[fwdude]

I’ve been mulling over this problem for the last several days, and I have moderated on who is to blame on this whole fiasco. There is risk in every decision, including financial risk. Are electrical providers expected to invest many billions of dollars in a system to ward off a once in a century record breaking cold snap like this, passing that infrastructure investment to the end-users? Then we’d be complaining about that

It’s easy to be an arm-chair quarterback. Consider this investment. Science invents a hypothetical meteor-proof roof that will repel space rocks up to 2 meters in diameter, but it is going to cost you half a million dollars to buy and install. Are you going to do it, considering the very small likelihood of a meteorite hitting your house?

My only beef is with the dishonesty that’s been displayed. I would have been fine with an upfront admission that the power grid just wasn’t prepared for a,sub-zero event along with widespread freezing precipitation for so long, and that we’d likely experience prolonged power outages. Everything is a limited resource, if you are even marginally familiar with economics. Let’s not be like Democrats who think that health care just grows on the trees of an endless orchard, free for the picking.

[BipolarBob]

Are electrical providers expected to invest many billions of dollars in a system to ward off a once in a century record breaking cold snap like this, passing that infrastructure investment to the end-users?

The investment has already been made. Shutting down coal fired power plants that exceed EPA's very very strict standards make no sense when China build power plants with NO emission devices and their economy is kicking our butt and they have electricity when we don't. Volcanoes produce thousands of times more emissions than power plants. All it takes is someone to say NO to the EPA or we'll secede.