Thread by @deangloster

A short thread on why Texas has no power:
1. Climate change and the moving polar vortex.
2. Gas, coal, and atomic powerplants offline in the cold.
3. Texas decided to have a grid separate from the rest of the country.
(You know, GOP.) 1/4

First, perhaps because of climate change, the polar vortex, a vast low pressure area that usually stays over the arctic, has split and wandered recently, leading to wandering extremely low temperatures. 2/4
livescience.com/polar-vortex-d…

Second, although some wind turbines have frozen, the main problem in Texas is that their gas, coal, and atomic plants shut down for various reasons in the extreme cold. 3/4
texastribune.org/2021/02/15/rol…

Finally, almost all of Texas has its own, separate, power grid from the two other power grids covering the entire U.S., so it doesn't get power from elsewhere. Because they wanted to "avoid federal regulations" and--GOP Texas. 4/5
rawstory.com/texas-power-ou…

Electrical power is complex to manage, because it is transmitted at the speed of light, and supply has to be balanced with demand, real time.

Texas isn't set up to manage that in cold, because of neglect under the GOP. Predictably people will die. Because: GOP. 5/5