It is clear that the builders of the Texas wind farms focused more on taking the hundreds of millions of dollars of Federal Green Energy money and did not bother to install the readily available cold weather packages that would have prevented the freeze ups that cost us more than 10% of the power on the grid. In Alberta, wind turbines have operated successfully at down to 40 below zero.

The entire electrical energy industry in Texas is suspect in my opinion.

https://www.powermag.com/prepare-your-renewable-plant-for-cold-weather-operations/

But! Do the Canadians have the 110 degree heat index is 120 degrees package? Everyone give it a rest. It gets this cold for this long once in a lifetime.

No freakin joke. I don’t understand all the finger pointing! Why does it always have to be someone else’s fault?!? This is a freak weather event that we’ll likely never see again. No need to reinvent the wheel.

How does that old saying go?

"It's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."

This works for 4x4 and koochie.

The problem is paying for something you might not EVER need. Bad way to spend money. But, my wife agrees. She shops like that all the time. It’s one of them XY things.

<<This is a freak weather event that we’ll likely never see again>>

Once in a lifetime maybe down in Baja Oklahoma. This was normal, pretty much Thanksgiving through Easter, when I was growing up up there in DamnYankeeLand. Major factor in decision to move south and west.

5 years it will happen again, and more will be whining

Agree 100%

Hell people are bitching at Texas government for not being ready but by several posts on here a lot of us did not build our houses to handle 40 below either. Myself included.

We did not get 40 below but my house handled 1 pretty well.

It appears to me that if there is blame, this is one time I agree that it should be on Texas leadership.
Not so much on Abbott.

On the other hand the discussion should include the cost to do X, Y or Z in preparations. How much we spend to get to a higher level of protection may not be worth the cost to do so.

People in northern Michigan would be dying if they had the summer we did back in 1980. They aren’t acclimated to it and they damn sure don’t the ability to deal with it. One of theses days they will get a bad summer though. Does that mean they should all start installing ac’s? Went I went to Mackinac Island it was 80 degrees and they were telling people to drink extra water and to be careful in this heat. I almost laughed out loud when I heard it.

We don’t need to go to extremes to prepare for this weather. There’s a few things they could do better, but overall, it’s just one of those things. Tragic for some and expensive and frustrating for many, but overall we are fine and we don’t need to become Arctic Ready. It makes no sense.

So when they take Welsh or the next coal fired plant down does that power generation get replaced by wind and solar?

Strange, I've seen a major power interruption Texas in February due to weather twice in less than 15 years. Many of you forget far too easily.

This is not the first time it has been this cold in Texas for this long and it won't be the last, in 1983 it stayed below freezing 10 consecutive days and in 89 we had 7 degrees in Houston the coldest temperature ever recored there. We also had another lingering artic blast since then not sure of the year. We see 100 year floods happen back to back years all the time. Why not a cold spell?
Before this is all over with, it will have done as much damage (monetarily) as a cat 5 hurricane.