How Right Wing Media is Lying About the Power Outages in TX (1 Viewer)

[MT15]

This just illustrates why lawyers for Fox were able to successfully defend Tucker by claiming no reasonable person expects to get facts from him.



How are people fooled by this? The minute I saw the fake claim on social media that the “windmills are all frozen” I was skeptical. There are windmills all over the North. It just didn’t make sense.

 

[Yggdrasill]

The article below echoes what I heard in an "On Point" podcast yesterday. The real culprit in Texas was natural gas. Wells and pumping stations froze, dropping the gas pressure, which in turn shut down power plants. Additionally, many of the 60% of people who heat their homes with gas, could not get it.

Texas largely relies on natural gas for power. It wasn’t ready for the extreme cold.

Texas largely relies on natural gas — especially during times of high demand — to power the state. Experts say natural gas infrastructure, from pumping it out of the ground to the plants in city centers, was unprepared for the plunging temperatures brought by the winter storm.

www.texastribune.org

 

[MT15]

I also looked up why consumers are seeing such high bills as well because I didn’t understand it.

I am going from memory, but what I get is that Texas allows consumers to choose to pay a rate pegged to the current wholesale rate for electricity, or they can sign a contract for a fixed rate with their provider. Often, the first option can save consumers money, but they run a risk during a catastrophe that their rates will skyrocket if the wholesale rate also goes up dramatically.

So consumers who chose to try to save money by using that option have now seen the other side of the coin. I’m sure the state will have to step in, and you have to wonder about the policy to begin with. Was there enough education for the consumer about the risks they were taking?

 

[JRad]

I also looked up why consumers are seeing such high bills as well because I didn’t understand it.

I am going from memory, but what I get is that Texas allows consumers to choose to pay a rate pegged to the current wholesale rate for electricity, or they can sign a contract for a fixed rate with their provider. Often, the first option can save consumers money, but they run a risk during a catastrophe that their rates will skyrocket if the wholesale rate also goes up dramatically.

So consumers who chose to try to save money by using that option have now seen the other side of the coin. I’m sure the state will have to step in, and you have to wonder about the policy to begin with. Was there enough education for the consumer about the risks they were taking?

From what I heard/understand, it's pretty much just "the consumer should be informed", but Abbott has said no one should have to pay these ridiculous bills. So fingers crossed for the people who are seeing these massive bills.

 

[Nebaghead]

Not sure how I feel about the bills. They get low bills normally and when there is an issue the government bails them out. I think they should have to pay some increase but not thousands.
I think this practice needs to be eliminated. It obviously preys on people who don’t understand the contract. Similar to ARM mortgages.

 

[MT15]

I was also wondering if poor people more often chose that option to try to save a little money, not really understanding the risks?

 

[Nebaghead]

I was also wondering if poor people more often chose that option to try to save a little money, not really understanding the risks?

That would be my guess. Probably need controls so it can’t go over a certain percent each month. I also don’t want the government to just pay it since the utility companies benefit with payment.

 

[Taurus]

Not sure how I feel about the bills. They get low bills normally and when there is an issue the government bails them out. I think they should have to pay some increase but not thousands.
I think this practice needs to be eliminated. It obviously preys on people who don’t understand the contract. Similar to ARM mortgages.

I think it's time a corporation had to just eat the losses of a bailout. See how they like it.

 

[nolaspe]

LOLOL...

 

[insidejob]

LOLOL...

I like the one where someone photoshopped Trump dancing into the crowd too. I posted it on the commie board.

 

[Yggdrasill]

I also looked up why consumers are seeing such high bills as well because I didn’t understand it.

I am going from memory, but what I get is that Texas allows consumers to choose to pay a rate pegged to the current wholesale rate for electricity, or they can sign a contract for a fixed rate with their provider. Often, the first option can save consumers money, but they run a risk during a catastrophe that their rates will skyrocket if the wholesale rate also goes up dramatically.

