ERCOT May Not Have Enough Power For The Winter
Wait a minute...didn't politicians fix this?
The last time Texas had a big winter storm and power problems, 246 people died. Yes, straight-up died. This isn't a matter of you grabbing an extra blanket, this is a matter of life and death and it still hasn't been fixed.
The Texas Tribune is reporting that our grid is still vulnerable. Apparently, the latest excuse is something along the lines of "people are moving to Texas faster than we can add power". What a huge, steaming pile, of happy-horsepoo. It is an absolute requirement for any business, from mom-and-pop to Fortune 500, to anticipate demand. Knowing what you need to have on hand is essential and this latest survey of what's available says, there's not enough on hand.
Some counter that these demands don't take into account improvements that have been made, but my answer is simple, "are you willing to bet people's lives on that?". This does not have to be hard. Dairy Queen knows how many Dilly Bars it's going to sell in a month, so they have more than enough Dilly Bars (and if a few carry over to the next month, then so be it). Something is epically, tragically wrong with Ercot, if they do not have a HUGE surplus of power, since once again, people's lives depend on it.
I would also like to remind everyone that local, Lubbock politicians got us into this grid and refused to do anything about it when they saw that it was buggered. Having a choice for electric providers does not mean diddly-squat if they're all out of electricity. We have been painted into a corner with a brush made of stupid.