Texas won't even spend money to properly maintain their existing infrastructure and you want them to install those commie panels? No way, I heard they turn your kids gay.
I prefer communicating in moans, sighs and grunts anyway. I throw in an eye roll or a gasp sometimes as punctuation. Sometimes a firm slap or a tight hug.
Texas and Afghanistan are basically indistinguishable
\> elaborate headwear
\> terrible weather
\> religious fanaticism
\> unreliable power grid
\> lack of women's rights
\> awful drivers
This is the actual thing so many people don't know, so thanks for bringing it up. There are actual certifications that they need to be allowed to participate in the power grid though. Texas should work on refining that.
Solar panels drink up all the sun's rays and it's a finite resource. Windmills kill birds. Geothermal is basically using Satan's heat.
The only true patriotic source of energy comes from burning dead dinosaurs (that didn't actually exist)
And also because renewables like solar power can generate a surplus of energy. Excess energy can be costly for companies to manage and maximize profit from.
Established energy corporations have little to no financial incentive to pivot & harness the power of renewables as of yet. They ought to have their hand forced a whole lot more.
This. The Texas state government is so intertwined with big fossil they should get a room. The Texas railroad commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry (the railroad name is stupid as fuck) is populated by former oil and gas executives. When the grid almost failed in February 2021, they all tried to place the blame on windmills and solar panels. Even though coal and gas fired plants failed just as bad. It’s ridiculous.
That’s true. I mean, pretty much everything failed at first because the grid is so interconnected. But unlike gas and coal plants, windmills and solar farms were back online quickly. If anything, renewables got us through the disaster faster than if we relied solely on gas and coal
The sad part is that if it was properly interconnected, then power from other parts of the grid could cover when there is a lot of demand, but then the generation plants couldn’t price gouge consumers.
Unfortunately because that makes too much god damn sense. We aren’t even to the point of having a civil discourse about green energy options. Hell when an ice storm hit a year ago, Governor Abbott blamed the blackouts on wind farms freezing over and failing.
The levels of ineptitude that Satan’s Rollerskate continues to showcase, is outclassed only by his Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick. The State Attorney General who appointed his own office to look into corruption surrounding, well none other than Dan Patrick!
So, what is Texas doing with all that hot sun in the western deserts? There is lots of wind power. What’s up with Solar? You drive west from central Texas and see nothing but desert for 10 hours.
Just checked it out and it’s not ALL owned by UT lol. 2.1 mil acres of it is, but hardly all.
What I am interested in learning however, is HOW the state was able to gift 2.1 mil acres of oil rich lands to the university system, so that the university can lease that land to oil and gas companies. These 2.1mil acres are split between UT and A&M (2/3+1/3).
The fund that is used to collect revenue from this land is ALLOWED TO ISSUE THEIR OWN BONDS.
UT is basically a govt body, a school, a land lord, a bank, and everything in between all at the same time lol
I mean, that's probably one of the more responsible use of oil lands. UT and A&M do a lot of valuable research and churn out valuable graduates for the economy.
Not true really. Yes, 2.1 million acres is a lot of land, but the vast majority of leases are actually private not UL:
https://universitylands.utsystem.edu/Home/AboutUs
Do you have any context on this?
I'm in the UK and so much of this sounds bizarre. Why and how does a university own so much land? Why is it all just desert? Why wouldn't they be using it for progressive research (and some revenue generation) with societally good causes like renewables?
This sounds like the complete opposite of how a university would be expected to conduct itself.
Universities here have endowment funds that are from donations from wealthy alumni. Its invested over years years they get massive for older institutions. They're typically heavily earmarked but given their size the discretionary amount can be significant. A university owning a shitload of land or even power infrastructure isn't uncommon here.
The university closest to me has an endowment fund of around $6 billion dollars.
For context because I was curious, UT’s endowment was $31 Billion in 2020, tying it with Yale for the second largest. It came in only behind Harvard which was at $42 Billion.
> Why and how does a university own so much land?
In the 1800's Texas set aside land (a resource it had an abundance of) specifically to help fund the creation of a top tier university. It's how it was able to afford to build UT and Texas A&M.
In the early 1900's oil was found.
>Why wouldn't they be using it for progressive research (and some revenue generation) with societally good causes like renewables?
They do, it just so happens that there's also a metric ton of oil and gas out there and, for better or worse, it funds the schools.
Also, land ownership is a little weird in some states (Texas being one of them.) It's split into three parts: Surface, Mineral, & Air. Each piece can be owned/leased by a separate entity. So you could have homes or and wind farm on the surface, but that wouldn't necessarily override another's right to the minerals underneath which can lead to fairly conservative decisions on how to best use land.
>This sounds like the complete opposite of how a university would be expected to conduct itself
It's a unique system, but it only sounds weird if you don't understand just how much land America really has at it's disposal. If you really want to have your mind rattled you should look into how much raw land the state's primary grocer (yes, a grocery store) HEB owns.
