re: Simple question for anyone complaining about the situation in Texas

No its not Monday morning Qbing and people would not have been pissed at a slight increase. Again, we had blackouts in in 1989 and 2011. Power companies were told for decades it would be worse next time b/c of how rapidly our population has been growing. We've gone from 16.9 million in 1989 to 25.6 million in 2011 to 29.8 million in 2021. They knew we'd be fricked if we hit another deep freeze, they knew we get them every so often, and they knew what they needed to do to avoid it. They didn't fix it b/c they didn't want to cut into profits. They've been told for decades they needed to upgrade and they refused. Defending them for being negligent is insane.

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How do you prepare for your pipes bursting and flooding your house in the deadass middle of a brutal winter storm that's totally uncharacteristic of the location you live in?

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There have been many winters in TX and LA that have had several days of sustained temperatures below freezing where people who had prepared didn’t have pipes freeze.

I get that a energy company wasn’t prepared in a extreme circumstance that happens every 10 or so years at best. They don’t want to shell out the capital to properly protect their process in the event of extreme cold because it’s cheaper to just deal with it when it happens. Typical business decision that is common across the board. Companies are in the business of keeping costs low to keep profits high. Unfortunately this scenario affects humans left in freezing temps with no heating which is a bigger deal then someone ordering a burger and fries and getting them served cold or undercooked

No response for me? I’ll wait

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No response for me? I’ll wait

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What are you waiting for? I’m not running from any questions.

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If someone can show me evidence of the power companies cutting corners resulting in a disaster I’ll get on board. Otherwise, I wouldn’t expect them to be prepared for this level of storm.

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I could show you multiple examples but I’m not going to doxx myself on TD.

I’ll say this - it’s become clear to me that 90+% of TD posters don’t even understand what “winterization” means in an industrial context, much less have any concept of what it costs or how difficult it is.

Every power plant, chemical plant, and refinery takes steps to prevent instrument lines from freezing, which is the #1 cause of unexpected shutdowns in cold weather. This is not rocket science, and it’s not some massive overhaul that has to happen. Most plants in South Louisiana are designed for ambient temps down to 10-20 F. North Texas designs could anywhere from 0-10 F depending on the company and the exact location.

The difference is that power plants, in general, do a fricking terrible job of maintaining any equipment unless either a) it directly produces revenue or b) the regulators will shut them down if it doesn’t work.

Power plants are willing to roll the dice because the lost revenue from these types of outages in the past doesn’t justify the cost of continuous upkeep, and whatever fines they’ve received from the regulators haven’t moved the needle either. Make no mistake - this is not a new issue for power plants. It’s just that it snowballed this time instead of being a few isolated incidents.

So ultimately, your entire argument is analogous to this:

“Did you build your house on 15 foot tall piers? No? Then why would you expect the levee to hold 15 feet of water? Never mind the fact that the levee has been there for 75 years and the public just wasn’t aware of how badly it had been neglected.”

Then respond to my post. Tell me where I went wrong in my planning and thought process behind it. Come on.

Context: I’ve been slightly busy in the last 6 weeks with a sick newborn. But before that, I wasn’t busy at all preparing for my first child and trying to keep my pregnant wife safe from COVID-19. But please inform me how I should better prepare for a week long artic shite show in Houston, TX. Also, how long have you lived here in South Texas?

More context. Consider this before responding. As a father to a sick newborn dealing with a freak weather incident: if it meant sparing my wife one tear or my son a moment of peace, I would walk across the street, drag you out of your well prepared home, and beat you to death with my bare hands for them. So please, coach me on how I should’ve prepared more.

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Then respond to my post. Tell me where I went wrong in my planning and thought process behind it. Come on.

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Y’all aren’t reading what I’m writing, just responding to something you think I’m saying.

I didn’t expect you to prepared. I wouldn’t have been prepared. That’s why I wouldn’t be complaining that the power company wasn’t prepared.

Some events aren’t preventable or economically feasible to try to prevent.

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Highlight of the wk is happy hour at Chili’s on Friday.

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I’m not going anywhere. I answered your question. Do you have anymore?

Let me just get this straight though. You think I’m the bad guy because I don’t necessarily think the power companies are at fault until I see some evidence that they screwed up something that was avoidable?

I’m not just going to buy the talking point that a free unrestricted energy market is the reason this happened.