Posted on 02/20/2021 4:12:59 AM PST by Kaslin
How would your family, and a hundred thousand other families, like to be stuck in your cars for days at minus 16 degrees?
The death toll would be huge. It almost happened in New England in 1989.
And in Texas this week.
I was part of the 1989 Freeze and have some hopefully interesting insights.
In 1989, the weather just before Christmas was terrible. Cold temperature records were set from Texas to New England.
That year, I was responsible for a midcontinent gas gathering system that normally produced about 500 million cubic feet (MMCFD) of natural gas a day. That could supply up to 2 million New England homes. During the 1989 Freeze, we produced 30 MMCFD, roughly a 95% decline. Similar results were happening throughout the Oil Patch. Supply cratered.
Meanwhile, demand for natural gas was exploding, almost literally (more on that below). While the midcontinent temperatures were low enough to freeze gas wells, New England had dangerous arctic temperatures of minus 16 degrees. This created huge natural gas demand for home heating in a major New England town.
The city ultimately weathered that crisis through luck.
Several years later, I was fortunate enough to get to know some of the city's gas utility personnel who were operating the gas grid during the Freeze. They gave me invaluable insights into what really happened. (I promised the operators I would not name the city.)
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
It wasn't just "wind power".
It was how "wind power" was installed and used, without sufficient excess power in other forms available.
The lack of excess power has been directly caused by the greens insistence on not building power lines, on not building more fossil fuel or nuclear plant, on shutting down existing plant as more wind power was built.
He blames “wind power” for the Texas debacle even though he had just gone to such great lengths to explain the details of a very similar situation more than 30 years ago THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH WIND POWER.
Very interesting.
The way I understand it, that it was freezing cold and very windy , so that the turbines froze and wouldn’t move. Well that’s one part anyway.
It should be a cautionary tale for all Freepers.
Have a back up generator and a back up plan.
If I’m understanding the article correctly, it sounds like NATURAL GAS was the bigger problem. In particular, the use of natural gas for both home heating and for electrical power generation is what caused the 1989 situation he describes.
From all I’ve seen, if they just would’ve spent a few billions before and winterized the wind/gas, it would’ve been fine. Now they’re going to be paying many many multiples more to do it now. All at once and with massive repair bills from the damages as well.
Utilities and homeowner/renter insurance cost are going to be a the lasting thing.
The vulnerability of the power “system” was well documented several years ago. I’ve read the articles. There was no excuse for not preparing (preppers aside - they are the only ones who DO prepare!!!).
Gas for both heating and electricity is a single point of failure.
I’m starting to see the merit of the oil furnace with a big oil tank. You are not at the mercy of some centralized infrastructure.
Good article. Some very bright people working in 1989.. how many affirmative hires would be able to figure out the domino effect killing even more people? Nothing to with race but, This is why you hire based on intellegence, work ethic and aptitude, not skin color.
It’s sort of like what would happen if everyone in Texas flushed their toilets at the same time. The system isn’t designed to handle a dramatic drop in water pressure like that.
“If I’m understanding the article correctly, it sounds like NATURAL GAS was the bigger problem.”
Yes, the author conflated apples and oranges, although there are some parallels. The bigger issue in the time frame he cited was the natural gas market was just coming out of a long period of being regulated at the federal level. The full effect of a free and open market had not been seen yet. Article here: https://fee.org/articles/deregulation-of-the-natural-gas-industry/
Which sounds great unless you are one of the vast majority of oil heat users who have an electric ignition on the oil burner that stops working during a blackout.
So many have moved in that the grid is like eggshells as it is. There has to be a massive push to get more plants (I hope some nuclear) pretty quick. The standard of living in TX is gonna go down a lot, and I sure hope that gets a lot of the liberals and illegals to bolt.
Did the Biden acting Energy Secretary refuse to allow an increase in gas/coal power plant electricity production?
Wood burning stoves are nice as well.
Oil furnace and large oil tank are useless without power to run it.
People new a big freeze was coming so you plan ahead.
I get the feeling that a significant number of people wish to prep for stylishly themed survival scenarios.
Here’s something to consider... on a globalor national scale catastrophic event, only the poorest nations will manage the disaster well. Why? They already know how to survive with very little as they live it daily.
The takeaway? Learn more primative tech.
These enormous gas, electricity, and water grids are a national safety threat.
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