“Ethical Markets highly recommends this clear background accounting for what really happened to the Independent electricity grid in Texas, a lesson on relying on politicians who do not believe in government! This is yet another market failure, along with political failures now risking turning Texas into a failed state. Surely, we have seen enough of “market fundamentalism” and the massive market failures of climate change, Covid 19 and the global food system to face up to the truth:
Markets and money are both great inventions and these tools have been used by humans for centuries in local communities. They can be effective at larger scales, but only if well-regulated and subservient to the older “Golden Rule” transactions and ethics re-enacted to govern all larger communities, see my “Fixing The Money Meme: How it Limits Our Freedom and Life Choices”. In this tragic Texas case, just follow the money!
~Hazel Henderson, Editor“
WINTER STORM 2021
Officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said that grid operators implemented blackouts to avoid a catastrophic failure that could have left Texans in the dark for months.
BY ERIN DOUGLAS
Texans may hate grid operators for rolling blackouts, but the operators had no option. Energy supply always has to equal demand. If not, really bad things happen.
“The worst case scenario: Demand for power outstrips the supply of power generation available on the grid, causing equipment to catch fire, substations to blow and power lines to go down.”
We need a national grid that is tied together with an interstate-like network of buried HVDC power lines. We already have a huge buried infrastructure, making us reliant on fossil fuels. Keystone XL is a well-publicized but relatively tiny fragment. I have natural gas…do you?
Buried HVDC doesn’t leak and for long distances (over 250 miles) it is far more efficient than the HVAC system which dominates the highly fragmented, Balkanized excuse we call the US power grid.
The following article is from 2018. Other than coming within an eyelash of destroying the Texas electrical system, not much has been done. Oh yes, I almost forgot about the party of Trump and the US Senate incumbency rate exceeding 90%. Electrically speaking, I see a connection: