Biden's America

[BigRedBuster]

41 minutes ago, ZRod said:

Right.

 

Also, there is some minor production in Pennsylvania and the Carolinas I believe. Which can usually sustain the industry through hurricanes and cold snaps, but nothing like having to rebuild whole refineries.

Yes, for other types of plastic.  I was mainly talking about the types I use.  All of ours comes from the gulf coast.  They have done a very good job of making them able to withstand hurricanes with minimal damage and get back up and running quickly.  But, nobody has planned for a type of cold storm nobody has ever seen before.

[ZRod]

59 minutes ago, Archy1221 said:

You definitely understand this well 

It's kind of my job. 

[RedDenver]

14 hours ago, knapplc said:

These companies were warned years ago about the possibility of this stuff happening. They chose not to retrofit their plants to insure they could still be functional in case of extreme weather like we just saw.

 

13 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

Power companies, yes. I’m not sure companies like we are discussing were warned. These are all in the Houston/Galveston area so pretty far south. There had never been a storm like that before. 

Texas has had this same issue going back to the late 80's. This isn't the first cold snap that's had these kinds of consequences. But I'm guessing it's easier and/or more profitable to just keep failing than to be prepared.

[BigRedBuster]

23 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

 

Texas has had this same issue going back to the late 80's. This isn't the first cold snap that's had these kinds of consequences. But I'm guessing it's easier and/or more profitable to just keep failing than to be prepared.

No. 
 

we have been buying raw materials from these companies since the 70s. Never have they experienced the deep cold and severe damage than they did this time.  

[deedsker]

6 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

No. 
 

we have been buying raw materials from these companies since the 70s. Never have they experienced the deep cold and severe damage than they did this time.  

The intensity and duration may have been higher than any previous, but this wasn't unforeseen. 

 

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-storm/

Quote

The last time the state experienced a major freeze like this was a decade ago, in 2011.

Quote

But even after upgrades were made after the 2011 winter storm, many Texas power generators have still not made all the investments necessary to prevent these sorts of disruptions happening to the equipment, experts said.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-weather-texas-power-insight/why-a-predictable-cold-snap-crippled-the-texas-power-grid-idUSKBN2AL00N

 

Quote

“There were prior severe cold weather events in the Southwest in 1983, 1989, 2003, 2006, 2008, and 2010,” Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and North American Electric Reliability Corp staff summarized after investigating the state’s 2011 rolling blackouts.

 

https://www.statesman.com/article/20110411/NEWS/304119704

 

Quote

“The winter freeze greatly strained the ability of the Texas electric utilities to provide reliable power to their customers. Record and near-record low temperatures were felt throughout the state resulting in a significantly increased demand for electrical power.

 

“At the same time that demand was increasing, weather-related equipment malfunctions were causing generating units to trip off the line.” As a result, it noted, the state suffered widespread rolling blackouts and “near loss of the entire ERCOT electric grid.”

ERCOT is still the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

 

But the PUC report wasn’t analyzing the power outages that hit a large swath of Texas when temperatures plunged this past February. The report is dated November 1990 and is referring to the record freeze of late December 1989.

 

Quote

A section of the document labeled “Recommendations” stated: “All utilities should ensure that they incorporate the lessons learned during December of 1989 into the design of new facilities” and “ensure that procedures are implemented to correct defective freeze protection equipment prior to the onset of cold weather.”

 

It was just cheaper to ignore.

[RedDenver]

15 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

No. 
 

we have been buying raw materials from these companies since the 70s. Never have they experienced the deep cold and severe damage than they did this time.  

Your specific suppliers may not have had pipes freeze to this extent before, but failure to winterize has been an ongoing thing in Texas for decades.

[DevoHusker]

13 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

Your specific suppliers may not have had pipes freeze to this extent before, but failure to winterize has been an ongoing thing in Texas for decades.

