By Gary Scharrer
AUSTIN — Inadequate electric power reserves likely will force Texans to cut back this summer to avoid rolling outages if the weather matches last year’s record heat, utility experts warned state legislators Thursday.
“We have to have conservation, and everyone made a tremendous difference during the peak of hot, summer days (last) August. We have to have that plus some to survive this summer without rotating outages,” H.B. “Trip” Doggett, president and CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, told the House State Affairs Committee.
Legislators are looking at the state’s electricity market to find ways to keep lights on in Texas during peak demand periods. An assortment of issues contributes to the problem, including surging population growth, regulatory influences on the power industry, low natural gas prices that discourage new power plants and difficulties in borrowing money to build them. Texas faces “a serious problem,” State Affairs Chairman Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, said after 13 experts spoke to his committee.
“It looks like we’re going to really have to embrace conservation because we don’t have the extra generation,” Cook said.
Several older, mothballed generating plants could be revived in the short term until new power units come online in future years. The state’s energy reserves this summer are projected to be lower than last year. The current reserve capacity of 13.75 percent is expected to drop “significantly below” that threshold in coming years, Doggett told lawmakers. Texas had a 17 percent reserve generating capacity during last summer’s scorching heat.
Texas set a record electricity peak of 68,330 megawatts on Aug. 3 — breaking the 2010 record of 65,776 megawatts. A single megawatt can power 1,000 homes for one hour.
The state’s population grew by more than 4 million over the past decade. Industry also is expanding.
“There’s virtually no industry in this state that doesn’t demand a lot and highly reliable electricity — whether it’s manufacturing
Toyota pickups in San Antonio, chip (fabricators) in Austin, telecommunications work in the (Dallas-Fort Worth) Metroplex or medical research in Houston,” said John Fainter Jr., president and CEO for the Association of Electric Companies of Texas.
The chairwoman of the Texas Public Utility Commission suggested that one of the longer-term strategies for meeting the state’s future energy needs includes an educational campaign in public schools.
The campaign should start with middle school children “so they become aware of energy and interested in pursuing a career in energy,” PUC Chairwoman Donna Nelson said.
The agency is looking at promoting more sensor-type technologies that automatically turn off lights when rooms are not occupied. Nelson noted that conservation must be a major factor in helping the state meets future energy needs, suggesting that she may have to install sensor technology in her own home.
“I have a son at home who doesn’t know that switches go down in addition to going up,” she said Texans will respond to public service announcements preparing them for power shortages, said Jay Doegey, president of the Texas Coalition for Affordable Power.
“People want to participate in this. You just have to ask them to do it. You have to tell them what to do,” Doegey told the committee. “Give them some education, and they will join.”
While there aren’t any quick and easy solutions, Cyrus Reed of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club suggested that Texas reduce its reliance on coal plants. New building codes should call for stricter conservation, he said, and state leaders should use unappropriated money in a special utility fund to help low-income families weatherize their homes.
Rep. Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, said he was stunned that Texas faces power shortages and surprised “that we were not better-prepared for this whole generation scarcity problem.”
“We’ve been bragging about plentiful power, reliable power, affordable power for years in Texas,” he said.
gscharrer@express-news.net
That energy deregulation really helped us, didn’t it?
I’m not surprised at all with the poor infrastructure we have. Soon the lights will cut off at sunset like they do in North Korea. Food rationing will follow.
How much electricity do we export out of state?
Well, the market pays more when there are shortages… why build a plant for X megawatss when it’ll only get paid parttime at normal rates or for 20% capacity full time at normal rates? just run the ones your currently at 80% usage and make people pay through the nose for the 20% when its the last available power…
Conservation?! In Texas?! Blasphemy!!!!
Let’s look not just on the supply side, but also the demand side!
It is time for ERCOT to disappear and be absorbed into either the eastern grid or the Western grid or perhaps both. It is time to get rid of Electric Utility De-reg too. The legislatures that passed and signed this
fiasco need to be strung up by there tenicles.
Just like a third world country. 30 years of Reaganomics and de-regulation. Rich folks will generate their own power. Get used to it.
I understand that that green energy options are expensive… but not one word mentioned about wind or solar, or any other types of alternatives? I have a house being built, and hopefully by the time I am done w/ it, the electric company will be paying me for the excess energy that my house produces from solar.
What happens when people start plugging in electric cars?
Thank you greenie weenies, I’ll be thinking of you this Summer as I sit in the hot dark house.
JustMe, it depends on when people plug them in and the number of cars.