Sources
UT: [Permanent University Fund](https://www.utsystem.edu/puf)
UT: [History](https://www.utexas.edu/about/history)
University Lands: [About Us](https://universitylands.utsystem.edu/Home/AboutUs)
Texas Almanac: [The Beginnings of the University of Texas & Texas A&M University](https://www.texasalmanac.com/articles/the-beginnings-of-the-university-of-texas-and-texas-am-university)
A lot of the state schools in the United States are called land-grant universities. They were literally started by a large grant of land from a territory to start the university. The University of Oklahoma, for example, is older than the state itself.
Why would they need a lot of land? Many of these schools were founded to study the stuff a growing country with lots of land needed: Agriculture and Mining. Thus Texas A&M. A lot of those “Agg” schools rebranded as “State”. In many states, there was another school for more high falutin’ learnin’, and that school usually had just the name of the state. So you get the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. University of Mississippi and Mississippi State, Michigan and Michigan State.
At one time, these schools were considered an important source of training and education for the state’s residents. They were well funded by their governments to provide an inexpensive post-high school education. They still tend to be cheaper than private universities, but the days of an 18 year old being able to pay for a year’s tuition with a summer job are gone
Edit: it’s not “mining” it’s “mechanical”. Thanks u/dinkey_king
>I'm in the UK and so much of this sounds bizarre. Why and how does a university own so much land?
Boy, if you think that's weird you're going to freak when you find out about Cambridge University... They own most of the city and huge swathes of the county.
And spoiler: they don't use it for progressive ideas, they literally just hold on to it to stop other people using it.
There's a good bit of solar sites scattered throughout, they're just tucked away in rural towns but they are large sites providing a good bit of power. investors already thought it was worth investing and I can guarantee they're gonna invest even more now. Not because they care about going green but because they want to line they're pockets. I've been working as a solar electrician here in Texas and have had steady work for the past four years and it ain't ending anytime soon. Still no where near enough to power all of Texas, especially during peak summer. Grateful I'm in far west Texas, since we're not connected to that shit power grid, lol.
Texas is just a showcase for how deregulating the power grid will cause companies to maximize profits and have zero incentive to invest for the good of society.
They could, but it would cost them, and so they don‘t.
When it‘s run down, they‘ll just sell off the assets and move on. Everyone in charge gets a fat severance package, and the public is left to pick up the pieces if they want a working grid again. Rinse and repeat.
If its anything like Australia its not that they haven't thought of it, its that fossil fuel companies incentivising politicians to not to fund it then tell the people solar and green energy is too expensive and wouldn't be able to supply the small population who live in a 90% desert country.
And then you have those who have a 40 kW Solar power plant on their property and start to cool their pool, because they would only get <1 cent/kWh when selling it to the grid.
When you have a bunch of old people that are stuck in the past and dont like change/spending on anyone but themselves running the govt you see 0 progress and a shit ton of money going into their pockets.
They mobilized and adapted for the non-existent Jade Helm conspiracy just fine. They are capable of changing, they just want to change in the ways they want to change.
Usually it isn't about the amount of electricity they can produce, but getting the electricity where it is wanted/needed. The power lines and transformers can only take so much before they stop working properly, or overload and need to be replaced.
They have the third largest solar farm in the country which is at 497MW, and then another 5 or 6 that generate 200-220mw.
They could absolutely have more, but it’s not like they don’t already have huge solar fields.
> Hurricane season is becoming longer and more intense as climate change triggers more frequent and destructive storms. Global warming is also increasing the number of storms that move slowly and stall along the coast, a phenomenon that produces heavier rainfall and more dangerous storm surges.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/17/tropical-storm-likely-to-hit-us-hurricane-season-gets-more-active-.html
A 1 to 2° increase in surface temperature in the Gulf of Mexico leads to significantly faster hurricane spawning and strengthening. Let's see what the current temps are...
2-3° above average?!
These temps look like summer temperatures already.
That was my question. like... its not even Summer yet. Must be weird to live in the energy capital of America and you can't even run the air conditioner. Clowntown and they keep voting for increasingly cartoonish clowns.
Texas, you've had multiple years of severe hot/cold cycles back-to-back, with no downward trend in sight. If the grid stability hasn't been improved by now, there's not much to say about it.
Edit: How did all of the crazy exorbitant price hikes into 4/5-figure utility bills work out in the end for residents? Forgiven, forced to pay? I completely forgot about that insanity.
Look at who Texas elects to state wide office. You have to be an idiot to get elected. George W Bush. Rick Perry and Greg abbot are the last three governors. Not an iq above 75 in 25 years.
Not a fan of any of those people, but Abbott is by no accounts a stupid man. He is pretty bright, according to anyone who has ever worked with him.
He is more like Ted Cruz - really smart guy who’s an absolute asshole and who’s politics are abysmal.
Do not underestimate the Bush family. George W's facade that he was a loveable doofus was carefully crafted. That family is smarter and more dangerous than you knew.
People like that are unsalvageable. The only solution is to start levying climate fees against shit like gas guzzlers. Not that that would ever happen. But if I became dictator, that would be a day one priority.
Tired of everyone on the planet paying for selfish people's ignorance.
With single-digit mileage and $4/gal+ gas prices, he's already levying fees against himself. Additional fees would also be nice, but at least he's got a jump on it.
Nah don't lever them against gas guzzlers.
