Mark My Word: He’s Gonna Blame It On Mexicans
As you know, it was been disproven that The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), has diddle squat to do with either electric or reliability. Winter before last, most of Texas suffered below freezing temperatures for 3 to 5 days without electricity.
I know you yankee people are snorting and giggling, but Honey I don’t even own a heavy coat. I have a sweatshirt and a couple of sweaters. That’s it.
You know how many coats you own? That’s how much air conditioning I own. At least for now. Scorch is coming to Texas.
That’s a little toasty for mid May.
So EPCOT is so busy butt covering that their friction alone is raising the temperature 3 degrees.
ERCOT said in a statement Tuesday evening they will “deploy all the tools available to us to manage the grid reliably.”
ERCOT said they are coordinating with the Public Utility Commission, generation resource owners and transmission utilities to ensure they are prepared for the extreme heat.
Yep, that’s exactly what they said before the freeze.
Greg Abbott knows that even 5 hours without electricity during a heat wave will cost him the election, so I suspect he’s bought a bunch of new hamsters to turn the wheel.
They’ll just blame the heat wave and resulting deaths from heat stroke on Hunter Biden!
1It’s been a very cool and rainy spring here in Michigan. We’ve barely made it to 70 so far and it is almost impossible to believe that it is May. Those Texas temperatures are looking pretty good to me!
2“All the tools available to us to manage the grid…”
So, thoughts and prayers?
3I probably have a warm coat or two I could send you for the coming winter.
4Your WX temperature forecast looks sorta chilly to me. I’ll trade you.
Down here, until the latest forecast, we were supposed to hit 109 Saturday and Sunday, and then cool down to a nice comfortable 103-100 for most of next week [with the usual soaking high humidity/dewpoints].
With last nights storms and our first rain in months, the future temps have been dialed down a little. It’ll only be 104,103 for the weekend with a cooldown to 103-99 for the coming week.
And this is only the 5th of May [Cinco de Mayo], barely into the spring season. This summer might get interesting.
An HVAC tip: Most air conditioning systems are designed for what amounts to a target maximum outside ambient air temperature, which is usually around 95 degrees iirc. Couple that spec with the fact that removing ‘humidity’/water from the inside air uses more energy than cooling it does, and many people are not going to be ‘comfortable’ the next week or months ahead, no matter how much they crank the thermostat down [before the whole state’s electrical systems crater].
The climate deniers and MAGAots won’t believe it no matter how many facts are presented, but more of the ‘high temperature’ period records have occurred in the last twenty years than ever before.
5https://www.weather.gov/ewx/climategraphs
https://www.weather.gov/hgx/climatesummaries
https://www.weather.gov/crp/localclimate
Speaking of Abbott, this deserves a whole post (from https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/05/texas-gop-governor-considers-challenging-1982-ruling-requiring-free-public-education):
Days after rights advocates warned that the U.S. Supreme Court’s expected overruling of Roe v. Wade portends rollbacks of numerous rights for people in the U.S., Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said he wants to challenge a 40-year-old ruling that affirmed states must offer free public education to all children.
In a radio interview with right-wing host Joe Pagliarulo late Wednesday, Abbott discussed border security and agreed with the host’s claim that the children of undocumented immigrants place a “real burden on communities” when they attend public schools, as the Plyler v. Doe ruling required states to allow in 1982.
“The challenges put on our public systems [are] extraordinary,” Abbott said. “Texas already long ago sued the federal government about having to incur the costs of the education program… And the Supreme Court ruled against us on the issue about denying, or let’s say Texas having to bear that burden.”
“I think we will resurrect that case and challenge this issue again, because the expenses are extraordinary and the times are different than when Plyler v. Doe was issued many decades ago,” the governor added.
6I’ve got 9 coats in the closet. I’ll loan you one as long as the Green Bay Packers logo is OK.
It’s 65 outside and we’re celebrating the end of winter.
7Sam #7 – a Green Bay logo coat for JJ near Dallas?
8I bet it would have to be REALLY, REALLY damn cold.
Don’t you have one with the old Washington team logo?
Maybe abbutt’s army can be diverted to fix the power grid in between battles with Mexico. I’m sure he has a plan to divert attention.
9This early excessive heat does not bode well for when summer does get here. Waiting for the 116 degrees we had here last July in N Oregon, but global warming is just a dem conspiracy. Those wild fires are just fake news.
I’ve probably said it in here, because I’ve ferdamnsure said it a thousand times in the winter. Every time some co-worker says they can’t wait for summer because temps in the thirties is too cold. I can always put on more clothes, but there’s only so many they’ll let me take off.
10Texas Expat, thanks for that link. I hadn’t heard that yet. But it ain’t surprising that Abbott would be the first to jump at the opportunity to be the first to show the possibilities Alto’s opinion would raise for the American Taliban.
It was 56 and sunny
I mowed my lawn in shorts and a t shirt.
It felt great!!
Supposed to be 39 tonight.
I stopped counting my coats at 5.
11I was embarrassed.
Greg Abbott and ERCOT are fossil fools blowing even more hot air.
12Ms JJ, send us some of that heat! My neighborhood still has pockets of snow in a few shady spots.
13I’m pretty confident there will be plenty of hot sunshine to generate the max from the solar arrays (1%), expect there will be average amounts of wind (with a slight boost from a few buildings in Austin as some flap their lips) to spin wind turbines (20%), and continued use of natural gas (47%) and coal (20%). The couple of nuclear generation facilities (however the Shrub might pronounce the source) can provide about 10%.
So if everything works right, sparks will flow onto the wires of ERCOT. I expect there may be active betting pools trying to guess how sustained heat will impact their transformers and wires, and how they will manage the minor disruptions of a tornado taking down part of a city or a fire eating up a few poles.
Two things seem a near certain 10 day forecast — ERCOT will claim credit and shift blame, and there will be substantial profits to members of ERCOT.
14Here in the Nebraska Panhandle, we got four inches of snow two days ago. We’re still running the heater here (our brand new heater after our old Montgomery Ward floor furnace from the Fifties gave up the ghost a year ago . . . it took that long to get someone out here to sell us one when we had all cash for it).
44°F here now, 80 tomorrow, then the temps start going down again.
15If Abbot thinks educating children is expensive, wait ’til he sees how expensive it is NOT to educate them!
16It’s really bad in India and Pakistan right now (I keep track because I have in-laws and friends there). They’ve exceeded wet-bulb temperatures (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature) of 33 degrees C, and at 35 humans cannot survive without air-conditioning. Even with unlimited water to drink and swim in, not doing any labor, and staying in the shade.
Yup, global warming is reaching the point where billions of humans will not be able to survive unless they have access to AC for several months of the year. And while the subcontinent is far away and full of brown people, it’s going to become a problem in much of the southern US. All of us old gits will be gone, but our grandchildren will be faced with it.
Wonder what kind of monument they’ll raise to our generation? It better be spit-proof, or it won’t last long.
17Sam at 7: Go Pack! (born in Sheboygan)
18There is another problem looming – Bitcoin mining. The governor is encouraging the miners to move to Texas. Mining involves large numbers of computers running 24/7 which requires a huge amount of energy to run the computers and keep them from overheating. The Governor’s idea is that in case of crisis the miners can shut down and divert this energy to homes and businesses. Really? Also there is no explanation of how this new demand for energy is going to be satisfied. Karen H
19how are you holding up with the weather? Read that 6 power facilities have temporarily shut down, prices are up and ERCOT isn’t done with preparations for summer.
20