Because we can! ;o)
Posted on 08/19/2003 7:51:15 AM PDT by new cruelty
Blackout postmortems have noted that America's electricity system consists of just three regions—the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection, and the Texas Interconnection. Why does the Lone Star State have its own power grid?
Partly because of a historical desire for self-sufficiency and partly because of that famous "Don't Mess With Texas!" attitude. The majority of the state's residents live within the region regulated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, an "island" that generates and supplies all its own electricity—unlike, say, New York City or Detroit, whose residents found out the hard way that lots of their power comes from Canada. (A small sliver of Western Texas gets its juice from the Western Interconnection, while a few customers in the north and the east are hooked into the Eastern Interconnection. Still, ERCOT handles 85 percent of the state's electricity needs.)
The local utilities that comprise ERCOT have pledged not to sell their power to interstate customers. As a result, the interconnection is exempt from most regulation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Beltway agency that governs the transmission of electricity from state to state—say, by mandating transmission standards, or requiring that prices be listed in public forums. ERCOT's resistance to federal regulation plays well in President Bush's native land, where meddling from Washington, D.C., is generally abhorred.
The isolation of the Texas grid also has roots in World War II, when ERCOT's precursor, the Texas Interconnected System, was created. At the time, the state was home to several factories vital to the war effort. The state's electricity planners—anxious to keep the assembly lines running and concerned about the reliability of the power supply—felt that a Texas-only system would be more dependable than one that harnessed electricity from distant states. Texas' isolated arrangement worked largely because of the state's abundance of homegrown natural resources, particularly coal (Texas currently ranks fifth in annual production) and gas (first, with 24 percent of the nation's proven reserves).
There has been relatively little agitation to integrate ERCOT into the national systems, primarily because Texas doesn't really need the help. The state uses more electricity than any other, 44 percent more than runner-up California. Much of this is used by industrial customers such as petrochemical plants and oil refineries. Despite Texas' massive thirst for electricity, ERCOT has been able to provide cheap power with few service hiccups. In fact, Texas electricity is cheaper, per kilowatt hour, than the national average.
Because we can! ;o)
I just recently sold a house and moved from Marshall where there are huge lignite mines all around the area. It was quite surprising to me when we first moved there in 1990.
Ignorance, thy name is Willie Green.
NAFTA came from Washington, not Texas. Texans have little use for that cesspool to the south, other than a fine place to import yard workers from.
Enron energy trading was ironically enough, a product of California democrats. Notice Texas has no power problems and did deregulation right.
I used to work for Texas Utilities (now TXU). The cutting of the cable in the middle of the night was carried out by a TU crew at the direction of the then-president of Texas Utilities. At his direction the broken cable was cut into small sections, each was encased in lucite and then handed out to politicians and competitors as paperweights. I have always thought this was a perfect "Texas" true story.
If this action had not been taken two things would have happened: 1. Utilities in the State of Texas would have come under federal regulation, and 2. The sources of fuel for Texas powerplants (coal and natural gas) would also have come under federal regulation. As a Texan I see nothing good about either result.
Near Mt. Pleasant, home of RINO Tx Senator Ratliff, this mining has been going on for about 25 years. It is fascinating to see those huge draglines digging the coal, and to know that they are still in that same area after all this time.
As a better idea, lets replicate what Texas did across the country and break the supergrids up into state sized pieces and build more poweer plants. (preferable nukes). That way we put and end to the FERC and we get more clean power. Each state supplies for itself.
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.