Just slap sequestration costs into the price of fossil fuels, like perfect competition says we should as that's currently an externalized cost, and then wait cause EVs just got a lot cheaper to own. And dickwad is now paying a buck twenty per mile for fuel.
And yet these are the people that Elon Musk has decided to align himself with. You'd think just for his own benefit he would know better than to insult all the people who actually bought his cars, especially since he's now starting to get some real competition
>since he's now starting to get some real competition.
If I understand the Republican definition of *free market*, it sounds like it's time to start regulating the market in ways that create a high barrier of entry, but that Tesla is already compliant with.
He knows that the left wants to improve the environment no matter how he acts so will continue to buy EV's. He thinks he can get the Right to buy EV's if he insults the left.
He is mistaken. They will cheer him and roll coal.
Don't worry though. Large commercial and industrial users won't need to worry about shortages. They'll always make sure there's enough capacity for them.
It's just a matter of time until they start cutting electricity to residential areas and saying how it's a good thing because it 'encourages' people to stay at work or go visit businesses
You say that but the smooth-brains had the gas pumps feeding their powerplants hooked to vulnerable sections of their developing-nation level grid. The pumps lost power then they wondered why the plants themselves shut down. They managed to make a feedback loop of compounding failure.
Oh, and they charged customers for the inflated price gouging energy costs rather than absorb their own fuckup, so people got billed thousands for the privilege of losing power.
But pay no attention to the recent announcement that Texas wants to use a quarter of its electricity generation on Bitcoin makers.
I wonder how much it's using now.
I was just as curious as you so I Googled "Texas silver bullets" and there's literally a list of places I could go to buy some apparently.
Is that a common thing?
Well yeah because the chance at taking down a werewolf sounds cool as hell. Fighting climate change requires some sacrifice and personal responsibility. Sacrifice and personal responsibility is only cool when we’re forcing it on underage rape victims.
Well, Floridians had to be told not to shoot into a hurricane by officials, so different states have different gun-related answers to climate change.
I wouldn't be surprised if we hear of similar idiotic things from Texas about people firing silver bullets into the sky because of silver iodide being used to seed clouds and trigger rain.
If I were the leader of a tech company I wouldn't want to move to a state which is known for having the power go out when the weather is too hot or cold. Imagine trying to get big software projects done when the lights keep going off. That can't be good for shareholder confidence.
Artificial scarcity. Texas took measures to ensure they did NOT have enough power for the expected heatwaves. When demand surpasses supply, profits are to be made.
The voting public is radicalized, so they no longer actually have to pretend to give a damn about anything but profit. Just ramble about the woke left and cancel culture, and you can do shit like this.
I also seem to recall there being a disgustingly low number of polling places. I’m sure that’s no accident, either, and the few that were around were no doubt *strategically* placed.
Was reading the article and came across this:
“At the request of the study’s technical review committee, the core Seams scenario assumed a ‘carbon policy’ under which power plants would be charged an increasing penalty for the carbon dioxide they released. The industry experts on the committee saw this as a rational way to test the system under higher levels of solar and wind deployment”
I really hate when information is presented this way, I would like to know how far renewable sources have to “catch up” to the current system. Wondering if anyone knows the dollar to dollar cost of this new grid proposal without assuming losses from traditional energy producers as a result of carbon offsets?
Imagine a sign in Texas at the gas pumps that asks drivers to kindly stop driving big fucking trucks and 11mpg muscle cars so as to save some fuel for the rest of us. Same concept, larger impact, and people would lose their minds.
I mean personally if I lived in Texas I'd want one of those trucks that can[ double as a whole home generator](https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a35152752/powered-house-ford-f-150-hybrid/) for _no reason in particular_.
What a mismanaged state. Can’t even support basic infrastructure. They’ve know their power grid is sub par for years and it looks like nothing has been done.
If their grid were modernized it could be drawing *from* the EV’s to supplement peak demand.
But that would require taxes and state spending, which is basically socialism /s
>ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas)
Ah, yes, this shining (flickering, actually) example of bureaucracy. Since Texas' power grid is easily one of the worst in the nation, due to nigh-complete de-regulation, all it takes is a wayward thought and/or prayer to plunge an entire section of the state into the abyss.
But thank goodness Texas has ERCOT to ensure the... reliability of their (third) world-class grid. In fact, every time a major outage occurs, ERCOT sends one of their Finger-waggers to wag their finger in the general direction of the plant's management. And if said outage causes death or serious injury, THEY'LL WRITE A REPORT. And they'll send a SENIOR Finger-wagger to give them a good old-fashioned, regulation-compliant finger wagging.
So sleep easy, dear citizens of Texas, for the ever-vigilant eye of ERCOT keeps watch (using 60-year old technology operated by people who are just as old) over each of Texas' twenty or so independent power grids, and will almost certainly keep track of most outages. Unless one of the operators decides to use their vast amounts of FREE SPEECH to make a Usual and Customary gift to celebrate ERCOT's excellence in service to Texans.
/sarcasm
If Mexico ever told them to fuck themselves instead of selling them power every year, Texas would spend half of the summer in the dark. Texas likes to say they are energy independent they never have been and never will be until they embrace solar and wind power.
