Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Hannibal]

Heh. Apparently it cost you $900 to charge your Tesla in Texas yesterday.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/...on-price-spike

And if you think that's fun, wait until the demand on the system is a few thousand times what it is now -- all around the country where solar and wind aren't as prevalent. Texas has some of the easiest to produce and most reliable renewable power in the country.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The vulnerability to storms like this of the nascent green power grid infrastructure (solar, wind, etc.) is something that should give rise to serious questioning of charging ahead on a "Green New Deal" without a solid plan that integrates fossil fuels in the transition. I don't have a problem with moving forward on reducing carbon emissions as an end game - as long as everyone is playing by the same rules globally and that's not the case right now. But thinking the endgame is less than a decade out in the current circumstances is pure dumbfuckery.

[Hannibal]

The presence of the storm itself should give rise to serious questioning of the Green New Deal, if the mutl-trillion dollar cost and decades of inaccurate climate predictions on the part of the Left did not already do that.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Over 2/3 of the electricity that's gone offline in Texas is from coal or natural gas plants, not wind/solar. 26 out of 34 gigawatts to be precise of the ERCOT grid.

https://newrepublic.com/article/161386/conservatives-wind-turbines-killing-people-texas-blackouts

But the cold is also shutting down natural gas pipelines and processing plants

https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2021/02/12/302028.htm

Ask yourself if you've heard stories about windmills freezing in places like North Dakota or Illinois every winter. Probably not. That's because they get treated with chemicals similar to what's used to de-ice planes. No one thought that would be necessary in Texas so, oops.

Also most of Texas is powered by an electrical grid almost completely separate from the rest of the Lower 48 United States. So much so that Texas is the only state in the country not subject to federal regulation by the FERC. This was done intentionally. Most of the time it's not a big deal but it becomes a problem when the state can't independently handle all its energy demands like the past few days.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Heh. Apparently it cost you $900 to charge your Tesla in Texas yesterday.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/...on-price-spike

And if you think that's fun, wait until the demand on the system is a few thousand times what it is now -- all around the country where solar and wind aren't as prevalent. Texas has some of the easiest to produce and most reliable renewable power in the country.

Welcome to China Joe's Amerika!

[Hannibal]

Over 2/3 of the electricity that's gone offline in Texas is from coal or natural gas plants

That does make some sense, because over 2/3 of the electricity generated in the state is from fossil fuels still, despite the western half of the state being covered in windmills and solar panels, which should tell you about the scale that each of those power types provide. A major part of the power loss in the state is no doubt due to infrastructure outages as much as generation outages, which doesn't speak to the merit of each generation source, but it does speak to the importance of not relying on electrical infrastructure to supply energy needs that it is not built for. You'll never be able to the occasional ice storm from causing massive power outages. It happens in states with no wind power just from the lines icing up. If you think that what's happening in Texas is bad, imagine if it took the trucking industry there an extra few days to get moving again because they had to charge their massive batteries back up.

Much of the natural gas availability is now tied to wind power, since much of the Permian basin is covered in wind turbines. An outage of wind contributes to an outage of gas, although I don't know the degree to which that is happening now. I do know, however, that since gas plants operate at cryogenic conditions, ten degree weather isn't going to shut them down by itself since nothing in a gas plant freezes at 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Except for trace bits of moisture, which are removed via some sort of chemical injection. But for the most part, these plants operate way colder than the freezing point of water. Cryogenic distillation requires massive amounts of electricity and a shortage of it is bound to shut down gas plants. Gas piping infrastructure in remote areas is also frequently powered by wind or solar power, with some sort of backup. But if everyone needs the backup at the same time, then you're fucked.

Liquid fuels like propane, gasoline, and diesel, that store immense amounts of energy and don't require continuous transmission are really nice to have. They aren't just nice to have. They are vital. You can prevent wind turbines from icing up perhaps, but you can't prevent the wind from not blowing, which disqualifies wind from 50% or so of the country. They also, I'm told, have to shut down the turbines during extreme wind events, so you can't build up energy during hurricanes either. The solar/wind revolution and the electric car pipe dream are just that -- pipe dreams. Not that that isn't going to stop us from driving over the cliff chasing them. It's good to have these reminder events to show people how impractical it is to replace fossil fuels on anything but a token scale.

Or rather, I should say, the impracticalities of replacing the internal combustion engine with solar and wind-powered cars.

[Hannibal]

The aftermath of the disaster is likely to focus on underinvestment in outdated facilities and shitty infrastructure. I wouldn't be surprised if the later is also a major culprit, since many areas that grew like gangbusters over the past 20-30 years made half-assed investments in infrastructure while they were growing. But if you want to improve infrastructure, you need a lot of investment, and that means overcoming the NIMBY issue that typically accompanies energy infrastructure proposals. Transmission lines are a bitch to get built. Any post mortem look at widespread outages is likely to uncover a series of investments that were not made because they were shot down by some sort of regulatory body or a community. As an alternative, you can decentralize the grid by building more smaller plants, but it's nigh impossible to get any decent generation capacity cited. Even wind turbines usually get huge community backlash.

[Hannibal]

Remember when I was saying that Bill Gates needs to stick to Windows and STFU?