Why not take action NOW to avoid it. I’m tired of this stuff. We pay them to provide power 24/7 365. ERCOT needs to do their job.
It may be better to wait and not run out and by an electric car and charger. And the talk of making big money on charging stations may be something to research and see if other parts of the country have a shortage of this kind.
What a coincidence it will be when the rates shoot up just in time for the peak usage season and we’re told to just pay up and be glad we still have power (unlike the Northeast and California). Just remember, we have been warned.
Somewhere Dick Cheney is sitting in his evil lair having a toast and good laugh with Satan.
“Donna Nelson, the chairwoman of the Public Utilities Commission, said that low natural gas prices and difficulty getting financing for new projects are the main culprits.”
Our Fed is sitting on about 3/4 trillion reserves, interbank loanrate at someone around 1/2 percent to nothing ( and the interest rate the Fed pays on these unused reserves only a tiny fraction above this ), and power companies want to borrow to finance new projects, and they can’t get new loans? How in the Hell can that be?
( and the last time I looked, power cost hasn’t gone down, only up )
Deregulation is awesome! Thank teapublicans.
Way to go, EPA! I’ll have plenty of clean 107 degree air to breathe this summer.
Free market and deregulation do not work in the providing of public services. Under the old system, we had lower prices and plenty of power. If you notice, in Austin and San Antonio where they have a municipally owned system, they have lower rates and no shortages. Their power is not part of the deregulated power pool. Theirs stays at home and they sell the excess. We are becoming a third world state in terms of wages, crime, schools, housing, power and politicians.
Power outages? Really? 2012, home of NASA and the Med Center, and we are going to have rolling blackouts? The difference between America and any other Third World Country is we have the Kardashians.
This is what happens when the EPA forces the closure of coal-fired plants. Wind and solar generation has not kept up with the loss of those plants.
I’ll just crank up my generator, turn on my window ac units and blow some more pollutants into the atmosphere. Let all the green weenies who don’t want new power plants to be built chew on that.
Tell the real story-Obama’s EPA dropped an emmission reg on the coal fired power plants last August and gave them to the end of the year (2011) to comply. For most, comply meant ‘shut down’. “Part of the reason for tight power supplies is the difficulty that power plants face in financing new projects.” Those ‘new projects’ are the costs to upgrade…
All outdoor lighting for business,billboards,shopping centers,and unnecessary street lighting needs to be shut down at night during these peak times.
Yes, there are many variables. I meant in general. It seems crazy to be pushing electric vehicles when we are worried about not having the supply for our the current needs. I’m all for conservation and alternative sources, but it just seems all chicken-vs-egg. We keep increasing our dependence on eletricity yet we drag our feet when it comes to being able to supply the demand. It’s almost kind of drug-dealer-ish “we’ll get you hooked on it and then make you do WHATEVER it takes to get it”.
Sorry, this is not my forte. I was only curious.
This is what happens during amateur hour at the White House. You get a socialist, Green-energy-idiot in the White House and he thinks you can shut down coal fired poser plants and then run th country on pixie dust and unicorn milk. Well, how’s that working out?
Well that’s one way for us 99%rs to save some money on electricity.
Texas deregulation at it’s finest, robbing Texans blind and rolling blackouts.
JustMe, electric cars certainly have some hurdles to overcomes before they become a true mainstream option. However, the energy demand can be easily solved — or it can turn into a huge problem.
If everyone drove an electric car and plug them in at 5 p.m., the electricity grid would likely struggle. However, people aren’t likely all to jump on the electric car bandwagon at the same time and people also aren’t likely to plug them in at the same time. Delays or scheduled charging (think about your Christmas lights) could also allow cars to be charges during off peak hours, saving consumers money and allow utility companies to run more natural gas or coal-powered plants during the off peak hours.
Like I said before, electric cars have many hurdles to overcome — mainly the range of the batteries.
Oh yes worm, don’t forget to add Carter to one of the administrations that started Deregulation… Skewing the facts again?
I’m currently living in Germany serving in the army. For a country that doesn’t get near the sun light that we do in Texas, they sure do have a ton of solar panels. I would say 1 in 4 homes has them. I spoke with a german friend who told me that for the most part it pays off in 5-7 years. Then you pay almost nothing and get paid for energy you put back on the grid. So cry all you want or make changes and get old uncle sam off your OWN BACK..
