Challenge the Texas Electric Grid catastrophe false premises with friend or foe.

The recent failure of the Texas electric grid system has been on my Facebook page.  I have reposted the Politics Done Right Episode titled:

“The Texas Electric Grid collapse is Republican governance in action like COVID & Healthcare #PTFB

Don’t be fooled by lying Republican Texas politicians & their Right-Wing media mouthpieces. They are responsible for the electric grid catastrophe.”

An old friend of mine responded that –

This is flame-throwing at its best and trying to politically capitalize while people are hurting. Shame on him. The truth is that the Texas industry has not been winterized like the north and so in a deep freeze that what do not often have, we lost both renewable and conventional energy sources. note that all the refineries and chemical plants also shut down. there were up to 4 million people without power, but 25 million people did have power thanks to the conventional energy supply. We have chosen to invest more in renewables in recent years versus conventional. Also, we do not pay for spinning reserve which does lower everyone’s bill so it is a trade-off. let’s talk about solutions rather than pointing fingers and trying to make political gain. He is divisive.

At one time I would not have responded but the argument represented by comment is one that I have come to not appreciate when it comes to a “PUBLIC SERVICE” my response was:

xxx, I disagree. Power supply during a winter freeze is not the same as a business shutting down because the weather is outside the design basis. If power is a public demand (linked to human life) and since 2001 you have realized that winters are getting more severe (see FERC reply to Texas), you mandate incorporation of design modifications to increase the operating range of the facilities. It is a failure of policy why we are where we are not happenstance. Further, consider that there was a laissez-faire attitude to forecast. Then consider the cost management, the companies that supply power should lose money if they are not able to supply power if they can plan for it (that cost should not come back to the end-user). as it rewards a company to fail in producing power. Man … I am really ticked off at the mismanagement and you should be too. The past behavior must have its consequences if it hurts the citizens.

Some background when an industrial facility (like refineries, chemical plant) we determine based on economics the level of freeze protection and the robustness of the equipment based on the “normally occurring” weather.  A “design weather range” is created so that the facility can keep producing at the least energy cost and therefore maximize profits. This “design weather range” is called a design basis.

As stated here I am concerned that

1. we are mixing a profit motive with public services that we depend on.
2. We want to move on and deal with the consequences without a price being paid for mismanagement in government.

We want to absolve for-profit companies with public funds (our hard-earned money) when the actions they take to maximize profits backfire. It is socialism for corporations while we say we don’t owe the worker anything.