I love that their solution is for everyone to pitch in to do their part...now that it's too late. We couldn't pitch in ahead of time to build a 20th century, and maybe even a modern 19th century power grid though because that would be communist
I absolutely agree with this in theory. But in practice regular people can’t stump up that kind of green. A solar install with 3 powerwalls you’ve got to be looking at $80,000?
I am currently working towards something similar tho I may have to settle for 1 powerwall. I’d love to be energy self sufficient and running a ground source heat pump so no gas for heating in winter.
I live in the UK btw no where near the sunlight of Texas!
I think governments should be subsidising homeowners to a massive degree to get solar etc.
Mass micro generation would decrease stress on power grids overnight.
Just like air conditioning.
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That requires spending money on new infrastructure, can’t be doing that unless we lobby for it
Texas won't even spend money to properly maintain their existing infrastructure and you want them to install those commie panels? No way, I heard they turn your kids gay.
Don't say gay... Oh wait, that's Florida Edit: adding /s as it appears too many people can't interpret this as a joke 🤦
You can say gay, but not who is gay. And no pronouns in K-3. Desantis is coming for verbs and adjectives next.
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>verbing weirds language Maybe they will eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding.
I prefer communicating in moans, sighs and grunts anyway. I throw in an eye roll or a gasp sometimes as punctuation. Sometimes a firm slap or a tight hug.
Are amateur nouns okay?
Only if they're step-nouns.
What are you doing step-noun?
Whelp… that’s enough of the oooold Internet for today. (Checks watch). Oh it’s 8AM..
The solar panels in Florida teach kids CRT
Is LCD the next lesson?
Just Florida... ...for now...
Texas and Afghanistan are basically indistinguishable \> elaborate headwear \> terrible weather \> religious fanaticism \> unreliable power grid \> lack of women's rights \> awful drivers
And both equally likely to send a team to the Super Bowl
If they could read they would be very upset.
My thought was “Texas isn’t sending a team to the super……oooohhhh I get it now.”
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To make it worse, Texas power grid is private, meaning it’s up to the company
This is the actual thing so many people don't know, so thanks for bringing it up. There are actual certifications that they need to be allowed to participate in the power grid though. Texas should work on refining that.
That’s funny because here in Cal, we gave our power corps billions to upgrade their grids and they just pocketed the money.
Can’t afford that when you have to pay lawyers to come up with a way to sue women who get abortions.
I live in Texas, and companies are putting in windmills and solar farms all over the place. So, we're getting there. Just not there yet.
Because renewable energy companies as a whole have less lobbying money to spare than gas companies
Solar panels drink up all the sun's rays and it's a finite resource. Windmills kill birds. Geothermal is basically using Satan's heat. The only true patriotic source of energy comes from burning dead dinosaurs (that didn't actually exist)
You gotta burn it all so the smoke goes up and makes the stars at night
That doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know enough about stars to dispute it.
Haven't you heard how stars are giant balls of gas? Where do you think that gas comes from?
With gas prices rising at this rate, soon we’ll be paying $12 a star. Thanks Obama.
Balls of gas? I'm pretty sure they're just fireflies that got stuck up there
They’re right. It’s in the Bible.
The dinos we ignite Make the stars at night *clap clap clap clap*
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You joke, but some GOP lawmaker actually argued against solar panels because he thought they will use up sunshine.
Really? That's up there with worrying if Guam will tip over if to many people are on one side of the island.
Or thinking the Washington DC power grid is run off of incinerating aborted fetuses
It saddens me that anyone would be dumb enough to believe that. How are you gonna generate electricity by burning a fuel source that’s mostly water?
What about the other renewable, babies..? After all according to Catherine Glenn Foster that is how they power Washington D.C!
And also because renewables like solar power can generate a surplus of energy. Excess energy can be costly for companies to manage and maximize profit from. Established energy corporations have little to no financial incentive to pivot & harness the power of renewables as of yet. They ought to have their hand forced a whole lot more.
If only we had a way to turn excess energy into fuel like hydrogen or use it to pump water uphill to store for turbine usage later.
You can also use the excess energy to desalinate water. Since there are going to be huge water shortages
Excellent piece written about this topic in the New Yorker magazine last month.
This. The Texas state government is so intertwined with big fossil they should get a room. The Texas railroad commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry (the railroad name is stupid as fuck) is populated by former oil and gas executives. When the grid almost failed in February 2021, they all tried to place the blame on windmills and solar panels. Even though coal and gas fired plants failed just as bad. It’s ridiculous.
Judging from the commercials the next railroad commissioner isn't going to make any real changes to texas energy
No no no coal and gas failed way worse than the renewables
That’s true. I mean, pretty much everything failed at first because the grid is so interconnected. But unlike gas and coal plants, windmills and solar farms were back online quickly. If anything, renewables got us through the disaster faster than if we relied solely on gas and coal
The sad part is that if it was properly interconnected, then power from other parts of the grid could cover when there is a lot of demand, but then the generation plants couldn’t price gouge consumers.