One problem I see with Texas’s unique power grid is the lack of clear signals to generators of when to add capacity. Private enterprise needs some assurance that their capital investments will prove profitable. If the risk assessment of their capital investment is as fickle as the weather then clear signals become more voodoo than calculated but the series of “near misses” last summer was unacceptable. Add to the weather factor such “manmade variables” as the EPA/Courts cat fight. Other than a “backward” step of saddling consumers with fees for reserve capacity, what measures could Texas take to encourage generators to add capacity?
There is a remarkable story waiting to be told, if only ERCOT and the liberal press had the guts to tell it …. $26 billion (yes, with a “b”) is the tab so far for investment in Texas in wind-generated electricity since the year 2000. But this huge misguided investment cannot be counted on for a single megawatt of power in the middle of a blistering hot Texas summer afternoon. Why? Because the wind may not be blowing at all across the entire state! ERCOT’s website has the data which confirm this remarkable fact. Explore the data and be amazed. Maximum wind generation is nearly always at 1 AM, while the minimum is consistently at 1 PM: totally out of phase with peak demand. “Reliability” is ERCOT’s second name, but the unaddressed folly of wind generation makes EUCOT (“Unreliabilty”) more apt.
Yup, this is what deregulation and making companies be “people” has brought us. Rich people don’t care. After Ike, most homes in River Oaks and Memorial have either a full house generator or a partial generator that kicks on after 15 seconds.
The issue is the deregulated market has price caps. And, the federal EPA is forcing the shutdown of some coal assets. For those who asked, Texas is not an exporter of power. ERCOT is not electrically connected to the rest of NERC. We have DC ties and block load ties so when we have the most need for power, it’s used right here in the state. It also means we can’t import power. The other issue is we are spending billions on wind power and transmission lines to get it to the big cities and last year during the worst days of the 100+ temps only about 900MW of the 17000MW of wind generation was on because the wind wasn’t blowing in west and north Texas.
Change your name, Electric Reliability Council.
Mmmm, Mmmmm, Mmmmm. I blame Barack Hussein Obama. He still believes in fraudulent Global Warming. Even though the wheels are well off this big lie we, here in flyover country will pay the price.
I love my solar and wind powered home. Cold a/c no matter what’s going on in the summer in Texas!
I think responsibility falls on the government and the private sector. Private does not want to build any new infrastructure and they just blame Government entities. Like someone said the chicken vs. egg. I put little trust in the private sector or government. Neither sector will ever tell the truth. They both well always spin results. I think the best thing is to find away for your house to generate power or conserve it. There was never enough wind in Texas for wind power.
Did anyone notice the IF in this “article.” Big if, that we’ll have another historic drought that none of the so called experts saw coming and those same forecasters are predicting it to continue? We’ll probably have a cool summer.
I agree with Richard Lewis but hindsite is 20-20. The law specifying % of renewable energy did not envision wind taking off like it did. In hindsite, if we had invested that same amount of money in solar then the peak power produced would more closely follow the demand curve. But that would have been government picking winners and loosers wouldn’t it. There is some consideration now to specify a % of non-wind renewable power. Government is too slow to react but when the legislature only meets every other year and spends their time on sonograms instead of heading off this $26B debacle then what can you expect.
I blame Texas Republicans.
I’ll bet Rep. Oliveira had no problem supporting Obama’s plan to close down coal-burning generation plants…and now he can’t understand why we’re facing an imminent power shortage!
Let’s see…. Our Fearless Leader is forcing the closure of some power plants. Wonder how that affects us here in Texas.?
Perhaps:
1) Financially SOLVENT electrical power providers should get priority access to the permits as priority power suppliers.
2) Salt dome, natural gas storage should be required for base load and peaking plants to collect maximum revinues.
3) Coastal Region MUDs should PURCHASE on site Emergency Electrical Generation Equipment as provided for (in SB-361, 81R) and dodged with ‘paperwork power’.
(legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/doc/SB00361F.doc)
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/doc/SB00361F.doc
(b) An affected utility shall:
(1) ensure the emergency operation of its water system during an extended power outage as soon as safe and practicable following the occurrence of a natural disaster; and …
…
In accordance with commission rules, an emergency preparedness plan shall provide for one of the following:
(1) the maintenance of automatically starting auxiliary generators;
…
(5) the use of on-site electrical generation or distributed generation facilities;
Stop selling power outside of Texas
“The chairwoman of the Texas Public Utility Commission suggested that one of the longer-term strategies for meeting the state’s future energy demands includes an educational campaign in public schools.”
