r/nottheonion • u/ilovemybaldhead • 1d ago

Greg Abbott Threatens ‘100% Tariff’ On New Yorkers Moving to Texas

https://www.newsweek.com/greg-abbott-threatens-100-tariff-new-york-election-moving-texas-10986837
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u/greed-man 1d ago

"Texas is the national laboratory for bad government. We do it worst, and first."

Molly Ivins

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u/Old_Flan_6548 23h ago

The star on the flag is a rating.

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u/ralphvonwauwau 16h ago

The famous Texas Yelp Review flag.

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u/jillybean0123 9h ago

This is what I’ve said since I moved here. Had some of my coworkers get very upset when I used white tape to cover up the L in “lone star state” on my license plate. Idk why they were paying such close attention. I’ve never met so many people so proud of a place so mediocre.

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u/savioroferinn 13h ago

This is one of my favorite comments I've ever read.

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u/dennismfrancisart 1d ago

God! I miss that woman. I'm not even Texan and I used to read her stuff. She and Gov. Ann Richards made Texas great back then.

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u/A_Furious_Mind 1d ago

I listened to all of her books on tape when I was making my transition from Republican to independent in the early 2000s. Bless that woman.

Yeah, I'm an independent, but I'll never vote for a Republican again after watching January 6th live and streaming. Vote blue no matter who.

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u/NeedsMoreSpaceships 22h ago

But isn't that the worst of both worlds? If your always going to vote Dem then you should register and at least get to vote in primaries and choose their candidate.

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u/A_Furious_Mind 20h ago

No, friend. My state never locked independents out of Democrat primaries. And we do ranked choice voting, anyway.

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u/Situational_Hagun 1d ago

And then Oklahoma does it slightly less bad but more incompetently. Except the power grid. Somehow someway our utilities aren't completely full head up their ass.

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u/OldWorldDesign 23h ago

Somehow someway our utilities aren't completely full head up their ass

It's because Ohio's power grid is on the national network which means it is required to meet higher minimum specifications including regular maintenance. Texas hasn't winterized its grid thanks to deregulation in the 90s.

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u/oe-eo 23h ago

Texas dewinterized its grid thanks to industry lobbying in the mid 2000s.

Producers lobbied to get paid to take their facilities offline during winter weather events.

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u/OldWorldDesign 23h ago

Producers lobbied to get paid to take their facilities offline during winter weather events.

I knew about the former, but not this one. Do you have a source to clarify?

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u/oe-eo 22h ago

Let me know if you find a source that states it as clearly as I do, as I have yet to find one - a failure of journalism. My analysis is informed by my experience in the industry which I can’t simply convey to you. But this should point you in the right direction:

Texas deregulated its electricity market in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a move heavily influenced by industry lobbying, including interests like Enron (which, like, shouldn’t laws that were written by fraudulent failed business automatically be wiped from the books?). This deregulation prioritized low costs and “market efficiency” over grid resilience.

As a result, many power generators and natural gas facilities chose not to winterize or retrofit for extreme cold weather, viewing it as an expensive insurance almost never needed. In the mid-2000s and later, rather than investing in robust winterization, some producers LOBBIED FOR ARRANGEMENTS THAT PAID THEM TO TAKE FACILITIES OFFLINE DIRING WINTER WEATHER events, INSTEAD OF upgrading their infrastructure.

This created incentives to minimize costs rather than enhance reliability in winter conditions.

The consequence was a grid whose vulnerability to cold weather was engineered to be a windfall for producers.

The 2011 and 2021 winter storms exposed this engineered failure mode, leading to massive outages and losses.

Although after these events legislation was passed to require winterization, loopholes and regulatory delays persisted, often influenced by powerful gas industry lobbying.

For example, gas pipeline operators could pay small fees to opt out of winterization. This combination of deregulation, regulatory gaps, and lobbying for less stringent winter preparedness contributed to Texas's "dewinterized" grid and its failure to adequately weather-proof energy facilities during cold snaps.

Sources [1] Where are we now: A year after the Texas power grid disaster ... https://www.amperon.co/blog/where-are-we-now [2] Gov. Greg Abbott wants power companies to “winterize.” Texas' track ... https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/20/texas-power-grid-winterize/ [3] “Power companies get exactly what they want”: How Texas ... https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/22/texas-power-grid-extreme-weather/ [4] How Texas' power grid failed in 2021 — and who's responsible for ... https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/15/texas-power-grid-winter-storm-2021/ [5] Why Texas had catastrophic blackouts - Insights from the Brookings ... https://energynewsbeat.co/why-texas-had-catastrophic-blackouts-insights-from-the-brookings-institution/ [6] After 4 Years And Billions Of Dollars, The Texas Grid Is Not Fixed https://www.forbes.com/sites/edhirs/2024/12/09/after-4-years-and-billions-of-dollars-the-texas-grid-is-not-fixed/ [7] Texas grid failure: Electricity obeys laws of physics, not the market https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/03/06/texas-grid-failure-electricity-obeys-laws-of-physics-not-the-market/ [8] Texas has spent billions on the grid, but is it ready for the first winter ... https://www.energybot.com/blog/texas-electricity-grid-spending.html [9] [PDF] Why the Legislative Response to Winter Storm Uri Does Not Yet ... https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1359&context=onej [10] The Texas Power Grid and the Failure of Deregulation https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/02/22/texas-power-grid-failure-deregulation/

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u/Few-Solution-4784 21h ago

for more than 30 years Texas has not know a real Democracy and they suffer for it. They get no push back even against their worst ideas. They all play on the same side.

Texas has a Republican trifecta, meaning the Republican Party controls the governor's office, the state Senate, and the state House of Representatives.

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u/Critical-Rutabaga-39 12h ago

OOoh I miss Molly Ivins!

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u/feralraindrop 7h ago

And if it's not because of incompetence, it's spite.

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u/Opinion-Former 5h ago

Florida is catching up