[nascarnation]

Since Texas would keep fracking going full speed, and also having large reserves of coal, I think they would not only be self sufficient in power, but able to make a lot of money selling to the USA which will be crippled by the UN carbon crusade.

[Hootowl99]

You're certainly correct that Texas has enormous energy capacity online and in reserve undeveloped. They're covered via oil, gas and refining and I think it's 2 nuc generating plants in the state. I think Texas is self sufficient in energy generation but don't have any information to verify this.

Coal is a non-factor as a short term source for anything much more than a coal burning stove. There are significant lignite reserves in NE Texas but production was stopped when power plants were switched from coal to natural gas. This started in the 1980s. The strategy was to construct a coal fired power plant in the middle of a lignite deposit then strip mine around the plant and haul lignite overland to the plant. After strip mining, the restored land was absolutely beautiful with rolling hills, grasses and trees. Cow paradise. When the lignite hauling distance became too great based on economics, the power plant was decommissioned and demolished. The lignite in Texas is pretty dirty with high amounts of sulfur and the flue gas scrubbing technology back in the day was a nightmare to operate.

The first pilot plant I operated washed lignite to remove free dirt, which is where most of the sulfur is tied up. After blowing through a million $$$ of equipment destroying it, I learned the value of heavy and expensive industrial grade equipment instead of lesser equipment made to a low price point. Glad I wasn't the person that specified the cheap stuff. This is called learning from someone else’s mistakes instead of your own.