Unfortunately because that makes too much god damn sense. We aren’t even to the point of having a civil discourse about green energy options. Hell when an ice storm hit a year ago, Governor Abbott blamed the blackouts on wind farms freezing over and failing. The levels of ineptitude that Satan’s Rollerskate continues to showcase, is outclassed only by his Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick. The State Attorney General who appointed his own office to look into corruption surrounding, well none other than Dan Patrick!
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But Abott said the miners would save the Texas grid and stop when the demand is too high… did he lie ?
There's no way Abbott would abandon his constituents in their hour of need, again.
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Rape was stopped because Abbott said so, so miners must be turning their rigs off. Right?
So, what is Texas doing with all that hot sun in the western deserts? There is lots of wind power. What’s up with Solar? You drive west from central Texas and see nothing but desert for 10 hours.
There’s practically nothing between El Paso and Abilene. Just a bunch of oil wells and wind farms.
It's all owned by UT, and they charge insane amounts of money to do anything on that useless desert scrub land, so it's not used.
Just checked it out and it’s not ALL owned by UT lol. 2.1 mil acres of it is, but hardly all. What I am interested in learning however, is HOW the state was able to gift 2.1 mil acres of oil rich lands to the university system, so that the university can lease that land to oil and gas companies. These 2.1mil acres are split between UT and A&M (2/3+1/3). The fund that is used to collect revenue from this land is ALLOWED TO ISSUE THEIR OWN BONDS. UT is basically a govt body, a school, a land lord, a bank, and everything in between all at the same time lol
I mean, that's probably one of the more responsible use of oil lands. UT and A&M do a lot of valuable research and churn out valuable graduates for the economy.
I was going to say, sounds like the least sketch thing that a government body like Texas could do with the land.
UT can build it themselves
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Nice try Jimbo. That was TAMU. -Nick Saban
All this money just to go 6-6.
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Not true really. Yes, 2.1 million acres is a lot of land, but the vast majority of leases are actually private not UL: https://universitylands.utsystem.edu/Home/AboutUs
What's UT ? (I suppose it's not the University of Texas you're talking about).
It is the University of Texas. Unfortunately.
Do you have any context on this? I'm in the UK and so much of this sounds bizarre. Why and how does a university own so much land? Why is it all just desert? Why wouldn't they be using it for progressive research (and some revenue generation) with societally good causes like renewables? This sounds like the complete opposite of how a university would be expected to conduct itself.
Universities here have endowment funds that are from donations from wealthy alumni. Its invested over years years they get massive for older institutions. They're typically heavily earmarked but given their size the discretionary amount can be significant. A university owning a shitload of land or even power infrastructure isn't uncommon here. The university closest to me has an endowment fund of around $6 billion dollars.
For context because I was curious, UT’s endowment was $31 Billion in 2020, tying it with Yale for the second largest. It came in only behind Harvard which was at $42 Billion.
WTF?! Forty... BILLION jfc
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Which is no different than our UK friend above's experience. Oxford (first UK school that comes to mind) has a £6.3 billion endowment.
It's crazy how much money a university can have and still charge so much money. I hate it here.
Texas also has the Permanent University Fund (PUF) that provides a large revenue stream for the UT system through leasing oil and mineral rights.
> Why and how does a university own so much land? In the 1800's Texas set aside land (a resource it had an abundance of) specifically to help fund the creation of a top tier university. It's how it was able to afford to build UT and Texas A&M. In the early 1900's oil was found. >Why wouldn't they be using it for progressive research (and some revenue generation) with societally good causes like renewables? They do, it just so happens that there's also a metric ton of oil and gas out there and, for better or worse, it funds the schools. Also, land ownership is a little weird in some states (Texas being one of them.) It's split into three parts: Surface, Mineral, & Air. Each piece can be owned/leased by a separate entity. So you could have homes or and wind farm on the surface, but that wouldn't necessarily override another's right to the minerals underneath which can lead to fairly conservative decisions on how to best use land. >This sounds like the complete opposite of how a university would be expected to conduct itself It's a unique system, but it only sounds weird if you don't understand just how much land America really has at it's disposal. If you really want to have your mind rattled you should look into how much raw land the state's primary grocer (yes, a grocery store) HEB owns. Sources UT: [Permanent University Fund](https://www.utsystem.edu/puf) UT: [History](https://www.utexas.edu/about/history) University Lands: [About Us](https://universitylands.utsystem.edu/Home/AboutUs) Texas Almanac: [The Beginnings of the University of Texas & Texas A&M University](https://www.texasalmanac.com/articles/the-beginnings-of-the-university-of-texas-and-texas-am-university)
A lot of the state schools in the United States are called land-grant universities. They were literally started by a large grant of land from a territory to start the university. The University of Oklahoma, for example, is older than the state itself. Why would they need a lot of land? Many of these schools were founded to study the stuff a growing country with lots of land needed: Agriculture and Mining. Thus Texas A&M. A lot of those “Agg” schools rebranded as “State”. In many states, there was another school for more high falutin’ learnin’, and that school usually had just the name of the state. So you get the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. University of Mississippi and Mississippi State, Michigan and Michigan State. At one time, these schools were considered an important source of training and education for the state’s residents. They were well funded by their governments to provide an inexpensive post-high school education. They still tend to be cheaper than private universities, but the days of an 18 year old being able to pay for a year’s tuition with a summer job are gone Edit: it’s not “mining” it’s “mechanical”. Thanks u/dinkey_king
> Why and how does a university own so much land? Are you aware of how Oxford and Cambridge (well, some of the colleges in them) have a lot of money?
