Important updated information at the end
ORIGINAL STORY
The DOE limits the amount of fossil fuels Texas is allowed to use. In emergencies, they can go to full capacity, but then the power companies can raise rates. The rates went up 10,000 times.
The federal government controls how Texas generates electricity if they exceed pollution limits. It wasn’t just about windmills. The DOE would not allow the power facilities to operate at full capacity until the emergency passed or the rates went up to pay for the pollution.
Texas isn’t part of the National Power Grid but they are not independent as one might have thought.
2/ Biden’s EPA refused Governor Abbott’s request and instead offered to allow certain power generation facilities a waiver if they raised the prices they charged to Texans to more than $1,500/MWh resulting in massive statewide power outages and a failure of the grid. pic.twitter.com/AW70kuwERW
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
4/ Gov. Abbott knew that if the EPA would allow our natural gas and coal power plants to operate at peak efficiency they could meet 110% of the demand the state faced last week. The EPA refused. pic.twitter.com/jBvkZkoF58
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
6/ My question? Why didn’t @GovAbbott simply order all Texas power generation facilities to operate at peak efficiency and force Biden to send his army to Texas to stop us? Does anyone think Biden would have sent the army to shut down our national gas power generation facilities? pic.twitter.com/T3JJkKcXWL
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
7/ SHOCK: President Biden refused @GovAbbott‘s request that he sign major disaster declarations for 177 Texas counties after refusing to allow Texas power plants to operate at 100% capacity during the polar vortex resulting in massive power outages. https://t.co/oSydD6zfxE
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
9/ CORRECTION: I used EPA instead of DOE in this thread. Also, to be clear the DOE refused Abbott’s request to allow power plants to operate at full capacity without charging at least $1500/MWh – a price that would have bankrupted the retail electric industry/consumers.
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
11/ While we lost much of our renewable supply (wind and solar) our natural gas and coal are required to operate at 60% capacity to reduce emissions. They CAN operate at 100% if they get a waiver from the federal government (as Abbott requested). Biden refused…
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
12/ This morning on the Sunday political TV shows Biden surrogates claimed that the power outages and the lives lost rest solely on @GregAbbott_TX. The media won’t look at evidence that the DOE refused the governor’s request to allow for additional power generation. Sick.
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
The worst part was the $1500 was a totally artificial price designed to deter use. It is all about reducing pollution. In a time of crisis let generators sell at normal prices…
— @amuse (@amuse) February 21, 2021
UPDATED INFORMATION
ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, did not weatherize the plants as they were supposed to and that was a big part of the problem. If they had the three coal plants recently closed down online, they would have had enough power.
Some Texans are getting $7,000 power bills. The Federal guidelines don’t allow for subsidies. That has to be addressed immediately.
We are waiting for a call back from ERCOT, but the latest information indicates that ERCOT first asked for the $1500 Mwh. The power companies were allowed to up the charges as demand increased. It doesn’t change the fact that these Green laws don’t have an escape clause when emergencies occur.
Business Insider reported:
Spiking bills won’t hit state residents who had fixed-rate electric plans. The problem for many comes from index or variable-rate plans, in which rates to power their home or business change with the price of the wholesale market. In good times, a customer’s bill can be lower than it might be otherwise — but if the cost to produce electricity skyrockets, so too do bills.
Last Monday, as freezing weather rolled through Texas and much of the US, the wholesale price of electricity shot up 10,000%. It went from about $50 per megawatt hour to $9,000 — a system cap, according to data provided by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the operator of Texas’ electric grid.
Some critics say ERCOT was asleep at the wheel. Watch the video below.
Watch for more information:
CORRECTION: UPDATED INFORMATION WAS ADDED AFTER PUBLICATION. THE PROBLEM IS COMPLICATED.
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