Texas power use hits record high as heatwave lingers

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 284 points –
Texas power use hits record high as heatwave lingers
reuters.com

Texas power use hits record high as heatwave lingers::Demand for power in Texas hit a record high on Monday as homes and businesses kept air conditioners cranked up to escape a heatwave.

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Texans are worried because of the previous track record: The winter storm that froze people to death because the supply couldn't keep up with demand. Our grid was incredibly close to a whole shit down, which would have killed even more people. All of which happened because the people in charge of such things didn't prepare for a winter storm like that despite being warned that it was necessary like a decade ago.

And heat is no joke. So yeah, we worry. We have kids, elderly family and friends, pets, and healthy adults are also not immune. When demand skyrockets we get worried because people have already died and we don't want to see that happen again. We're also very aware of how often we're told things are "fixed" when nothing has actually been done. So we cross our fingers, and we sweat, and we hope the grid doesn't shut down and kill us. Sorry our worrying and upvoting of the topic bothers you.

Legit question: it's obvious that there aren't going to be any changes until Abbott and friends are gone.

Why do y'all keep electing him?

🤷🏼‍♀️ He hurts the right people, I guess.

And too many people who would vote against the current leadership don't vote at all. It's been really frustrating trying to convince some of my friends to vote. Even some LGBTQ+ friends of mine don't vote. I guess they think it doesn't matter, that better candidates won't win anyway. Voter apathy is a bitch, man.

It's really hard to vote in cities because they severely restrict polling sites, while every church in a 1 gas-station town is a polling place.

This is for historical reasons in the south, much easier to keep political control if you're the only ones who can effectively vote.

While I wholly support this bit of righteous outage… most of the comments here are going to be about the grid and the Republicans.

... right. Because republicans control Texas and the grid. A grid that already killed people a couple years ago. A grid that people aren't convinced the republican leadership has fixed. A grid that's being heavily used under this heatwave. That just makes sense to me.

What else would you expect in the comments? I expect talk about climate change, the grid, and how republicans have fucked up both of those things. I don't expect people to be saying, "Sure is a scorcher today!", Or casual chats about lemonade recipes. Those days are gone.