For the second time in as many months, the power delivery system in Houston—the fourth largest city in the US and the so-called Energy Capital of the World—is brought to its knees by a relatively minor storm... despite the average power customer being at least 50 miles inland. But, yeah, let's go ahead and electrify everything.
We went through the storm. As these things go, it was relatively small in size and short in duration. We've driven around much of the city since. We were born and raised here, and know what the city and streets look like when a major storm hits. This wasn't it. No way over 2.5 million households and businesses should be without power right now.
Meanwhile, drive in certain more affluent neighborhoods in the city right now, and you'll be greeted by a chorus of privately owned backup generators—all expensively, but successfully, humming away. And they are all powered by... you guessed it... petroleum products. In less affluent neighborhoods, there's no such harmonizing hums.
The lesson? If you want to create a world of haves and have-nots, hand your power system management over to a bunch of virtue-signalling dilettantes and let them start jacking around with things. And be sure they keep a focus on making sure Earth's temps in 75 years remain below some arbitrary limit—not on making sure the current system works. You'll start to see the inequalities sprouting before you know it.
To be clear, the effects of creeping infrastructure rot and steady policy incompetence we've seen at the power generation level in Texas are now evident on the transmission and distribution side of the grid. Alas, the state now loudly projects a culture of non-perpeformance... or maybe just not caring... across its once widely admired power sector. Well done, Texas leadership. Well done.
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#beryl #texas #Houston
Account Manager
4moStay safe!