What? How about building new generating plants? That’s the proper thing to do. I strongly suspect that difficulty getting funds to build new plants is directly related to the community-organizer-in-chief. His administration and activist EPA are doing their best to shut down existing coal fired plants in Texas.
The population will continue to grow. Not building new plants is irresponsible and stupid. But instead of coal fired plants we need more nuclear plants and we need to increase the capacity of existing nuclear plants. At least build new plants fired by natural gas. Natural gas is plentiful and clean.
Electrical Power Engineering input … Technically Speaking …
Good insight and informed discussion from:
#32 Richard Lewis February 9, 2012, 1:07 PM (Wind Generation Fiasco)
&
#34 TeaItUp February 9, 2012, 1:11 PM (Wind Generation Fiasco)
Completely WRONG, (Large Grids are terribly lossy and unreliable)
#6 Johan February 9, 2012, 11:56 AM (Grid Expansion)
this article looks like a PR plant by the dark forces that want us to accept 3rd world coal fired plants because current tax law makes them more profitable than gas or nuke plants. Had the City of Houston never sold Houston Lighting and Power, she would not have 1/10 the cash flow problems she is having. They told us better service for less money. ? Yeah, how did that work out for us. ?
Does anyone know where I can I get a solar powered generator?
Get used to it…just another part of living in the newest addition to the Third World.
Right on, James…and thank you for being a responsible citizen. We don’t even need coal, oil or gas like we’re constantly led to believe from our “biased liberal media.”
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/03/world/europe/solar-power-24-hours/index.html
Let’s go back to the good old days (1960s) when our schools were un-air-conditioned. If I could make it through those long days at Parker Elementary without A/C, anyone can. Until it gets into the 90s, you don’t need A/C. It’s all a state of mind. If you are sitting outside, put your feet in a cool bucket of water. Find some shade, preferably a place with a nice breeze. But start early. Go without A/C now (I have to have heat whenever temps drop below 60), and by the time summer comes you’ll be acclimated. And, when the heat really does get too much, head west into the Davis Mountains. Nice cool nights in the summer.
We also need to look at the demand side, like 42 said.
At some point, we’re going to have to consider population control…and just for the idiots out there…that doesn’t “automatically translate” to killing people.
Crony Capitalism privatizes gains and socializes losses.
So, NRG and TXU are heavily leveraged buyouts, entirely for profit, by political insiders. If their gamble had been lucky, the insiders would be rich, fat and happy. However, they paid a lot more than the facilities are worth.
So now, these political insiders are working their friends in the legislature, utility commission and the governor’s office.
They EXPECT their bad deal to be subsidized, in a thousand ways, by electrical power customers and taxpayers. Their justifiably ‘bad credit rating’, is NOT our problem or concern.
The article states,(“Part of the reason for tight power supplies is the difficulty that power plants face in financing new projects.”)
That is THEIR PROBLEM, not ours.
The rest of us will never receive such ‘special’ treatment with our ‘problems’. These insiders wanted privatization. Let’s give them privatization. Allow HOAs to generate their own neighborhood electrical power. Include financial stability in assigning electrical base load generation market allocations.
Privatize the gains AND the losses.
LETS LET CANADA SELL THEIR OIL TO THE RED CHINESE LIKE COMMIE OBAMIE WANTS. LETS CLOSE COAL POWER PLANTS. LETS STOP DRILLING IN THE GULF. LETS COME UP WITH REGULATIONS THAT STOP ENERGY EXPLORATION. LETS PUT IN WINDMILLS THAT REQUIRE LOCAL GOVERNMENT TO ISSUE TAX ABATEMENTS TO BE ABLE TO EVEN OPERATE.
YESIRREE WHY ITS YOUR COMMIE OBAMIE ENERGY POLICY.
WHERE ARE YA GONNA PLUG IT IN?
THIS IS YOUR COMMIE OBAMIE SPEAKING. BUY THE NEW COMMIE GENERAL MOTORS CHEVY VOLT THAT HAS THE TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED 7500 DOLLAR TAX CREDIT for a total taxpayer subsidy OF $250,000 DOLLARS PER CAR. http://www.mygovcost.org/2011/12/21/gms-chevy-volt-costs-taxpayers-250000-per-vehicle/
OH AND YOU STUPID TAXPAYERS PAID THE UNION MEMBERS A 4300 DOLLAR BONUS LAST YEAR. YES, AND THEY JUST NEGOIATED A NEW CONTRACT AND THE UNION MEMBERS GET A 5000 DOLLAR SIGNING BONUS. IN ADDITON, HE ALLOWED GM TO OPEN 2 NEW PLANTS IN MEXICO. NOW THAT’S IS GREAT FOR AMERIKAN JOBS – EH!!! YEA AND US IDIOTS ALLOWED COMMIE OBAMIE TO USE OUR BAILOUT TAX MONEY TO DO IT!!!! WONDERFUL.