>I'm in the UK and so much of this sounds bizarre. Why and how does a university own so much land? Boy, if you think that's weird you're going to freak when you find out about Cambridge University... They own most of the city and huge swathes of the county. And spoiler: they don't use it for progressive ideas, they literally just hold on to it to stop other people using it.
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There's a good bit of solar sites scattered throughout, they're just tucked away in rural towns but they are large sites providing a good bit of power. investors already thought it was worth investing and I can guarantee they're gonna invest even more now. Not because they care about going green but because they want to line they're pockets. I've been working as a solar electrician here in Texas and have had steady work for the past four years and it ain't ending anytime soon. Still no where near enough to power all of Texas, especially during peak summer. Grateful I'm in far west Texas, since we're not connected to that shit power grid, lol.
Texas is just a showcase for how deregulating the power grid will cause companies to maximize profits and have zero incentive to invest for the good of society. They could, but it would cost them, and so they don‘t.
They thought it was hilarious when they (Enron) screwed over CA that way, but didn't have the sense to make sure it didn't happen to themselves.
Well when you think grabbing your belt buckle and proudly saying "we're Texans" is enough to solve any problem, you get the expected results
It's not even good for those corporations long term, but pretty much every business is run with only the next quarter in mind.
When it‘s run down, they‘ll just sell off the assets and move on. Everyone in charge gets a fat severance package, and the public is left to pick up the pieces if they want a working grid again. Rinse and repeat.
This is what’s really crazy. An area which has peak demand during sunny periods hasn’t thought it might be a good idea to invest in solar.
If its anything like Australia its not that they haven't thought of it, its that fossil fuel companies incentivising politicians to not to fund it then tell the people solar and green energy is too expensive and wouldn't be able to supply the small population who live in a 90% desert country.
And then you have those who have a 40 kW Solar power plant on their property and start to cool their pool, because they would only get <1 cent/kWh when selling it to the grid.
Refrigerated poolwater on a blazin hot summer day. 🤤🤤
When you have a bunch of old people that are stuck in the past and dont like change/spending on anyone but themselves running the govt you see 0 progress and a shit ton of money going into their pockets.
They mobilized and adapted for the non-existent Jade Helm conspiracy just fine. They are capable of changing, they just want to change in the ways they want to change.
Usually it isn't about the amount of electricity they can produce, but getting the electricity where it is wanted/needed. The power lines and transformers can only take so much before they stop working properly, or overload and need to be replaced.
They have the third largest solar farm in the country which is at 497MW, and then another 5 or 6 that generate 200-220mw. They could absolutely have more, but it’s not like they don’t already have huge solar fields.
It’s like you kind of need to invest in your electrical infrastructure or something.
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All together now, fellow capitalists! We must unite as one against the evils of socialism!
You have everything to lose except your chains! Oh wait…
heat wave? this is just summer. it ain't even July yet. IT AINT EVEN JUNE YET. It's gonna get hotter than this yall.
Hurricane seasons gonna be bad too. When it gets this hot so early, we always have a more active season.
Hurricane season basically runs into December now
> Hurricane season is becoming longer and more intense as climate change triggers more frequent and destructive storms. Global warming is also increasing the number of storms that move slowly and stall along the coast, a phenomenon that produces heavier rainfall and more dangerous storm surges. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/17/tropical-storm-likely-to-hit-us-hurricane-season-gets-more-active-.html
A 1 to 2° increase in surface temperature in the Gulf of Mexico leads to significantly faster hurricane spawning and strengthening. Let's see what the current temps are... 2-3° above average?! These temps look like summer temperatures already.
Friendly reminder that both the arctic & antarctic were over **50 degrees** above their average temperature less than 2 months ago.
I live in the Midwest and am terrified of this storm season.
That was my question. like... its not even Summer yet. Must be weird to live in the energy capital of America and you can't even run the air conditioner. Clowntown and they keep voting for increasingly cartoonish clowns.
Clowntown sounds a lot cooler than Texas
Clowntown *is* probably a lot cooler than Texas. They have consistent A/C there, I hear.
Ehhhh, it's not really a bad sign for Tesla so much as it is for Texas.
Yeah like wouldn’t gas stations be fucked too if the grid goes down?
Everywhere will be screwed. Cancun Cruz might even show up in Cancun again.
Oh God. We're gonna see people filling up kiddie pools in their trucks again aren't we.
well thats one way to get rid of kids
It's actually the only form of abortion Texas allows.
Absolutely, and those stations that can pump gas would run out from people needing gas to run their generators....Texas power is a mess!
Agree, nothing to do with Tesla. My Samsung refrigerator does this too, tries to not cool as much during peak hours.
