Readers may already have had opportunity to use the title of this piece. Don’t be surprised to find it the up and coming, all purpose, rhetorical question. Yes, one usually hears this question asked sarcastically as “Who couldn’t,” but these are times where sarcasm falls flat.
For those brave enough to say it, provided is an answer that may be given to those 1) too stunned to think of one because of their suffering or 2) too fearful to express what common sense tells them, or 3) just too dumbed-down so as to be incapable of thought. (See the movie — now not so much fantasy/farce as documentary — Idiocracy for examples.)
Today we have a case where the question could be raised. It came in the news out of fossil energy rich Texas.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas emphasized the need for people to reduce energy use… As temperatures dropped to near-record lows Sunday… “We are experiencing record-breaking electric demand due to the extreme cold temperatures that have gripped Texas … At the same time, we are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines.”
- Question: Who could see this coming?
- Answer: Certainly today’s God-envying, sustainability worshiping rulers. They learned well from all collectivist predecessors of the 20th Century on how to murder over 100 million subjects while relegating the rest to penury, misery and state imposed terror.
You are free to go back to sleep. My friends and I will pray that you awaken before you freeze.
3 comments
As a California refugee that’s moved to Texas, this weather has thoroughly vexed me.
I had thought that Texas was a warmer climate, and now I have freaking snow drifts outside my home.
The only reason that I have not begun decamping from this white Hell is that I’m informed that this is a once every generation event. Local observations back me up:
My home, and the homes of my neighbors, is not configured for sustained, below freezing temperatures. Neither design, nor insulation, nor HVAC is adequate for this weather. If this weather was a annual event, Texas housing codes would not allow homes to be built in this fashion.
Road maintenance is inadequate to this snowfall. Virtually no roads are plowed. Traction aids ran out in the first 36 hours statewide. Predictably, vehicles that have lost traction, and control literally litter the sides of the road wherever you go.
Power generation in Texas has the reputation of providing consistent, affordable power. Latest observations indicate that the issue is not generation, but rather transport. The circuits cannot handle the amount of power that is being requested of them.
Having said all of that, counting on wind turbines for 28 percent of the state’s power is moronic to the point of criminality. Sadly, the root cause of this is policy, not engineering, planning, or maintenance. And it’s been my experience that policy errors are unaddressed, as those who were in charge at the time have often moved on long before their errors come to light.
I still love Texas, but I’m not ready to kiss and make up for this just yet
The disaster in Texas is actually a disaster of the free market. Texas has proudly not regulated its power grid. “Let the market run itself” is their mantra.
Here is the disaster of the free market: renewables are so low-cost that fossil fuel generators cannot compete and are going off-line.
They’ve skirted disaster for years. This time, they couldn’t avoid it.
Author
Is it a free market wherein the reason the cost of renewables is low is because they got government subsidies for the building costs and tax credits for its investors?
Furthermore, that industry gets no negative press for the non-recyclable waste they generate or wildlife they kill. Free market, eh? The cost of the renewables would make them unwanted were the consumer forced to pay directly for all the hidden costs of production and liabilities.