MEANWHILE THE EPA IS TRYING TO CLOSE AS MANY COAL FIRED ELECTRIC PLANTS AS POSSIBLE – SO PLUG IT IN IF THERE IS ANY THERE OR IF YOU AN AFFORD IT. HECK WITH THIS GAS STUFF.
IN THE MEANTIME THE COMMIE OBAMIE GM HAS HIRED CHINA TO DO ALL OF ITS ELECTRIC CAR STUFF – YES THE CHINESE COMMUNISTS – NOW AIN’T THAT GREAT? SEE HOW MUCH YOUR COMMIE OBAMIE DOES FOR YOU!!!! SEE HOW GOOD THIS IS FOR GREEN JOBS – JUST NOT IN AMERIKA. SHUCKS GM IS NOT EVEN HONORING SOME PRE-BANKRUPCY WARRANTIES AND RECALLS -HAVE SOME APPLE PIE AMERIKAN OWNERS OF GM. IN ADDITION COMMIE OBAMIE HAS APPROVED LOANS TO BUILD AMERICAN CARS IN FINLAND AS A PART OF HIS USA JOBS PROGRAM – AIN’T THAT GREAT?
REMEMBER FOLKS VOTE COMMIE OBAMIE FOR BEST COMMUNISM OF ALL CANDIDATES.
SEE THE USA IN YOUR COMMIE OBAMIE CHEVROLET
http://www.commieblaster.com/obama/index.html
http://www.nachumlist.com/Socialists.htm
http://www.aim.org/aim-column/obamas-communist-mentor/
WHAT ELSE IS NEW? SO, BESIDES TALKING, WHAT ARE YOU ALL GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
The PUC is the biggest problem we have other than Rick Perry.
Joe,
You ask, What am I going to do about it?
Whatever it frigging takes.
So, … what are YOU going to do about it?
Et tu?
and they say we are ready for electric cars? how about every new construction project be required to install a 1kw solar system…
You dufuses don’t know what living in a third world country is really like. But again, just repeating stuff you hear on right wing radio. See Bob as an example.
This was rigged for Kenny Boy Lay and pushed by the likes of Phil Gramm who’s wife Wendy ended up on the Enron board . Deregulation of the electrical industry is starting to show it’s ugly head and it’s not going to get better anytime soon . Bad ideas pushed by bad people = unstable power .
Joe
Short term: 1. We could pray for a more moderate summer.
2. See if the Mexican cartels wanted to get into the electricity business.
3. See other suggestions for coping.
4. Pay our lawyer to get an injunction against EPA enforcement.
Mid Term: 1. Tie in to some other grid.
2. Sell our unwanted/needed wind 2am electricity (we already paid for it) to:
A. Some other grid (Enron, or Billy Sol or Rick Perry might pull it off).
B. Get more of those evil electric cars to soak up the oversupply at that hour.
C. Find some industry that uses lots of electricity at 2am but none at 5pm.
Long Term: 1. Build generating capacity.
2. Small annual investments in solar to generate/peak at the right time.
I am not dead. I am on a private island I bought with all these shady dealings. Have a nice day in July folks. De-regulation is the best! K.L.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,813814,00.html
That’s what happens when warmists go bonkers running away from boogyman that doesn’t really exist… Unless we give up a lot of things like TV, reduce the size of house, mandatory control of A/C&heating via smart meter, and so on, solar and wind technology still have a long way to go. They are too unreliable so we have to stay with gas turbine, coal (get rid of it) and nuclear plants are here to stay for quite a while. I prefer a nuclear type where fuel rods are used till they are fully spent unlike what we do these days. Not sure if we’d ever see fusion (hot or cold). I wonder about Telsa type generator but the story behind is too strange. If you want to know extreme strange – Read Chris Dunn’s Giza Power plant where they built those pyramids at such precise that modern builders do not match and the way it was set up looked similar to Telsa’s set up.
If we wanted to hear untruthful, GOP, talking points we would tune into talk radio or Fixed “news”. No need to spout your propaganda here.
If we wanted to hear untruthful, GOP, talking points we would tune into talk radio or Fixed “news”. No need to spout your untruthfulness here.