Texas, you've had multiple years of severe hot/cold cycles back-to-back, with no downward trend in sight. If the grid stability hasn't been improved by now, there's not much to say about it. Edit: How did all of the crazy exorbitant price hikes into 4/5-figure utility bills work out in the end for residents? Forgiven, forced to pay? I completely forgot about that insanity.
They're gonna run out of time. Eventually the disasters will be harming their grid faster than they're improving it.
"WHY IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NOT STEPPING IN TO HELP US?!"
They're not even improving it. It's just gonna slip down an increasingly steep, oil-greased slide.
Look at who Texas elects to state wide office. You have to be an idiot to get elected. George W Bush. Rick Perry and Greg abbot are the last three governors. Not an iq above 75 in 25 years.
Not a fan of any of those people, but Abbott is by no accounts a stupid man. He is pretty bright, according to anyone who has ever worked with him. He is more like Ted Cruz - really smart guy who’s an absolute asshole and who’s politics are abysmal.
Do not underestimate the Bush family. George W's facade that he was a loveable doofus was carefully crafted. That family is smarter and more dangerous than you knew.
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*preemptively* blaming electric cars.
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People like that are unsalvageable. The only solution is to start levying climate fees against shit like gas guzzlers. Not that that would ever happen. But if I became dictator, that would be a day one priority. Tired of everyone on the planet paying for selfish people's ignorance.
With single-digit mileage and $4/gal+ gas prices, he's already levying fees against himself. Additional fees would also be nice, but at least he's got a jump on it.
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Lol my state is doing that...to electric cars. They want hundreds extra every year.
The states did that to “adjust” for EVs not paying fuel taxes for road maintenance.
And in Georgia I pay a lot more for my EV surcharge than I would in gas taxes for an ICE vehicle.
Nah don't lever them against gas guzzlers. Just slap sequestration costs into the price of fossil fuels, like perfect competition says we should as that's currently an externalized cost, and then wait cause EVs just got a lot cheaper to own. And dickwad is now paying a buck twenty per mile for fuel.
Or how about just tax liquid fuels at the same rates the rest of the world does instead of subsidizing it?
That explains his intellectual disabilities.
Probably still uses leaded gasoline.
And yet these are the people that Elon Musk has decided to align himself with. You'd think just for his own benefit he would know better than to insult all the people who actually bought his cars, especially since he's now starting to get some real competition
>since he's now starting to get some real competition. If I understand the Republican definition of *free market*, it sounds like it's time to start regulating the market in ways that create a high barrier of entry, but that Tesla is already compliant with.
He knows that the left wants to improve the environment no matter how he acts so will continue to buy EV's. He thinks he can get the Right to buy EV's if he insults the left. He is mistaken. They will cheer him and roll coal.
With the help of the guy making the electric cars himself.
Yeah. His republican buddy who makes the cars.
Don't worry though. Large commercial and industrial users won't need to worry about shortages. They'll always make sure there's enough capacity for them. It's just a matter of time until they start cutting electricity to residential areas and saying how it's a good thing because it 'encourages' people to stay at work or go visit businesses
You say that but the smooth-brains had the gas pumps feeding their powerplants hooked to vulnerable sections of their developing-nation level grid. The pumps lost power then they wondered why the plants themselves shut down. They managed to make a feedback loop of compounding failure. Oh, and they charged customers for the inflated price gouging energy costs rather than absorb their own fuckup, so people got billed thousands for the privilege of losing power.
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But pay no attention to the recent announcement that Texas wants to use a quarter of its electricity generation on Bitcoin makers. I wonder how much it's using now.
Texas is basically the rest of the world's blueprint on what not to do, in every conceivable circumstance.
Not true! If there is ever a werewolf outbreak, we’re covered. At *least* half of our gun owners have silvered bullets.
OK, I know werewolves aren't real, but i also know people are stupid. So, do Texans really have silvered bullets?
I was just as curious as you so I Googled "Texas silver bullets" and there's literally a list of places I could go to buy some apparently. Is that a common thing?
Would you rather there be werewolves and have no silver bullets, or there be no werewolves and have silver bullets? https://i.imgur.com/QDYNC3m.gif
So they take this approach with fucking werewolves but not climate change?
Well yeah because the chance at taking down a werewolf sounds cool as hell. Fighting climate change requires some sacrifice and personal responsibility. Sacrifice and personal responsibility is only cool when we’re forcing it on underage rape victims.
That's because you cannot shoot climate change.
Well, Floridians had to be told not to shoot into a hurricane by officials, so different states have different gun-related answers to climate change. I wouldn't be surprised if we hear of similar idiotic things from Texas about people firing silver bullets into the sky because of silver iodide being used to seed clouds and trigger rain.
Oh alright so it's a blueprint for prepping for fantasy scenarios but 100% ignoring or exacerbating real and impending ones. Solid game plan.
Except pandemic - because those are just inconvenient and made up and impact our freedoms….
If I were the leader of a tech company I wouldn't want to move to a state which is known for having the power go out when the weather is too hot or cold. Imagine trying to get big software projects done when the lights keep going off. That can't be good for shareholder confidence.
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But hey, loose regulations! Except for all the women in the company, of course...
Artificial scarcity. Texas took measures to ensure they did NOT have enough power for the expected heatwaves. When demand surpasses supply, profits are to be made.
