TX Leaders out of altitude, airspeed, and ideas, Ben Heard on the podcast, Downy Woodpecker and Barred Owl

Mar 26, 2021

My latest on the ERCOT mess, Ben Heard on the podcast, Downy Woodpecker and Barred Owl in the 'hood

Happy first Friday of spring...
All of the redbuds are in bloom and the bright yellow-green leaves on the live oaks are proof that spring has arrived. The colors and smells of spring are delightful and welcome. But it's still hard to believe that exactly five weeks ago I was shoveling snow and ice from the walkways around the house. And while the weather has improved, the lingering effects of Winter Storm Uri are causing a Texas-sized hangover at the Capitol and at ERCOT, which revealed this week that it is facing a $2.9 billion shortfall. (I will be writing about that part of the story in the next few days.) Four items today:

Texas legislators turned the state's electric grid into a weather-dependent casino and now none of them see much of a payoff in fixing the problems at ERCOT
Ben Heard on the podcast
Juice is still free on Roku
North America's smallest woodpecker...and a big owl in our neighborhood

On Tuesday, I published a piece in Forbes about the political and economic mess left by last month's blackouts. I began by quoting my friend Chuck Spinney:

Chuck Spinney, a military veteran and longtime Defense Department analyst who gained renown for his critiques of the Pentagon, is famous for noting that among pilots, it’s dangerous to be “Out of altitude, airspeed, and ideas.” That description fits the current situation in Texas where politicians and regulators are flailing about for solutions to the state’s electricity woes. As one media outlet put it, last month’s deadly blackouts left a political and economic mess but “there’s no clear understanding of who’s at fault and no consensus on what should be done. That’s a problem because billions of dollars, or perhaps tens of billions of dollars, are at risk. In theory, Texans owe more than $50 billion for the electricity that was delivered during Winter Storm Uri, the deadly blizzard that walloped the state last month. But it’s not clear where all that money went nor is it clear how much low- and middle-income ratepayers will have to pay to clean up the mess.

I continued:

Texas legislators, many (or most) of whom don’t know a watt from a watt-hour, are trying to sort through the mess. But there’s a dire lack of expertise and leadership at the two agencies – the Texas Public Utilities Commission and ERCOT – that are central to unraveling the mess that has its roots in the 2001 law that deregulated the Texas electricity market. The PUC doesn’t have any commissioners. Last week, the agency’s chair, Arthur D'Andrea, the last remaining commissioner at the regulatory agency, announced he was resigning his post. D'Andrea got the top job about two weeks ago after he replaced the chair at the time, DeAnn Walker, who resigned on March 1. The other commissioner, Shelly Botkin, resigned a few days after Walker. Meanwhile, the ERCOT board has five open seats and the grid operator, which manages the electricity supplies for about 26 million Texans, doesn’t have a CEO. ERCOT’s former CEO, Bill Magness, was fired by the board on March 3.

I concluded by saying the blackouts are:

...the result of a government failure of epic proportions. The Texas Legislature turned the state’s electric grid into a weather-dependent casino that rewarded crisis and high prices instead of reliability and stable prices. And there’s little doubt that consumers and taxpayers are going to end up footing the bill for that weather-dependent casino.

You can read the whole piece here. If you like it, please pass it along.

Ben Heard on the Power Hungry Podcast talking nuclear energy in Australia

I know plenty of pro-nuclear activists. Few are as passionate about nuclear energy as Ben Heard, the founder of Bright New World, an Australian NGO that is “committed to a vision where modern societies thrive on abundant, clean energy.” This week, I talked to Heard (who appears in Juice: How Electricity Explains the World) about the obstacles to building nuclear reactors Down Under, his visits to Fukushima, and the challenges facing Australia’s coal-heavy electric grid as it tries to add more renewables. Ben is a convert to nuclear. As he explains in the podcast, "it took me three years of sort of just looking at my shoes every time people mentioned nuclear power, because [I was] always having to go through the difficult grinding process of thinking that maybe I'd been wrong about this."

I also loved his answer about why he cares so much about his work. He said, "It is perfectly clear to me that I've done well out of the world, you know, the dice rolled really favorably for me. I'm a 42-year-old white guy with education. If I can't take some risks, and bring a little bit of passion on behalf of everybody else, who the hell can, you know? Who the hell can if not me?"

Ben is a clear thinker and presenter, and as you will find, he has some Elvis. Give the episode a listen.

Reminder: You can still watch Juice for free on Roku, and on Amazon Prime

If you haven't seen our documentary yet, here's a quick reminder: you can view Juice: How Electricity Explains the World, on Roku, for free. Just click this link. If your friends haven't seen it, send them a link! Or if you have a prime membership, you can watch it on Amazon Prime.

A small woodpecker and a big owl

One of the many things I love about birdwatching is that I bump into interesting birds when I'm not looking for them, when I don't have binoculars, and when I'm not particularly focused on anything other than stretching my legs or walking to the car.

About a week ago, Lorin and I were walking our dog, Peaka, on a street near our house when a Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) flew past us and land on a tree a few meters in front of us. It was close enough to immediately identify, not just because of its undulating flight pattern, but because it was so small. The Downy is the smallest woodpecker in North America and even though I've seen it before, it's remarkable to see a woodpecker that's no larger than a sparrow. (Photo credit.)

Another, and much bigger, surprise crossed our path last Sunday. As we were returning to our car on the hike and bike trail near the entrance to Barton Springs Pool, Lorin and I saw a big flash of brown feathers and broad wings a few yards in front of us. A Barred Owl (Strix varia) landed on a tree that was no more than 15 feet away from us. I have seen Great-horned Owls and Screech Owls in Austin, but not a Barred Owl. What made this owl so thrilling was that it was so close. We were as close to it (or maybe even closer) as we were to the Downy Woodpecker. The Barred Owl was a healthy specimen standing maybe 18 inches high. We watched it for a solid three minutes or so as it craned its head around 180 degrees. But dusk was approaching and after scanning the ground and trees near the trail, the owl, in another silent flash of broad brown feathers, flew further into the trees.
(Photo credit.)

Finally, a style note that may or may not be of interest: I'm now capitalizing my bird references. For a deep dive on capitals vs non-capitals, this article is a good summary.

Happy Friday.

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