Posted on 02/21/2021 12:24:12 PM PST by USA Conservative
President Joe Biden declared a major disaster for only 77 of Texas’ 254 counties in order to focus on the “hardest hit” parts of the state, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday.
Biden’s disaster declaration, issued last Friday, offers much less than what Texas officials had requested.
Gov. Greg Abbott had asked for a declaration that covered the entire state, as Texans reel from a winter storm that knocked out power and heat across the state, and left millions without safe drinking water.
The declaration Biden signed late Friday covers much of the Texas population, including Dallas and neighboring counties, and the counties that include Houston, San Antonio and Austin. But it falls far short of what Texas officials sought. The assistance can include grants for temporary housing, home repairs, and low-cost loans.
“This partial approval is an important first step,” Abbott said on Saturday.
Biden signed it late Friday, after telling reporters earlier that he would do so as soon as the Federal Emergency Management Agency put the request on his desk. The White House and FEMA offered no explanation for withholding the major disaster declaration from the rest of Texas.
“I thank President Biden for his assistance as we respond to impacts of winter weather across our state,” Abbott said in a statement. “Texas will continue to work with our federal partners to ensure all eligible Texans have access to the relief they need. The funds provided under the Major Disaster Declaration may provide crucial assistance to Texans as they begin to repair their homes and address property damage.”
If President Trump had refused to provide disaster relief for 177 counties the Texas Tribune would be in each county sharing the stories of average Texans struggling to stay warm, feed their families, and pay their bills. Since Biden refused to provide relief: silence.
This news comes after Biden’s administration didn’t allow Texas power plants to operate at 100% capacity during the polar vortex resulting in massive power outages.
Biden’s DOE 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.
Images below:
The truth is that the federal government controls how Texas generates electricity – the mix of sources and the capacity of each. The DOE requires that Texas’ fossil fuel power generators operate far below their maximum output.
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.
Sadly, Biden’s acting EPA chief, David Huizenga, is not an expert at power generation but instead an expert with nuclear waste management. When Gov. Abbott received the EPA’s refusal he knew Texas was in trouble and there was nothing he could do about it.
To put the DOE’s actions in context their demand that generators sell their additional capacity at $1500/MWh is like telling gas stations they can sell gas to consumers at $1500/gallon – it was a price so high it was basically saying, “no, you can’t increase capacity”
While Texas lost much of our renewable supply (wind and solar) Texas 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 but Biden refused.
Yup, Abbott should NOT have asked for permission.
“I don’t think it is that simple. I would bet the restrictions are laws and regulations tied to environmental issues. Those generally have very serious penalties for non-compliance. Huge fines, lawsuits, possible impact on licenses, tied to federal funding”
You are correct, without the waiver provided by the DOE, the generating facilities would have been liable for violations of their permits, which at least under the CAA and open to fines, lawsuits, etc.
I think people are missing that the DOE did what was asked by ERCOT, and used their authority under the FPA to waive the emission and effluent limits during emergency conditions. That always comes with only while needed language and reporting etc. all the utilities can handle that easy because they are expert at government paperwork.
The odd thing is the $/MWhr minimum requirement, but if I had to guess it was to create a floor in prices for those units to motivate getting compliant resources on line as soon as possible. Scarcity pricing was well above that at times. It doesn’t harm the generator - they can’t accept less than that.
Sometimes you have to follow the stupid rules. The little people suffer and die. For the elitists like Biden, it’s too bad for those poor shlups who froze to death or for those who will die from complications from some illness that was compounded by Biden’s callous disregard for humanity.
Liberals do not care about life. They care about their own lives. They walk over dead bodies in their quest for power and money. (see George Floyd among others)
That would have been a good response.
Hey give him a break. He probably doesn’t remember what he signed. His chief of staff probably told him it was an oatmeal requisition for the WH kitchen. /s
There is a solution for this type of tyranny.
Secession.
"Article I, Section 8, Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;"
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
In other words, since the states have never expressly constitutionally given the feds the specific power to dictate INTRAstate policy for either environmental protection or energy, the constitutionally undefined EPA and Energy Departments shouldn’t exist unless Constitution is appropriately amended imo.
And even if the post-17th Amendment ratification feds weren’t regularly stealing state revenues by means of unconstitutional federal taxes, taxes that Congress cannot justify under its very limited constitutionally enumerated powers, then Texas would have its own cookie jar funds to rebuild Texas after a natural disaster without needing "federal" dollars based on unconstitutional taxes.
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
H O W E V E R…
Texas wouldn’t need to tap its cookie jar since there is no constitutionally enumerated federal powers that can be used to stop Texas, or any states, from using its resources to stay warm and dry regardless of winter storm.