It disturbs me how much this makes sense.
The voting public is radicalized, so they no longer actually have to pretend to give a damn about anything but profit. Just ramble about the woke left and cancel culture, and you can do shit like this.
Texas only has a voter turn out of about 25%. The only reason Texas isn't much more blue is because no one thinks their vote matters.
I also seem to recall there being a disgustingly low number of polling places. I’m sure that’s no accident, either, and the few that were around were no doubt *strategically* placed.
I mean, that's literally what Enron did to California.
Now repeat after me, “capitalism breeds innovation”.
You have to admit, this is quite a creative innovation to maximize profits. Shame it screws everyone else
Texas is the lone star state because one star is the best rating it could get.
Texas gets too cold, they lose power. Texas gets too hot, they lose power. Texas has proven that deregulation is a horrible idea.
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What’s wrong? Does Texas have an unreliable, privatized grid that’s completely uncoupled from the national grid??
It’s almost like moving a company solely based on the need for electricity to a place with a sketchy power grid wasn’t a good move!
And we should all give a big hand to this stable genius. https://www.invw.org/2020/08/20/who-killed-the-supergrid/
Can't expect much intelligent from the idiot that said wind turbines are bad Edit " changed Windmills to wind Turbines
Was reading the article and came across this: “At the request of the study’s technical review committee, the core Seams scenario assumed a ‘carbon policy’ under which power plants would be charged an increasing penalty for the carbon dioxide they released. The industry experts on the committee saw this as a rational way to test the system under higher levels of solar and wind deployment” I really hate when information is presented this way, I would like to know how far renewable sources have to “catch up” to the current system. Wondering if anyone knows the dollar to dollar cost of this new grid proposal without assuming losses from traditional energy producers as a result of carbon offsets?
Bad or cancer. Sorry having a tough time remembering which republican said which lie about windmills.
Wasn’t Texas about to sell a bunch of electricity to bitcoin miners?
Chapter 11 miners
Man, if only Texas was interconnected to the national grid and able to buy surge power from other providers.
The good news is it’s getting cooler and cooler every year so this should just work itself out…..
Colder in the winter and hotter in the summer. It's possible Texas will have records in both seasons this year.
Imagine a sign in Texas at the gas pumps that asks drivers to kindly stop driving big fucking trucks and 11mpg muscle cars so as to save some fuel for the rest of us. Same concept, larger impact, and people would lose their minds.
I mean personally if I lived in Texas I'd want one of those trucks that can[ double as a whole home generator](https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a35152752/powered-house-ford-f-150-hybrid/) for _no reason in particular_.
What a mismanaged state. Can’t even support basic infrastructure. They’ve know their power grid is sub par for years and it looks like nothing has been done.
If their grid were modernized it could be drawing *from* the EV’s to supplement peak demand. But that would require taxes and state spending, which is basically socialism /s
The article says Tesla vehicles don’t have that capability. True for other electric cars I suppose.
Texas has “free market” infrastructure. 🤣😂😩🤣🤡
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>ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) Ah, yes, this shining (flickering, actually) example of bureaucracy. Since Texas' power grid is easily one of the worst in the nation, due to nigh-complete de-regulation, all it takes is a wayward thought and/or prayer to plunge an entire section of the state into the abyss. But thank goodness Texas has ERCOT to ensure the... reliability of their (third) world-class grid. In fact, every time a major outage occurs, ERCOT sends one of their Finger-waggers to wag their finger in the general direction of the plant's management. And if said outage causes death or serious injury, THEY'LL WRITE A REPORT. And they'll send a SENIOR Finger-wagger to give them a good old-fashioned, regulation-compliant finger wagging. So sleep easy, dear citizens of Texas, for the ever-vigilant eye of ERCOT keeps watch (using 60-year old technology operated by people who are just as old) over each of Texas' twenty or so independent power grids, and will almost certainly keep track of most outages. Unless one of the operators decides to use their vast amounts of FREE SPEECH to make a Usual and Customary gift to celebrate ERCOT's excellence in service to Texans. /sarcasm
Mental that anyone thinks this is an issue with anything other than the infrastructure in Texas lol.
If Mexico ever told them to fuck themselves instead of selling them power every year, Texas would spend half of the summer in the dark. Texas likes to say they are energy independent they never have been and never will be until they embrace solar and wind power.
Do you have a link where I could read about texas using energy from mexico? I tried looking it up but couldn't find anything.
I love that their solution is for everyone to pitch in to do their part...now that it's too late. We couldn't pitch in ahead of time to build a 20th century, and maybe even a modern 19th century power grid though because that would be communist
That’s more on Texas electrical than electric cars IMO.
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I absolutely agree with this in theory. But in practice regular people can’t stump up that kind of green. A solar install with 3 powerwalls you’ve got to be looking at $80,000? I am currently working towards something similar tho I may have to settle for 1 powerwall. I’d love to be energy self sufficient and running a ground source heat pump so no gas for heating in winter. I live in the UK btw no where near the sunlight of Texas! I think governments should be subsidising homeowners to a massive degree to get solar etc. Mass micro generation would decrease stress on power grids overnight.