If you live in Central Texas you probably know about the H.E.B. grocery chain. I can’t think of a better run business. I know people who have had dealings with them at every level (customers, vendors, employees) and I have never heard anything bad. Heck, I’ve never heard anything but compliments. Sure, they are heavily consumer oriented in a high volume, low margin business, but why aren’t all businesses like this? From WaPo, but a story covered by all the local news outlets.

A Texas grocery store lost power and let people leave without paying. Shoppers paid it forward.

A good start of a reckoning by the Dallas Morning News. Sounds right to me. This part will infurirate most Texans. Wanna bet these folks are unqualified cronies, too?

“Blame the people who work for Magness, of which 20 earned more than $200,000 a year with seven getting above $300,000, two earning over $400,000 and one making $500,000, according to nonprofit ERCOT’s 2018 federal tax filing.”

No surprise Texas’ electricity system is a national laughingstock. Only customers cared, until now

This one is too good not to post. I’m sure it will disappear so I’ve copied the content below for posterity. Donald Trump Jr. is diving into the Texas power outage follies and defending Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who left the state to go on a family vacation in Cancun at the peak of the crisis. The funny part is Baby Don calls out the media for not going after the incompetence of Democratic Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Whoops. Abbott is a Republican. From Twitter.

The hypocrisy of those trying to cancel Ted Cruz who have been totally silent on their Democrat Governor’s incompetence is telling. My thoughts on the Cancún Cruz fauxoutrage! #Cruz #CancunGate is fake.

Former Texas governor and former Trump Administration Energy Secretary Rick Perry is making the rounds with outrageous statements about the failing Texas electricity grid. I can see why he is concerned as many fingers are pointing in his direction. I compared this to Chernobyl early on, in that it was the result of an entrenched and incompetent bureaucracy whose primary “freedom” seems to be freedom from oversight and responsibility. The lives of individuals effected by the unfolding disaster also seemed to be an afterthought at best, with the real focus on various political concerns. Experts have been warning about this event for over a decade. Will we see any accountability? This is Texas, and this does involve the energy industry. But people are very, very upset right now. I see this as a watershed moment. Let’s hope some actual positive change comes from this.

Energy expert predicted Texas power grid would collapse like the Soviet Union

When I lived in Edinburgh, Scotland my boss once accused me of “sending coal to Newcastle”. People said all sorts of things I didn’t understand in those days, but I quickly assumed it meant importing something that was already widely available. Sort of like selling snow to Eskimos. Sorta. Seems it is finally the end of coal in that part of the world. Most of it happened suddenly, decades ago, with a political jolt still felt today. I can see Texas going down a similar road with oil. It will probably happen sooner and faster than most people will expect. A good read from the BBC.

BBC News – Last coal shipment leaves River Tyne

Just a post for posterity. Still snowing but expecting a thaw tomorrow. We are still on a boil notice for drinking water. Lots of people we know went days without power, many without water, too. I believe over 150 hours below freezing, which is unprecedented. The fallout from this will be interesting to watch.

From the Boston Review of books.

The Americans Who Embraced Mussolini

A sad spectacle here. The state that produces somewhere near half of the oil and gas in the US is having one of the worst power crises ever. Nearly half of Austin is without electricity and there is no schedule for when rthe lights get turned back on.

From my reading: the conservative fantasy world is trying to blame this on frozen windmills that produce power in the panhandle. This seems to be a red herring in many ways. First, many other places operate these pieces of infrastructure in cold climates. Seems someone in Texas cut corners and didn’t have fully weather proof systems. Certainly there has been an unprecedented winter storm, with temperatures below freezing for over 100 hours here in Austin, and there has been lots of ice and snow. But why is the whole state hit so hard and so early in the storm?

The answer is that Texas has its own power grid, which means it isn’t subject to federal regulation. It also means it can’t easily import electricity. This is all based on the free market energy reforms that brought us Enron (which was careful to only screw consumers in places like California, never in Texas). So independently run generators shut down for the winter and mothball capacity, saving it for big summer peaks. Except there isn’t any way to control the generation of power. It is all done by the free market. As demand grows, capacity will come on line to meet the demand. Except in this situation, plants aren’t on stand by and lack resources to re-start. Many thing could stop a situation like this. Texas could legislate that providers must supply power on demand, but that is so anti-free market. Or connect us to the rest of the US grid and buy and sell power nationally. Except that would let The Feds regulate at least some aspects of the Texas power grid. The Texas energy boys don’t want that, and you can draw your own conclusions as to why.

So here we are, (collectively) shivering in the dark, being fed lies by everyone including the governor. I have some hope. People are pissed. I hope businesses are reconsidering their view of Texas as a “friendly” place to do business. I hope this extreme free market ethos for things like infrastructure get called into question. We will know shortly. I think lots of people, up to and including the governor, need to lose their jobs, hopefully sooner rather than at election time.

One more bit. There is an ugly class warfare side to all this. While the big city skyscrapers with their multi million dollar condos stay lit up (and presumably heated) all the poorer neighborhoods surrounding them are blacked out. I am surprised the torches and pitchforks (and, this being Texas, guns) haven’t come out. But don’t think peasants haven’t noticed.

From CNN:

Texas produces more power than any other state. Here’s why it went dark anyway