The EPA has very little to do with it . The plummeting price of natural gas is what ccaused the coal plants to stop generating . Just think of the low bills that we would have if we were regulated with all this gas .
BTW all you losers who are banging on electric cars because of “subsidies” feel free to look up how much oil companies get as subsidies for gas burning cars, don’t forget the 10% ethanol that’s in the gas, and how much subsidies they get too. And don’t forget all the oil products it takes to produce that 10% ethanol, like fertilizer and farm equipment and trucking not to mention the electricity to produce ethanol from corn.
How stupid is this situation? Whoa! 2010/2011/2012 ERCOT predicts more rolling blackouts annually, but does nothing for Texas to positively address it. Why do we need ERCOT? What did they do in a positive fashion to address this issue three years ago? NADA! The best they can do is to educate middle school children to conserve? How lame!
I’m baaaaaack. Just a reminder that your misfortunes are my fortunes. Isn’t de-regulation a gold mine?
One very simple solution is to raise the temperature in public buildings by a few degrees. There is NO reason for schools, airports, malls, city, county, and state buildings to be 70 degrees.
Rick Perry and TXU canceled about 5 (reliable) coal fired power plants and upped the (totally useless) windmill sourcing to about 10% of the state nominal generation capacity.
We say nominal (as in name plate) because those windmills will seldom produce a 10th of that amount, during peak load conditions.
I love when idiot leftists spout off about the evils of deregulation and turn a blind eye to what your messiah’s administration has done to make things worse. Pathetic.
By the way, factoring in inflation, our rates are a fraction of what they were in the 80s. I pay 9.8 cents a kWh right now. The 7.5 cents I paid in 1988 is the equivalent of 25 cents now. THANKS, REPUBLICANS!
@ nuffsaid500. Funny, I had no idea Rick Perry ran TXU…
It’s funny how the article overlooked the fact that the summer of ’11 was one for the record books when it comes to rainfall shortage and extreme highs which were probably the two biggest reasons why reserves dipped. besides, when prices go up, new (and cleaner) plants begin to get built. Supply and demand.
Don’t they teach anything in schools anymore?
Electricity was deregulated in 1995 as a part of Bill Clinton’s energy bill. Do some research on the Clinton-Enron ties and how energy deregulation happened and under who’s watch.
I am amazed at just how ignorant our society has become.
The answer to the energy crisis is tapping into the potential of Uranium’s cousin Thorium. (Video explaining throium as a nuclear fuel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9M__yYbsZ4).
We have enough of this stuff to power the ENTIRE PLANET for the next 1000 years. Also, it is about as prevalent in the ground as lead and this is really cheap.
For the same amount of energy you would need 60 million dollars worth of uranium, and $10,000 of Throium.
Oh and by the way, this technology has been around since the 60′s but has been suppressed due to hawkish government pushing for uranium (you can’t make bombs from thorium).
Also, the half life of the waste is thousands of years less. It burns 97% of the fuel (.1% for uranium) The LFTR plant design is PASSIVELY SAFE meaning we will NEVER have a meltdown.
Watch the video @ the link for more info.
Um Paul … Senate bill 7 started on January 1st 2002 . Now it was signed into law by W in the 90′s but it started 10 years ago . The money isn’t in the O&M it’s in the trading so who do you believe wanted that ? I’ll give you clue , it starts with an En and ends in ron . While we’re learning 90% of your cost to make electricity is fuel . Do you know what fuel your light bill is based on ? Dang wingnuts ain’t got no learnin .
Rep. Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, said he was stunned that Texas faces power shortages and surprised “that we were not better-prepared for this whole generation scarcity problem.”
“We’ve been bragging about plentiful power, reliable power, affordable power for years in Texas,” he said.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
How come the one guy, in a state run by Republicans, who speaks to the actual problem, is a Democrat?
They, the Republicans and other politicians who control Texas, have known about these problems for years.Yet they do nothing about them.
Why?
Because every time demand spikes, so does the profits.
This is exactly what Enron and Ken Lay did in 1990 in California :
Manipulate supply, thus increasing demand, and thus increasing profits.
It was illegal then, and it is still illegal now.
EPA is the main issue for natural gas power and we have 4 new nuclear plants just waiting to be built. 2 at Comanche Peak & 2 at South Texas…
Four million people moving to Tejas in the last 10 years during the ‘Texas Miracle” while we replaced some but did not add an equivelent amount of capacity to the system isn’t part of the problem, is it?