You are right that Minnesota has approached this more rationally than Texas. First hand, since I live in TX and almost lost 2 family members to that cold snap. Texas politicians are currently a unique brand of stupid, and I try to vote them out each election cycle.
What you describe to have happened in Minnesota is new info to me. The …
You are right that Minnesota has approached this more rationally than Texas. First hand, since I live in TX and almost lost 2 family members to that cold snap. Texas politicians are currently a unique brand of stupid, and I try to vote them out each election cycle.
What you describe to have happened in Minnesota is new info to me. The politics thee are different, obviously. Why haven't those successes been exported to other states?
Jerry, read more. Please don't assume that Texas is the norm. It is regarded as well behind the curve.
Vermont produces more electricity than we use and exports the excess. Because much of what we currently produce is solar, and because we are part of a regional grid, at night we get largely hydroelectric power from the regional grid. Not all of it is hydro, though, so we end up unfortunately using electricity still produced by gas. One of the solutions: my electrical utility is actively working to build up a network of batteries located in homes and businesses to absorb that daytime excess for nighttime use. Various organizations join together to create publicly owned non-profit energy production. This is a just one example. I grew up in the Pac NW and both WA & OR have made huge strides to both reduce use of electricity and are well-along in changing to wind and solar power. Almost every week we hear more of these stories.
The people with power in some states are not so willing to make those moves. But at this point, I think there are some projects programs in place in every states, and many have regional compacts. A great many small projects are done at the community level, in every state.
It's just that we lost a lot of time through the willful ignorance and greed of people who held power. As others have pointed out, every region in the country had offices dedicated to research and development of reducing dependence on oil and other non-sustainable energy sources. We were on our way to sane environmental practices. I should add that this as also the era in which social goods were also being focused on. Reagan dismantled it all within 3 months of taking office. But our situation would be much worse if many states had not kept going, and if NGOs and individuals hadn't kept working on those issues. Because of them, we still have a chance.
It's clear you care. But it is also clear you are not aware of what has been going on for decades in states other than Texas. There are entire publications devoted to that kind of information. There are books. There are organizations (350.org comes to mind, but that is only one) who are actively working to inform, educate, organize, lobby, create.
We need you. TEXAS needs you. You have an opportunity to become a nexus of folks who want to work on things like this.
Jerry, Dr. James Hansen, the former head of the Goddard Space Center of NASA testified about the dangers of climate change in front of Congress in 1988. Not long thereafter, several national energy related agencies including the EPA, developed more stringent standards for electricity generation and included temporary, minimal incentives to developers of renewable (more about wind at that time). Taking advantage of the money and tax benefits, Texas utilized those incentives and produced more wind-generated electricity than any other state. Iowa was a close second. Farmers and ranchers could generate passive income in their fields - wind above, crops or cattle on the ground. When those incentives were dropped from the budget (by intense lobbying from the oil industry) renewable energy generation floundered. It takes big picture policy, at the federal level, to push everyone in the same direction. Incentives were critical.
Here in MN, several key individuals understood that it takes good policy to even out the playing field. Texas has oil and gas. We have wind and sun. Oil is a finite resource as well as having toxic side effects. Wind and sun are endless (if a bit more fickle). In order to keep the standard of living high, in order to keep the lights on, in order to protect the climate (agriculture is still the number one industry in MN), policy makers figured we needed to transition to renewables. Texas Republicans made the choice for oil and gas - knowing the risks.
there was bipartisan support for the RES. Perhaps it was the incentives/tax breaks for those who built it. In part, Xcel Energy, the biggest utility in MN, made the business decision that renewables were the future. Hard to bust through that in Texas, especially with George Bush as president and the oil companies lining the pockets of so many politicians nationally.
Texas has access to plenty of reasonable policy ideas regarding renewable energy. Oil $$ stand in the way.
Thanks again, Sheila B. It does put Reagan's "government is the problem" mantra in a clearer light, doesn't it? And the point you made here and elsewhere about some states and regions taking the lead on the transition is so important.
Not just oil money. A decades-long disinformation campaign amply covered by Dr. Richardson in many other posts. Enough of Texans have swallowed the b.s. whole, with local beer, that it will take more effort to turn this potentially great state Blue.
The better question is "Why haven't those successes been *imported by* other states?" And you've pretty well answered it as far as Texas is concerned, although I'm guessing that oil has at least something to do with the stupidity.
