Cross-post 196 and NonCredibleDefense. Sh.itJustWorks
Imagine being a Texan trying to brag about having your own power grid, after dozens of people froze to death because of how shitty that power grid is.
this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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Or died due to heat stroke / exhaustion because of that same shitty power grid.
Why are you guys not connected to the rest of the US in the first place?
Because they ~~are so strong and independent~~ would rather funnel money into their own pockets than follow regulation to make sure people don't freeze to death in winter.
Not a Texan, but as I understand if a state connects to other states then there are federal regulations that need to be followed.
This is exactly it. Because ERCOT is fully contained within the state of Texas they don't have to follow any of the federal rules that would cover interstate connections in the Federal Power Act. The state can fully manage it without outside influence, and they've chosen to fully deregulate the entire market. Because fuck you it makes money.
Yep, a friend of mine there says he calls up different suppliers every year to shop for that year's current best price because they all regularly jack it up.
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Ah, freedom*!
- for some corporations to abuse the average Joe
Because we didn't want to follow federal regulations due to cost. Some of said regulations included winterizing measures. It was peak "leopards ate my face" material.
I don't brag about it. I fear each winter that it will happen again. Or that we will be woefully under prepared for natural disasters when they do strike.
There is no safe season in Texas. It gets tornadoes in Spring and hurricanes in Fall. And because every year is getting hotter and hotter, Summer in Texas is probably also gonna get pretty rough soon. And every time ERCOT struggles, the price of energy soars because of their bullshit predatory small print. I truly don't understand why anybody would choose to move to Texas these days.
Summer will get rough soon? Didn't we have two back to back years with heat dome dominated summers and people collapsing on the concrete? I distinctly remember being told by my job not to go outside due to extreme risk of heatstroke. It's already bad. If ercot can't handle winter now, they won't be able to handle summer as AC system loads spike higher and higher.
I have lived here for 31 years. I don't get the pride I'm supposed to have for being a native Texan. If I weren't trapped here by the economic forces pressing all Texans down, I would live somewhere with a functional government at least.
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Or that we will be woefully under prepared for natural disasters when they do strike.
Texas is always prepared to receive ~~handouts~~, I mean ~~welfare~~ I mean, their legitimate entitlements from the federal government.
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Hilariously, Texas is all about giving people the freedom to freeze to death with their substandard electrical service in the name of "freedom from government oppression", but they can't just let trans people decide to transition because it could be a mistake and they might regret it? All while supporting child labor where kids could get crushed or heinously injured in massive industrial equipments? Amazing.
It is definitely not a Texan. The choice of words and points they're hitting is very Russian.
I honestly can't tell if they're being satirical or not...
It is an actual Russian "divide and conquer" troll. A "warm water port" is exactly how you string that sentence together in Russian. A Texan would first of all call it a harbor (port is the word for it in Russian, so likely a direct translation), secondly wouldn't mention that at all, since an "ice port" isn't even a thing anywhere in the US, except for Alaska, and having an ice free one is nothing to brag about. In Russia it is a big deal and is a matter of national pride, hence the Crimea takeover. It's more than just land to them.
Ehm, warm water port is absolutely the correct term for it. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port
Also, a Texan with a bit of knowledge would absolutely call it a port, especially if they're talking about the Port of Houston, for example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Houston
I don't know where this guy is from, but maybe you should be slightly more cautious with your linguistic judgements.
My point was - "warm water port" (which is precisely тепловодный порт) is nothing to brag about in the US, most ports here are. But it has been a largely discussed point by Russians in Russia, and primarily has been mentioned by Putin as a point of pride for Russia, as they have only 2 of those in the country.
You've gotta agree, it is very odd to hear somebody who wouldn't have been exposed to Putin's speeches regarding the importance of "warm water ports" even mention it as a first point, especially being from Texas. Every port up and down East and West coast is a "warm water port".
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No Texans call it a “warm water port”. Definitely a port, but the warm water part of this is mega strange.
Alright, I'll bite.
I grew up in Oklahoma and Texas. Didn't move to Tennessee until my 20s. No, we would not call it "warm water port." I've literally never seen anything bigger than a pond with ice on it. Why would it occur to me to mention it's warmth?
And where I'm from a sentence like "be slightly more cautious with your linguistic judgements" is the kind of pretentious nonsense that gets you disinvited from the barbecue so I recommend being slightly more cautious your own damn self.
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"warm water port" is a term I exclusively associate with Russia, because the only time it was ever mentioned for me was in a world history class, talking about Russian expansion to secure one.
While "port" might be a normal word, the phrase is a key to know where it comes from.
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It is very a arctic way of speaking/writing. "Isfrie havner" (ice free ports) is a norwegian way of saying "warm water port"
It's real, unfortunately it's working as well as there is a massive portion of west that bites into this shit. I mean look at Orban or any alt right Republicans in states.
What's a warm water port?
A port that doesn't freeze in winter.
So, essentially, 99% of all port cities?
Depends. Most Baltic ports are not warm water, and Midwestern port cities on the Great Lakes freeze. A lot of ports on the Korean peninsula and northern Japan also freeze over. They obviously aren't the important ports like Rotterdam, LA, or Singapore, but they are vital to local economies, especially if it's your only port.
The great lakes didn't do much freezing this year
They sure didn't, but i was down at Marblehead this weekend and there was still plenty of ice build up along the shore. Not sure how things looked on the upper lakes, but that is where most of the Great Lakes shipping originates from these days.
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That's why those cities built ports.
That's why those ports matter.
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Ooohhh. I can see why that would matter.
Vancouver then.
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This is how the capitalists & oil barons will sell your government on Global Warming like: “actually it’s a good thing the world is warming”
The interesting thing is that Russia already has two ice free ports on the Western side of the country: Kaliningrad in the Baltics and Novorossisk in the Black Sea, just East of the Crimean peninsula. There's no real need for another port in Sevastopol. And on the Pacific they've got Vladivostok and much of the Kamchatka peninsula.
Sevastopol helps them keep firm presence on the Black Sea and from that the Mediterranean so long as Turkey allows them through the Bosporus and Dardanelles to the Aegean. They don’t want their presence being dependent on Crimea’s holding
Too bad they messed that up by invading Ukraine. Russia had a lease on Sevastopol up through 2042, now they'll be lucky to keep it for the next 5 years.
iirc the Novorossisk port is kind of bad, right?
Regardless, Baltic Sea access isn't super great when you're entirely choked out by Denmark for access to the Atlantic. Same goes for Black Sea and access to the open seas - Turkey and arguably also Spain/UK block several times on the way.
The Pacific ones freeze over and are kind of blocked by Japan, essentially.
It's going to be interesting to see how much Russia's geopolitical position improves from rising global temperatures - if their pacific ports become ice-free, then that changes the game quite a bit.
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Kaliningrad is an exclave and not connected to the rest of Russia. Good relations with Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus is the only thing thay allows goods to pass through Kaliningrad. Sevastopol is a superior port to Novorossisk for many reasons, but the biggest one is the crntral location in the Black Sea. The Black Sea Fleet can quickly deploy anywhere in the Black Sea from Sevastopol.
Vladivostok and the Kamchatka usually get iced in during the winter as arctic sea ice moves way down to the Japanese islands. Obviously that is becoming less and less of an issue, but that's why Russia claims the Kuril islands.
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Having nearly died experiencing that power grid first hand, and their only two state exports of Bucees and Whataburger being picked up in other states, it's not looking good
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