an armadillo if it meant they could have as many guns as possible, swagger around with them in public to scare all those big-city fraidy cat liberals, use their God-given right to force women to shut up and have babies, and make sure that any LGBTQ+ know they’re not welcome in Texas.

Corruption by state officials, misuse of taxpayer money, and refusal to do anything about real issues facing the state are unimportant when it’s time to vote.

[keithbvadu2]

27. unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity," Cruz wrot

Pic Of The Moment: Ah, The Party Of Personal Responsibility

“California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity,” Cruz wrote back then.

When Texans were dying from the cold::: Cruz jetted off to Cancun

[Marcuse]

39. Nt

[Hoosier_Progressiv]

29. voting

When it comes to the ballot box, people vote with their hate, not conscience. Otherwise, these repugs would not be winning.

[UCmeNdc]

31. Vote The Democrats In. Let them fix the problems in Texas.

C'mon Texas vote blue and watch what happens.

[flying_wahini]

34. As I have said, look at the map and Texas vote tallies and say we didn't try.

[kimbutgar]

35. I think Abbot will be fine

Too many brainwashed magaloons who are more afraid/ hate of Democrats then a failed repuke governor. Who time after time has proved incompetent.

[Martin68]

36. I love it! Texas was bragging that their grid was the cheapest and best in the nation. Now we know

why it was cheap. It's a piece of crap.

[txwhitedove]

38. I'm in Spring, exactly north of Houston line. Power went out at 8:55 last night during

quick rainstorm with big wind. Yard is a mess. My daughter lives 10 miles north of me, power is out too, and she hears it should be fixed by 3pm. Centerpoint usually calls and/or texts us, but not this time.

[Initech]

40. He'll still have a job as long as MAGA churches vote MAGA.

We've got to start working to change that.

[Sky Jewels]

41. The majority of Texas voters seem to welcome more abuse from Abbott.

My heart goes out to the sane ones.

[Initech]

42. Assume the position...

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

[Maru Kitteh]

43. They froze to death but still, Cruz and Abbott enjoy

extended employment

[joshdawg]

51. abbott will not provide funds to fix the effing grid...........

he truly believes it is working just fine.

He is a totally useless pile of fecal matter.

[Ilsa]

52. Someone in his office and at the Manse needs to sabotage

his AC. Let him feel the creeping of the thermostat. Sure, he'll just go to a hotel, but he needs to be inconvenienced.

oh oh oh: what if the elevators' generator at the hotel ran out of fuel?

[raising2moredems]

53. Yah but they keep bleating they can be their own country....

Be third world cuz can't keep the power on and water is likely soon to be an issue.

[Escurumbele]

54. I am convinced Texans are too fanatical and stupid to understand the damage Abbot is doing

I have friends who live in Dallas, they still think Abbot is doing a great job, granted that they don't read, they only hear crap from their religious group, its all about abortion, everything else can go to hell.

[AZLD4Candidate]

55. He isn't going anywhere. Texans would vote Republican even if the candidate pledged to kill

their first born sons and sodomize their wives.

[AllyCat]

56. Can we please refrain from names based on someone's mobility?

Abbott is a snake. Plenty to slam him on, including this life-threatening situation he continues to ignore in his own state.

His disability should not be something on which he is criticized.

[maxrandb]

57. A majority of Texans will continue to vote for that asspickle

as long as he continues to hate, harm and kill the people they went to see hated, harmed and killed.

But, just like Florida, we are told that; "this is not who we are" and; "any minute now, the 'good people' will rise up and end the descent to hell".

Or, this truly is who we are.

I am leaning toward the latter.

[pinkstarburst]

58. Unlikely. Remember the terrible winter storms in 2021 and 2022?

Abbott still had no trouble getting reelected and that was when we had a wonderful, popular candidate with national star power who is very popular among Texans-Beto.

It breaks my heart as a Texan democrat, but Texas is still solidly red at this point and the growing Hispanic numbers are likely to keep it that way.