That’s an interesting perspective on voters. It all makes sense, I have never seen it compared that way. (but of course popular vote means nothing, electoral college, yada yada yada,…)
This is not a true tail event in Texas. Extended extreme cold spells aren’t annual, but they aren’t very low frequency either. Very similar scenarios happened in Texas in 1989 and 2011. Each prior event generated a post mortem recommending winterizing equipment. This article from 2011 has the following lovely finishing quote: "What I don’t want,” Hegar said, “is another storm and another report someone puts on the shelf for 21 years and nobody looks at.”
And yet here we are again. We will probably see another report indicating that equipment needs to be winterized.
That being said, this is a dangerous situation and citizens need help in a life threatening emergency.
There should be some mechanism for FEMA/the feds to bill states back for emergency funding that is not for true tail events. Treat it more like a FEMA loan and they have to pay it back over the expected return period of the event.
Here was a 2016 suggestion on creating a state FEMA deductible:
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This is so much of the problem in America. “Free Speech” has been weaponized to destroy facts and truth as guides for the people.
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The fake news MSM of course is desperately trying to state the facts right now.
Fox has a long rant by Tucker Carlson about the green deal and wind turbines chopping up birds.
This is how America dies.
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the point is, these are the same idiots who called it a blue state bailout when it was primarily east coast blue states suffering from COVID. i’m not sure COVID ever hit rural areas as hard as densely packed cities, so these same idiots who are freezing with no electricity right now, want a bailout when they laughed at us, and continue to laugh about COVID.
i feel like saying fuck them in response, but it’s impossible to separate out the dems from the republicans in helping them.
Is this impacting the urban areas more than the rural areas? If so then chances are that more Biden voters are suffering than Trump voters. And even so, the split was 52% Trump/46% Biden, which is pretty much the types of splits that Georgia had before last year, so if you’re going to make the state purple, which could very well happen with the trend of migration of people from blue states to Austin, it’s best to help them out when they are in need. And if Biden is going to stick with his promise to be a president for both red and blue states, then it would damage his credibility if he were to go back on his word.
Even for tail events. Why should Maine have to contribute as much as Florida to hurricane protection?
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is it? I have no clue. I already acquiesced on helping them.
Under my proposal, they wouldn’t. FL has frequent hurricanes that aren’t true tail exposures. They’d be paying the feds back for most of that exposure on installments.
New England does have some real tail exposure to hurricanes. Providence has been hit historically by some pretty bad hurricanes.
Makes sense. I agree, this sort of structure is long overdue.
that sounds like a good idea. it’s bullshit that we have to bail them out when they are being cheap asses with electricity in the first place.
and Ted Cruz voting against hurricane Sandy aid in 2012 and now he wants a bailout. massive hypocrite. why should he be allowed to get away with that?
Interesting article. One quote:
Grimm added that he was unaware of the report, which reveals another fact between its lines: Although state regulators are charged with overseeing many aspects of the energy market, requiring utilities to be weatherized isn’t one of them. When the PUC compiled its suggestions in 1990, there was nothing to make sure they would be followed.
I find it surprising that the regulators don’t have authority regarding reliability in weather extremes. Not spending on weather-proofing is the same kind of argument that allows powerlines that have to be shut down in heat events due to fire risk. There is always some tradeoff in cost vs reliability though, (and power line vs nat gas pipe aren’t necessarily comparable). Some of the nat gas supply issues have me wondering about how much nat gas is stored vs produced on demand.
Reliability concerns add weight to a distributed production and storage approach, especially if we are moving toward a more electric future.
Ted is off to Cancun, he doesn’t care.
He will be the David Purdue of 2024.
yeah, he only cares so much as he wants to keep his job. he doesn’t actually care care though.
It is just another example of the media mob trying to cancel poor Ted Cruz.
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After this story broke, he announced that he had planned to come back all along.
“With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends,” he said. “Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas. We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm. My team and I will continue using all our resources to keep Texans informed and safe.”
So, who is staying with the kids in Cancun?
Good ol’ Cancun Cruz!
The nicknames make themselves.
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