Why Texas' mass power outages continue to happen [View all]
BY ALEJANDRA MARTINEZ AND EMILY FOXHALL
JULY 18, 2024
It’s become a familiar cycle: A powerful storm sweeps through a swath of Texas and takes the electric system down in its grip. Trees might bend and topple, crashing down onto a power pole. Sometimes the weight of ice pulls branches onto electric lines. Other times wind makes a wire spark, and that ember ignites a destructive blaze.
Snip
After the disaster (2021 winter storm - info inserted by me) legislators decided Texas needed more power sources that could come on as needed. They required power generation facilities to make their equipment more resilient in winter weather. And they introduced financial mechanisms to try to get more on-demand power facilities built. Notably, state politicians allocated $5 billion to incentivize companies to build more gas-fueled power generators in the state. emphasis mine.
But those big efforts don’t help with how vulnerable the power poles and lines are — as continuous storms like Beryl make clear.
“The hurricane is throwing trees around, taking out wires,” said Michael Jewell, a longtime regulatory attorney. “It’s not that there wasn’t enough power. It was a fundamental problem with regard to, if you’ve got trees flying all over the place, they’re going to take down wires.”
Snip
More
No money for tree trimming - Houston has TONS of trees.
No money to replace wooden poles with metal.
Just more money for Big Oil - all Abbott and Patrick donors.
Yipppeee!
= new reply since forum marked as read