My state government (MA) is nothing to write home about, but like other states we're working on our own solutions based on our own resources. (Wind is big here too, and since we've got a lot of coastline it's hard to ignore sea-level rise or what's happening to the fisheries.)
You are right that Minnesota has approached this more rationally than Texas. First hand, since I live in TX and almost lost 2 family members to that cold snap. Texas politicians are currently a unique brand of stupid, and I try to vote them out each election cycle.
What you describe to have happened in Minnesota is new info to me. The politics thee are different, obviously. Why haven't those successes been exported to other states?
Jerry, read more. Please don't assume that Texas is the norm. It is regarded as well behind the curve.
Vermont produces more electricity than we use and exports the excess. Because much of what we currently produce is solar, and because we are part of a regional grid, at night we get largely hydroelectric power from the regional grid. Not all of it is hydro, though, so we end up unfortunately using electricity still produced by gas. One of the solutions: my electrical utility is actively working to build up a network of batteries located in homes and businesses to absorb that daytime excess for nighttime use. Various organizations join together to create publicly owned non-profit energy production. This is a just one example. I grew up in the Pac NW and both WA & OR have made huge strides to both reduce use of electricity and are well-along in changing to wind and solar power. Almost every week we hear more of these stories.
The people with power in some states are not so willing to make those moves. But at this point, I think there are some projects programs in place in every states, and many have regional compacts. A great many small projects are done at the community level, in every state.
It's just that we lost a lot of time through the willful ignorance and greed of people who held power. As others have pointed out, every region in the country had offices dedicated to research and development of reducing dependence on oil and other non-sustainable energy sources. We were on our way to sane environmental practices. I should add that this as also the era in which social goods were also being focused on. Reagan dismantled it all within 3 months of taking office. But our situation would be much worse if many states had not kept going, and if NGOs and individuals hadn't kept working on those issues. Because of them, we still have a chance.
It's clear you care. But it is also clear you are not aware of what has been going on for decades in states other than Texas. There are entire publications devoted to that kind of information. There are books. There are organizations (350.org comes to mind, but that is only one) who are actively working to inform, educate, organize, lobby, create.
We need you. TEXAS needs you. You have an opportunity to become a nexus of folks who want to work on things like this.
Thank you. I will read more.
Jerry, Dr. James Hansen, the former head of the Goddard Space Center of NASA testified about the dangers of climate change in front of Congress in 1988. Not long thereafter, several national energy related agencies including the EPA, developed more stringent standards for electricity generation and included temporary, minimal incentives to developers of renewable (more about wind at that time). Taking advantage of the money and tax benefits, Texas utilized those incentives and produced more wind-generated electricity than any other state. Iowa was a close second. Farmers and ranchers could generate passive income in their fields - wind above, crops or cattle on the ground. When those incentives were dropped from the budget (by intense lobbying from the oil industry) renewable energy generation floundered. It takes big picture policy, at the federal level, to push everyone in the same direction. Incentives were critical.
Here in MN, several key individuals understood that it takes good policy to even out the playing field. Texas has oil and gas. We have wind and sun. Oil is a finite resource as well as having toxic side effects. Wind and sun are endless (if a bit more fickle). In order to keep the standard of living high, in order to keep the lights on, in order to protect the climate (agriculture is still the number one industry in MN), policy makers figured we needed to transition to renewables. Texas Republicans made the choice for oil and gas - knowing the risks.
there was bipartisan support for the RES. Perhaps it was the incentives/tax breaks for those who built it. In part, Xcel Energy, the biggest utility in MN, made the business decision that renewables were the future. Hard to bust through that in Texas, especially with George Bush as president and the oil companies lining the pockets of so many politicians nationally.
Texas has access to plenty of reasonable policy ideas regarding renewable energy. Oil $$ stand in the way.
Thanks again, Sheila B. It does put Reagan's "government is the problem" mantra in a clearer light, doesn't it? And the point you made here and elsewhere about some states and regions taking the lead on the transition is so important.
Not just oil money. A decades-long disinformation campaign amply covered by Dr. Richardson in many other posts. Enough of Texans have swallowed the b.s. whole, with local beer, that it will take more effort to turn this potentially great state Blue.
The better question is "Why haven't those successes been *imported by* other states?" And you've pretty well answered it as far as Texas is concerned, although I'm guessing that oil has at least something to do with the stupidity.
My state government (MA) is nothing to write home about, but like other states we're working on our own solutions based on our own resources. (Wind is big here too, and since we've got a lot of coastline it's hard to ignore sea-level rise or what's happening to the fisheries.)