New global Covid cases fell 16% last week, says WHO https://t.co/PtSzUJC0P8
— The Guardian (@guardian) February 17, 2021
The United Nations and United States voiced alarm over a Huthi rebel advance on the Yemeni government's last northern stronghold of Marib, saying the assault could endanger millions of civilians https://t.co/N1uBrDt3tu
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 16, 2021
An Arctic air mass delivered bone-chilling temperatures to parts of Texas, forcing the state’s electric grid to impose rotating blackouts because of higher power demand and leaving millions of people without power https://t.co/7CbA6RC7ut #TexasBlackout pic.twitter.com/Dqfx3e2fn0
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 17, 2021
Here’s a look at the city skyline tonight, with many of the surrounding homes and businesses in the dark. pic.twitter.com/W5N2hfH02v
— ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) February 16, 2021
China overtakes US as EU's biggest trading partner https://t.co/3fvvtWW2uI
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 17, 2021
Olympics: Calls grow to relocate 2022 Beijing Winter Games https://t.co/qK1paQ8KM9 pic.twitter.com/nmJWxl3Hhu
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 17, 2021
The volatility of Bitcoin - which has risen almost 200% in the last three months - was on display Tuesday. After rising above $50,000 for the first time, the price of the digital currency fell to near $48,000 in the afternoon. https://t.co/gtAiQ4aaul
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 16, 2021
3 comments:
The problems are exacerbated because Texas, the largest energy producer and consumer in the United States, is the only state to use its own power grid. That frees it from federal regulations, including ones that could have required it to be better prepared for a freak cold snap, said Peter Fox-Penner, the founder of Boston University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy.
“Texas’ deregulatory philosophy has caused them to put much less stringent rules on generators and system operators to be prepared for cold weather than other systems, where extreme cold is more common,” he said in an interview.
“They believed that this kind of ‘perfect storm’ was so unlikely that they didn’t need to require the system to prepare for it,” Fox-Penner said.
The Railroad Commission of Texas, which despite its name regulates the oil and natural gas industry in the state but not any railroads, said that the weather had stopped fossil fuel production in some parts of the state.
WASHINGTON - Former Texas governor Rick Perry suggests that going days without power is a sacrifice Texans should be willing to make if it means keeping federal regulators out of the state’s power grid.
In a blog posted on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's website, Perry is quoted responding to the claim that “those watching on the left may see the situation in Texas as an opportunity to expand their top-down, radical proposals.”
“Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” Perry is quoted as saying. “Try not to let whatever the crisis of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically, and strategically.”
Texas’s power grid, run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, occupies a unique distinction in the United States in that it does not cross state lines and thus is not under the oversight of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
That has long been a point of pride with Texas politicians who in the 2000s chose to deregulate the state's power market and allow power companies, not state regulators, determine when and how to build and maintain power plants.
That system has fallen under scrutiny in recent days as millions of Texans are left without power following an unusual cold snap. Following a near identical episode a decade ago, federal regulators warned Texas it needed to take steps to better insulate its power plants.
But there is little indication that happened, prompting criticism of ERCOT from Texas Republicans and Democrats alike.
Perry, former president Donald trump's energy secretary, however, blamed the rolling blackouts on the rise of wind and solar energy in Texas.
“If wind and solar is where we’re headed, the last 48 hours ought to give everybody a real pause and go wait a minute,” Perry said. “We need to have a baseload. And the only way you can get a baseload in this country is [with] natural gas, coal, and nuclear.”
That argument has been made by numerous conservatives in the midst of the blackouts. But it does not line up with early reports indicating the majority of the lost generation was natural gas plants not wind turbines, which actually performed better than grid regulators had anticipated, said Michael Webber an energy professor at the University of Texas.
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