Sadly, it remains that a combination of politically correct, institutionally indoctrinated social Darwinism, along with post-17th Amendment ratification federal government overreach, has once again trumped 10th Amendment-protected state powers.
Just who is really calling the shots in the White House?
Susan Rice and her ChiCom buddies.
My county isn’t on it, and it is right next to two that did. Also, it is more populous than one of those two that did.
Gillespie is rural. It got relief in the declaration
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3936611/posts
They were but because the solar and wind generation facilities would not/could not operate at peak, the traditional power generation plants were on such overload /drain they were at a critical tipping point where they could have gone into a massive uncontrolled blackout situation.
This video above explains from and engineering and public policy perspective what happened and the big picture cause of why we got into that state.
Exactly
Does that one example make what I said wrong?
Here’s article from where I live:
SAN ANGELO, TX — President Joe Biden is accused of turning his back on rural Texas including all of the counties in the Concho Valley. Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for all 254 counties because of the historic and devastating storm that started Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. Friday, Feb. 19, was the first time temperatures rose above the freezing level.
The combination of the freezing temperatures and the failure of the Texas electric power grid disrupted commerce, caused destruction of water distribution systems, and other temperature-sensitive infrastructure.
President Joe Biden announced that not all counties are included in all of his emergency declaration. Of the 254 counties in Texas, only 77 counties were listed in the Biden administration’s FEMA declaration and eligible for all assistance under FEMA’s disaster recovery programs. All of the counties in and near the Permian Basin in west Texas aren’t the list.
“We will continue to pursue financial assistance at all levels,” Mayor Brenda Gunter said at a press conference Saturday, Feb. 20. State Rep. Drew Darby, who represents District 72 from San Angelo to Big Spring, wanted the full assistance.
“I strongly urge the Biden administration to quickly remedy this decision and allow deployment of resources to all west Texas counties impacted by the recent devastation. West Texas is a significant producer for our state, and home to critical oil and natural gas and agricultural operations. Our people are hurting and need equal access to federal funding to help us recover,” Darby said.
Being left out of the entire FEMA declaration denies specific federal assistance to homeowners, small businesses hurt by the weather, and to municipalities and county governments. This federal assistance includes grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other federal programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.
Congressman August Pfluger represents 29 counties in Texas from Granbury to the Permian Basin. This afternoon, he clarified that all counties in his district except Hood where Granbury is were left out of FEMA’s individual assistance programs.
John Austin Stokes, director of the Concho Valley Council of Governments, urged homeowners and business owners in the Concho Valley to tell the Texas Department of Emergency Management about the impact of the winter storm. He said this will help the State of Texas compile a data argument for President Biden as to why all of his disaster declaration should be extended to the counties around San Angelo. If you live in the Concho Valley counties of Tom Green, Irion, Crockett, Reagan, Sterling, Coke, Concho, McCulloch, Menard, Kimball, Sutton, and Scheicher, Stokes urges you to fill out his survey form.
Inside the city of San Angelo, with a population just over 100,000 people, the immediate crisis is the absence of drinkable water. Mayor Gunter said, “We just want the water purchased or donated to provide relief to our citizens.”
There are 27 semi truckloads of water inbound to San Angelo Saturday afternoon. Gunter said this is only 20 percent of the City of San Angelo’s requested amount. The City is also distributing non-potable water — up to 30 gallons per person — for flushing of toilets and any other use that does not include human consumption. Citizens must provide their own water pails to obtain it.
Doesn’t Texas have some “Emergency” work to regarding Utilities? Maybe the Water, Sewer and Electrical lines going to ANY Federal Property gets accidentally Capped Off Permanently during the work.
“Figures...all RAT areas...and that’s not on purpose? “
False, rat areas yes, power on no. I’m in Dallas and we had 6 hours a day 3 hours at a time since last Sunday through Thursday. Also lost tv and internet which actually wasn’t so bad. People who live on police, fire and hospital grids did not lose power. I’m not one of them, it was miserable.
My daughter & her family lives in Wichita Falls...she was ok power-wise when others were not. No idea why.
She is about 8 miles from the Air Force base and a couple of miles from a College. I'm guessing she wasn't part of either grid...if there was one.
Hope your damage was minimal.
FreeRegards.
Looks like he’s only helping the blue areas of the state.🤔
Exactly.
Leadership 101.
Mr President the lives of the people of Texas were in jeopardy. I gave the order. And????
“It would be interesting who told Biden to do this?”
I agree, I want to know who is really running the White House, and calling the shots,
(Note: there was a post here called something like ‘Who is behind Biden’) I tried to locate it and bump the thread but cant find it now? Tried searching with different key words? and still nothing,
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.