Dana Harmon talks energy poverty on the podcast, two new Forbes pieces, Carolina Wren makes a house call
How much will the blackouts cost ratepayers? Dana Harmon of the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute on the podcast, a wren in the house
A short note on Good Friday
Lorin and I are heading to one of our favorite birdwatching places, High Island, Texas, in a few minutes. But before we leave, a few items.
Texas ratepayers on the hook
Dana Harmon on the podcast
A Carolina Wren stops by
On Sunday, I published a piece in Forbes about the potential cost of the Texas blackouts to ratepayers. My estimate includes an $8.3 billion proposal from Berkshire Hathaway Energy that would create a new capacity market in Texas. It is too soon to know if my $12 billion estimate, which includes some $3.7 billion that is owed to ERCOT, is correct, but it's likely in the ballpark. I began:
The invoices and proposals are still being sorted, but it appears that Texas ratepayers may eventually be on the hook for about $12 billion in electricity-related costs due to the February snowstorm and blackouts that killed 111 people and caused tens of billions of dollars in damages...To be clear, that $12 billion figure is speculative. It doesn’t include some $16 billion that Texas ratepayers were overcharged when ERCOT kept market prices too high during the power crisis. The $8.3 billion deal being pitched by Berkshire Hathaway would require approval from the Texas Legislature as it would create a capacity market in ERCOT which currently has an energy-only market. Further, none of the political leaders in Austin have said they will support the deal.
I continued:
Nevertheless, the $8.3 billion figure provides a ballpark estimate of the challenge facing Texas politicians who are scrambling to come up with a plan that can assure voters that they won’t be hit with another blackout. Further, it provides an idea of the additional reserve generation capacity that may be needed in the ERCOT market.
I concluded:
About six weeks have passed since Winter Storm Uri knocked the Texas grid cattywampus. The winners and the losers from that storm are slowly emerging. Ratepayers will be in the latter category.
Again, here's a link to the piece. If you like it, please pass it along.
Dana Harmon of the Texas Energy Poverty Institute on the podcast
Energy poverty isn't limited to foreign countries. It's a problem here in the United States. That's why I wanted to have Dana Harmon, the executive director of the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute, on the Power Hungry Podcast. In the episode released on Tuesday, we talked about how the February snowstorm increased energy insecurity among low-income Texans, why weatherization of homes helps increase resilience, and how energy, in her words, should be a “tool to help address poverty and socioeconomic disparities in our system.”
Give the episode a listen.
After having Dana on the podcast, I dashed off a piece for Forbes. I wrote:
A recent survey done by the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute underscored the enormous disparity between the energy-rich and the energy-poor. The survey, which was conducted earlier this month and included 953 participants, examined the effect that Winter Storm Uri had on Texas consumers. The key takeaways: a big percentage of the respondents are worried about their ability to pay their electricity bills; and fuel diversity is essential in helping people withstand extreme weather events like the blizzard. survey, which was conducted earlier this month underscored the enormous disparity between the energy-rich and the energy-poor. Energy poverty is a major challenge in Texas, where about 41% of the nine million households in the state are classified as low income. TEPRI estimates that the “average low-income energy burden is over three times greater than the state average.” (The term “energy burden” refers to the percentage of household income that is spent on energy.)
I reiterated a point I have been making since the blackouts about the need for fuel diversity to assure energy security:
One of the key findings of the survey was that the natural gas grid was far more reliable than the electric grid. It found that almost “75% of respondents lost electricity at some point during the storm event, and close to 33% of households reported losing electricity for two days or more.” By contrast, it found that “Residential natural gas service remained much more resilient with just over 25% of households surveyed losing natural gas.”
Again, here's a link to the piece. Please share it.
Carolina Wren makes a house call
Wrens are curious birds. Regardless of the species -- Cactus Wren, Rock Wren, or Carolina Wren, they are constantly on the prowl, surveying their surroundings. Thus, I was startled, but not surprised, when a Carolina Wren got into our house a few mornings ago.
Carolina Wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus) are plentiful around our house and on Barton Creek. Over the years, several pairs have made nests on the shelves (and sometimes in the unused shoes) on the covered porch on the south side of our home. This co-habitation arrangement has allowed us to get a front-row seat to the laying of eggs, and fledging, of several families of Carolina Wrens. In any case, the other morning, as Lorin and I were drinking our coffee, one of these intrepid wrens decided to inspect the inside of the house and announced its presence with a very loud chirping on the ceiling fan above us. It took a few futile minutes of trying to snare it with a butterfly net. But we succeeded in getting it back outside with no discernible damage to the wren, ourselves, or the house.
As Roger Tory Peterson said, "birds are a vivid expression of life." Wrens are particularly vivid proof of that.
Happy Easter.
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