 

Well Yeah...but with Global Warming they shouldn't have had to worry about it!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(j/k...poking the bear lol)

[teachercd]

9 minutes ago, DevoHusker said:

 

Well Yeah...but with Global Warming they shouldn't have had to worry about it!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(j/k...poking the bear lol)

This is so well done for so many reasons.

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

24 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

Your specific suppliers may not have had pipes freeze to this extent before, but failure to winterize has been an ongoing thing in Texas for decades.

We are talking about resin supplier plants.  

[admo]

20 hours ago, ZRod said:

Not sure but I think the power outage is what really f#&%ed them.

 

Quite a few facilities also had interruptions during the 2020 Hurricane season late last year. A few years ago Hurricane Harvey cause major issues as well.

 

You are absolutely right, it did. Definitely power outages screwed us.
 

I've been a texan most of my life.  This was so brutal I hate looking back on it.  I was not prepared. Most ppl were not ready for it.  

We were below freezing temp for 8 consecutive days.  Many days in mid-teens for the High; a few days the High temp was below 5.  

The power outage lasted a day for me, but a few blocks over it lasted 4 days.  Many areas went days without power (housing, businesses, apartments - which their water was shut off for 8 days).  

It really sucks when power goes out at 2AM..  it's near freezing inside, it's pitch black, no heat, no light, water pipes freezing...

 

I had to chop wood for a fire and my fingers and face instantly froze.  I didn't have gloves other than the yard variety.  Not even a winter coat.  Didn't have food stocked up either.  Tried to grill later on, but that was painful.  Grocery stores and businesses without power.  Trucks were not delivering, and many stores just closed.  

Plus, like an idiot, I forgot to charge my phone before the electricity went out.  So yeah, 190 consecutive hours below freezing felt forever, being unprepared and dealing with no power is not something we typically plan for down here.  I mean, you ever seen a grown man cry?  Well it got pretty close to that lol.

 

And I think we were around 60-70 degrees all week right before it dropped. I think they forecast the freezing weather to last a few days... They was wrong, lol.

 

[DevoHusker]

49 minutes ago, teachercd said:

This is so well done for so many reasons.

 

 

 

I am the proverbial blind squirrel.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I'm angry because in Nebraska, we have to pay a higher fee for a long time because of the surge in Natural Gas prices. Those prices need to be passed solely on the people of Texas.

 

If you don't want to be held responsible, vote for people who want to bring your power grid out of the third world. This ain't happen, of course, but the people of Texas made a choice and those choices have consequences. 

[Archy1221]

 

[JJ Husker]

2 hours ago, admo said:

 

You are absolutely right, it did. Definitely power outages screwed us.
 

I've been a texan most of my life.  This was so brutal I hate looking back on it.  I was not prepared. Most ppl were not ready for it.  

We were below freezing temp for 8 consecutive days.  Many days in mid-teens for the High; a few days the High temp was below 5.  

The power outage lasted a day for me, but a few blocks over it lasted 4 days.  Many areas went days without power (housing, businesses, apartments - which their water was shut off for 8 days).  

It really sucks when power goes out at 2AM..  it's near freezing inside, it's pitch black, no heat, no light, water pipes freezing...

 

I had to chop wood for a fire and my fingers and face instantly froze.  I didn't have gloves other than the yard variety.  Not even a winter coat.  Didn't have food stocked up either.  Tried to grill later on, but that was painful.  Grocery stores and businesses without power.  Trucks were not delivering, and many stores just closed.  

Plus, like an idiot, I forgot to charge my phone before the electricity went out.  So yeah, 190 consecutive hours below freezing felt forever, being unprepared and dealing with no power is not something we typically plan for down here.  I mean, you ever seen a grown man cry?  Well it got pretty close to that lol.

 

And I think we were around 60-70 degrees all week right before it dropped. I think they forecast the freezing weather to last a few days... They was wrong, lol.

 

So basically a typical mild Midwest spring or fall day. Got it. 

 

Sort of serious though.

[ZRod]

1 hour ago, Archy1221 said:

 

Or we could pay people more to actually work...