So consumers who chose to try to save money by using that option have now seen the other side of the coin. I’m sure the state will have to step in, and you have to wonder about the policy to begin with. Was there enough education for the consumer about the risks they were taking?

This is one of the reasons I oppose deregulation of the utility sector. As with the financial sector, we don't need the "cutting edge" financial instruments in place of reliability and stability. Having spent a long time in energy, I think there is no way the average consumer could reasonably evaluate the risk of wholesale market prices. Where would they even get reliable information? From the utilities and regulators who themselves opposed reasonable requirements for winterization of grid infrastructure? I think not.

 

[DaveXA]

I like the one where someone photoshopped Trump dancing into the crowd too. I posted it on the commie board.

There's a commie board? Where do I sign up?

 

[zztop]

There's a commie board? Where do I sign up?

First you would have to join the "dark side" and switch to liberal, then you can see all the funny stuff we can't post here

 

[MT15]

Dave maybe we can get you a visitor’s pass? Talk to the big guy.....

 

[nolaspe]

Welp, now the snow in TX was all a hoax caused by Biden and Gates (not so much the RW media, but hey, Q's of a feather...)

Conspiracy Theorists Are Now Saying Snow In Texas Is Fake

<p>Conspiracy theorists are claiming the snow in Texas is fake after an Arctic cold snap caused temperatures to plummet. Residents in the state experienced 30-year lows of -18°C (0°F) last week, with one person from Houston telling UNILAD they had ‘never in 20 years seen snow remain on the...

www.unilad.co.uk

People are burning snowballs on TikTok to ‘prove’ that snow is a conspiracy theory

They're claiming it's fake snow because they don't see it melting.

www.dailydot.com

 

[Saintamaniac]

I was also wondering if poor people more often chose that option to try to save a little money, not really understanding the risks?

I struggle with this because I really want to give people the benefit of the doubt. I think that some of them truly didn't understand the risk. I think a good portion of them gambled on the risk not being as great. Who would have thought that the energy demand would be greater than the supply? Who would have thought that the entire state of Texas would experience arctic type weather for multiple days?

That being said, how many times do we let people plead ignorant of not knowing what they are signing their names to? I feel for those people facing these incredible bills but at what point do people get to sleep in the bed they created?
As someone else posted, let the energy companies take on some of the blame. Let them feel what it's like to not have a bailout.

I'm just tired of rewarding bad behavior from both consumers and corporations.

 

[Xeno]

I struggle with this because I really want to give people the benefit of the doubt. I think that some of them truly didn't understand the risk. I think a good portion of them gambled on the risk not being as great. Who would have thought that the energy demand would be greater than the supply? Who would have thought that the entire state of Texas would experience arctic type weather for multiple days?

That being said, how many times do we let people plead ignorant of not knowing what they are signing their names to? I feel for those people facing these incredible bills but at what point do people get to sleep in the bed they created?
As someone else posted, let the energy companies take on some of the blame. Let them feel what it's like to not have a bailout.

I'm just tired of rewarding bad behavior from both consumers and corporations.

It happened about ten years ago. The same things that happened this time happened then. These companies didn't want to spend the money to winterize and the people of Texas continued voting for people who wouldn't force them to. All of this was foreseeable because it happened before.

 

[GMRfellowtraveller]

There's a commie board? Where do I sign up?

it's over there to the left

 

[SFIDC3]

TBH, I think there is a kind of loose parallel to the concept of diploma factories (like Trump University and all the countless others that many Republicans support)....I would say both offer unreliable/unprotected services at a potentially very high cost to folks that don't know better.

This is the kind of "capitalism" that many Republicans support. These are the type of folks that I believe should not be anywhere near government (at the state or federal level). And these are the type of folks that states like Texas keep electing. And the majority of the "great" citizens of Texas will continue to support these folks and believe their lies about the "green energy" boogeyman....it's sad and I hope it changes but I have my doubts....