Bill Gates needs to stick to Windows and STFU.

https://nypost.com/2021/02/16/bill-g...ynthetic-beef/

Bill Gates believes the wealthiest countries should switch to eating “100% synthetic beef” in order to help combat climate change.

The second-richest man in the world floated his ideas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a new interview with MIT’s Technology Review.

“I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef,” Gates said when asked how to cut back on methane emissions. “You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time. Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand.”

Gates, whose book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” is out Tuesday, also spoke of the difficulties in tackling emissions when it comes to livestock — and that faux meat may be the way to go, noting the popularity of Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.

“There are all the things where they feed them different food, like there’s this one compound that gives you a 20% reduction [in methane emissions],” the Microsoft co-founder said.
“I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef,” Bill Gates said.Getty Images“But sadly, those bacteria [in their digestive system that produce methane] are a necessary part of breaking down the grass. And so I don’t know if there’ll be some natural approach there. I’m afraid the synthetic [protein alternatives like plant-based burgers] will be required for at least the beef thing.”

Gates said a faux meat plan for “the poorest 80 countries” wouldn’t be viable, noting that “we’ll have to use animal genetics to dramatically raise the amount of beef per emissions for them.”

Get ready of a steady drip, drip, drip of lifestyle changes that you are supposed to make to stop global warming, as recommended by multi-billionaires. You already showed that you have no problem putting on a mask everywhere that you go and staying locked inside your homes. Eating funny tasting fake beef will be no problem. Wait, what? You want to eat real beef instead of fake beef? What are you, selfish?

[Dr. Strangelove]

I don't know all what Bill is talking about there, but if we eventually reach some kinda Star Trek future in the next few centuries, where food is all synthetic and can pretty much taste and feel like the real thing, it'd be pretty cool.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Watching former President Deals and Cocaine Mitch attack each other

[Hannibal]

Parler is back.

[CGVT]

Parler is back.

Idiots on parade.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Texas can't catch a break...a ton more freezing rain this morning and more snow coming tonight.

One of the only major cities not on the ERCOT grid is El Paso, and they haven't seen any of the problems afflicting most of the state. They're hooked up with the rest of the western US instead.

https://kvia.com/news/el-paso/2021/02/15/el-pasos-not-seeing-power-outages-like-the-rest-of-texas-and-heres-why/

[Jeff Buchanan]

In a big picture sort of way comparing the fuck-ups of democratically controlled cities this summer to mostly republican controlled cities in Texas suffering power outages after a big storm is instructive. The juxtapositioning seems to highlight that Americans don't do very well finding solutions to problems that aren't tainted by political ideology but instead rejects that MO and are developed cooperatively for the better good.

Aside from the cluster in Texas that Hannibal points out above is due, in large part, to a failure to sensibly invest in infrastructure impaired by NIMBY and, I'd add, the idiocy of mindlessly pursing greenness, we're seeing glimpses of the pursuit of political ideologies in facing the COVID pandemic. In this case a focus on "equitable" vaccine distribution instead of a focus on delivering as much vaccine as possible as quickly as possible. To do that requires ignoring race, culture wars and political/ideological side shows.

Articles this morning in my news feeds highlight this but not as a means of the highlighting the importance of shit-canning political ideologies as guiding factors for vaccine distribution. The US has the capacity to deliver enough vaccine to achieve herd immunity by as early as May, some say end of April. The manufacturing capacity is there according to experts that look at this. The logistics of moving the vaccines from the point of manufacture to where they can be used is there Amazon, as humorously as that idea has been offered, is offering to help - makes sense. Even the facilities to administer shots in arms are there. What's missing is a sense of urgency similar to the WWII war time efforts that produced examples of munitions, aircraft and ship building in the US in huge quantities sufficient to support the military strategies that produced the defeat of Germany and Japan. Related to that is the recruitment and training of staff to run the vaccine admin facilities 24/7/365.

News I read this morning suggests the Biden administration is purposefully shooting low on it's public statements regarding vaccination programs but that it knows that 1.5 millions shots per day total in the US isn't going to hack it and that something around 2x that many or 3M shots per day is required and are, in fact, gearing up for that number. Optimists want to hope that is the case, the production capacity of the combined Moderna, Prizer and in a few weeks J&J manufacturing capacity can easily reach that number, the expansion of vaccination sites and the people to run them is entirely achievable with a laser focus on getting this shit done without the interference of any number of stupid side shows. Get to it.

[Hannibal]

2021-02-17_10-24-28.png

Learning more about the Texas power outages....

Tons of stuff that supports the power grid was not adequately freeze protected for this event. This is a rare event, but not unheard of. Texas gets an ultra freeze like this about once every 30 or so years. Point being, there is enough data to say that everything should be built with a possible cold snap in mind. Just for fun, I looked up the 1989 cold snap that occurred in Texas, and I couldn't find any reference to mass power outages. There has, of course, been a shitton of growth there, both in the population of certain areas and the energy industry. I wonder how much of the stuff built since then was built half-assedly without taking the worst case into account, be it windmills that iced up or gas power plants that got shut down because some little water line froze up. For that matter, I can't remember another event in my lifetime where a huge cold snap caused mass power outages. No matter where you live, you can probably remember a once-in-a-generation cold snap that made life miserable for you for a week or so, but did you lose power?

What a shitshow.