138 Comments

Thank you Dan.

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I agree completely. I am surprised that national television coverage of what happened in TX did not include what Cruz could have been doing instead of flying to Mexico or what the other senator was doing.

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The Climate Change crisis will eventually force us all to grapple with a new reality ....at some point government-haters will need to take their heads out of the sand. (I guess Rick Perry is good with the recent deaths as a price to pay for so-called “freedom”) 😳

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Insightful as always. The only clarification I’d make is that I don’t think people “turned up” their thermostats. In the falling temperatures, the furnaces simply couldn’t keep up and never turned off. I read another article that used the term “cranked up their thermostats” and it felt a bit like blaming the consumer for not conserving.

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Yup! And our rural friends depend on urban folks for ncome from consumption of the livestock.

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In the future, please recall how each and every politician acted before, during, and after this disaster. As well as how they responded with COVID. And climate change. And...

Well, you get the point.

Our future is dependent on how we act in the present.

If people continue with denial, burying their heads in the sand, refuse to see what is right in front of them, we will stagnate and fail. But, if people become stronger, open their eyes and see what is happening right before their eyes, then maybe, just maybe, there is hope...

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One thing I see with this natural "disaster" is the rural urban divide being highlighted. Most of the media attention has been on the folks in the city or suburban areas who have far less resilience in coping with natural catastrophes. Granted they're the numerical majority, but also because they probably have the most attractive appeal with the media for how bad things are!

It may also highlight the politics of those rural regions, populated with people who largely look down on their urban/suburban brethren and the reliance they have on the government agencies for the support they expect in order to weather challenges. Similar to the way the city-folk tend to look down on the rural crowd as rednecks and hillbillies.

In the country, we can't depend on the government to clear our roads quickly, or remove downed trees, or even to respond to a police call within a few minutes. We have predators which threaten and kill our livestock and we hunt, so we have guns and see that ownership as a right. We have generators, tractors and skid steers, dozers and backhoes, chainsaws and the skills to use all the above. We're quite capable, and because we can't depend on government entities to bail us out whenever something untoward happens we question the taxation which enables the others that dependence. Like our city residents, we come together in a crisis and help out. However we have the advantage of having a distributed infrastructure to cope with them better because we typically have livestock that depend on us and must be prepared to meet that responsibility.

I think we're seeing this urban/rural divide play out more and more across the national scene in laws, policies, and actions. Sure much of it is rooted in racism (and sexism), further fueled by religious beliefs and the mores and attitudes of historic ignorance (from under and poorly educated.) But the divide is also widened by the lack of critical thinking and science based decision making--which is further eroded by the lack of truthfulness in much of the broadcast media. And sadly, the lie-spewing talking heads on supposed "news" outlets further inflame disparities. We have much more in common across the board than we do to keep us apart, but it's hard to reflect that in our behavior when we focus on the differences.

Dan, I've appreciated your even handed approach--with respect and humor, as well as honoring the realities--and I'd love to hear your expound on how we can better address that urban rural divide, which is as profound as the wealth disparity in our country and around the world.

Regards.

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While I thank goodness for Beto O'Rourke and AOC, and all the folks helping them round up information about resources Texans can use, It's a hard lesson we've all had in how poor a prophet profit makes. For good basic information on preparedness, start with a visit to ready.gov.

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Spot on as usual Mr. Rather. Thank you so much for putting all of this into words because we will rely on this when it's our turn to have a say. Thank you for helping us to document history so that on election day and beyond, WE WILL NOT FORGET!

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I am so sorry for all of you who are paying the price for this political malpractice, especially those of you who have lost loved ones.

There is a common thread to preparedness, called Risk Assessment and Mitigation, a field whose experts I have had the privilege of working with during the part of my career spent in heavy industry, where the slightest unforeseen incident could have catastrophic implications.

We humans have evolved to be very keen to evaluate visible risks in our environment -- e.g. is that a ferocious wild animal or a pet? Am I protected from the lightning that I can see? -- but less well for invisible threats like pandemics or infrastructure rot or economic crises or climate change.

Now, when politics are added to the mix, where politicians pander to our basest instincts like greed and ego rather than educating us on why we should care about some future event that seems unlikely, then we get (sorry for the pun) the perfect storm. And unlike some events where "merely" people's retirement savings get wiped out, people are literally dying from our collective inability to identify and manage risk.

The point that I am most dismayed at is that all of this was predictable and indeed has been predicted for many years. Granted, not all risks materialize, but I am still grateful that the nuclear power plant not far from me never had to withstand the earthquake it was designed for, that our snow clearing ability has been maintained even though the previous few years were much milder, that the roads and bridges are being shored up/replaced "ahead of schedule". This is NOT money wasted, but rather well-spent in preventing avoidable loss.

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The overarching reason for the failure of ERCOT and Texas' power grid: GREED. Greed in the form of more profits. Greed in the form of short-term gratification at the cost of long-term reliability. Greed in the form of "I'll make money now and let someone else pay for the consequences later." Greed in the form of ratepayers who want the cheapest electricity possible no matter what. GREED.

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Hi Mr. Rather. I thought I might add to your latest email, which was excellent. You mentioned shared grids, but only from an American perspective. There is actually a North American grid network too and we can power share between Canada and the US depending on which part of the NA grid system states/provinces are a part of. You can find more information here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_power_transmission_grid

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Your beautiful writing, and compassionate insight, gives me comfort and hope. Thank you. It makes such a difference.

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I see what has happened in Texas as a wake-up call for many. The business community (your energy company) is there to make money.....so trying to add a layer of compassion for the people is not part of their business plan. This is the same issue we all lived through with the banking industry that needed to be bailed out- - - they were in it "to make money" not worry about PEOPLE. The "big tax cut" that some say was the best part of the past 4 years, again, had to do with expecting all those big businesses to pass their profits (because of less taxes) onto the people......yeah, good luck with that!!! And now look at you, Texas. You chose this unregulated layer of businesses.......even when Big Business is regulated they try to find every loop hole to get around the regulations. Regulations are there to HELP THE PEOPLE from being taken advantage of by the Big Business.......that is WHY regulations HAD TO BE put into place. Really!!!

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There's something to be said about being proactive instead of reactive, and planning for the worst-case scenario. Had the people who were in charge of the Texas grid been better prepared, this disaster might have been avoided, or at least, not been as bad. It reminds me of the Trump administration's response to the pandemic. The Obama administration was being proactive by assembling a pandemic response team as well as a document outlining what to do in case. Trump's people disbanded the team and ignored the document, and now 500,000 people have died. That could have been avoided, or at least, not been as bad. Dan, I hope that you and your wife, as well as all Texans, get back to normal soon. Take care.

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Texans once used another memory of tragedy as a battle cry. In “Remember the Alamo!” the lives lost in that tragedy were remembered and avenged.

What similar rallying cry can we use in this century?

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