WEBVTT - CLASSIC: Power, Water and Texas: What happened? 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.399 Fill a conspiracy realist. We're returning with a classic episode. 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:09.880 Cast your mind back to twenty twenty one, so long ago, now, right, guys, 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:14.600 it's a yeah, it's a story that takes us to 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:20.920 an event that captured national attention. As winter storms swept 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:26.080 through Texas, the people of Texas very quickly found themselves 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:30.320 without electricity or clean water millions. 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:32.840 Wasn't this the one where Ted Cruz kind of effed 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.400 off to vacation town when all this was going on, 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:37.559 very same, I think. 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.520 So, oh, okay, and that's ringing bells. 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.000 Yes, sorry, he was a senator at the time, but yeah, 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:45.560 that's what's ringing a bell. He went to Cancun. 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:51.000 Dude, this was the whole Urkat thing, the Electric Reliability 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:52.280 Council of Texas. 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:53.160 That's right. 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.960 And we are airing this because although it is a 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:04.039 discrete instance happened years ago. Now we know that winter 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:06.800 is coming, not to be all Game of Thrones about it, 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.920 and our question is will Texas be prepared for this winter? 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.400 Oh, especially as those data centers start making their way 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:16.360 into the big state. 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:18.080 Let's jump right in. 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:25.760 From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:30.160 riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.200 learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:34.959 production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.800 Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:48.960 my name is Noah. 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:49.840 They call me Ben. 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:52.800 We are joined as always with our super producer Paul. 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:57.640 Mission control decands. Most importantly, you are here and that 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:02.080 makes this stuff they don't want you to know. As always, 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.680 this these episodes are for all our fellow conspiracy realist 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:11.880 out there. Today's episode is especially for our friends and 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.960 family in Texas and for all your friends and family 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:21.359 in Texas as well. This is an ongoing situation. It's 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:23.760 kind of it's kind of wild, to say the least. 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.000 We've been on an infrastructure kick lately, ever since our 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:32.639 earlier strange news segment about that hacker in Oldsmar, Florida. 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.519 You know, the one who tried to poison the city 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:37.240 with lie. 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:38.600 I believe it was mm HM. 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.160 Which apparently is a thing that goes in water in 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:45.679 some small amount and he just upped the ante yup. 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:49.760 And then we talked about the brian that gets produced 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.639 that may be radioactive. No, it is radioactive in making 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.200 energy from fracking and other processes. 0:02:56.240 --> 0:03:01.120 Who new infrastructure could be so terrifying and fascinating, so boring. 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:07.000 That's why it's a sleeping giant of conspiracy, corruption, and problems. Like, 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:10.800 if you're reporting for a news site, you know that 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:13.519 a story about infrastructure probably won't get you a ton 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:17.040 of clicks or eyeballs. If you are running for office, 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:21.080 railing about the danger of failing infrastructure probably isn't going 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:22.000 to do much to help. 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:22.639 You get elected. 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:27.240 And if you do fix this stuff, people will usually 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:31.200 not bother to acknowledge or thank you for maintaining or 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:35.720 fixing it, not because they're being dicks, but because infrastructure, 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.680 when it works, becomes invisible. 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:39.080 Right. 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:40.800 It's sort of like when you have to buy new 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.160 tires for your car, or like a new battery. That's 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.240 like the least sexy fun purchase ever. You just resent 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:48.600 it because it's just supposed to work, and when it 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.320 doesn't it makes you angry, and then you resent having 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:53.240 to spend the money. But then you know it's nice 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.120 when it does work, but then you forget all about it. 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:59.560 Right, Yeah, we only notice this stuff or care about it, 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.320 and it breaks when the lights don't come on when 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:04.800 you flip the switch, when the water doesn't come out 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.880 of the faucet when you turn the knob, and then 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.760 immediately we scramble for someone to blame. It is boring 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.440 as hell to be prepared, but if you ask any 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:18.560 boy scout or any Texan nowadays, they'll tell you being 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:21.960 prepared can save lives. Our story today is about the 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:28.599 ongoing winter storm crisis in Texas. Here are the facts 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:33.200 to figure out what happened. You know, first, this storm 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:37.400 was not restricted to Texas. It hit parts of northern Mexico. 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.840 It hit huge swaths of the US and the rest 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:45.760 of the North American continent. But Texas had a unique 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.479 situation due to their power grid. And there's an old 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.400 story behind this, right, a. 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.680 Story that begins in Texas in the dawn of the 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:59.480 previous century. In the years following the construction of the 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:04.080 first US power plant by Thomas Edison in Manhattan in 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.520 eighteen eighty two, small plants started popping up again. Maybe 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.080 that's where plants came from, because they're like plants popping 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:14.720 up around different areas of the nation, including Texas. And 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.520 as time went on, these utilities began to become interconnected 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:24.040 to one another, and the phenomenon of this interconnectedness accelerated 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:26.520 during the First World War because it was. 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:31.560 Necessary absolutely, and expansion continued, more and more folks living 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.080 further and further away from city centers. And guess what 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:40.080 in World War Two? That expansion continued and the interconnectedness 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:44.880 grew more connected, solidified. I don't know what we want 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:50.880 to call it, more connecting, yes, yes, And something else 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.560 interesting happened during the World War two times here in 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:58.440 the US, specifically out Texas Way utilities there in Texas 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.040 began joining together too. Ben, you've written in the isline 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.599 here vultronning up. And I love that that concept of 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:11.520 all of the different plants and electrical minigrids, they're just 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:17.040 vultroning to become one giant. What's what's bigger than a 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:21.400 megawatt or ki gigawatts. 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.480 Or perhaps for our younger listeners, power rangering up, becoming 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:25.960 a megatron of. 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:29.520 Sorts, right, or they assembled the Avengers. Look, we spend 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:35.880 a lot of time megazored. Yes, yeah, uh so they 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:40.960 formed something collectively known as the Texas Interconnected System. Let's 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:44.599 call it the TIS for the sake of brevity. This 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:48.920 had some tremendous advantages in the beginning, both for the 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:54.600 businesses and for the customers. First, it allowed these this 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:59.520 network really allowed for the transmission of extra electricity to 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.359 these factories that have massively ramped up production for the 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:05.840 war effort. They're working around the clock. You gotta feed 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:11.640 the machine. But second, in the longer term, it allowed 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:16.600 these utilities to link to ginormous dams along Texas rivers. 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:21.600 And this is where our first plot twist starts. So 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.160 for a very long time, this TIS was actually a 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.840 group name for two distinct entities, one in northern Texas, 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:33.440 one in southern Texas. They were different, but they worked 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:36.360 together because they were on the same page about pretty 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:41.320 much everything. They had one primary ulterior motive, and it 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.080 was not to provide the best service to customers what right. 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:50.120 Their ulterior motive was to stay independent from larger oversights, 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:55.720 avoid the constraints and big brotherhood and those silly regulations 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:58.160 that come in at the federal level. 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.080 Which is a thing kind of at the heart of 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:04.280 like Texas history, right, I mean that they've always kind 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.240 of threatened to secede from the Union or formed their 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.720 own you know, mega state or whatever it seems to be. 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:14.520 That that autonomy and that fear or resentment of big 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.680 government is very much ingrained into the history of the 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:18.560 state of Texas. 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:22.160 Oh yeah, well, and remember another thing. There's a reason 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:28.080 it's called Texas tea oil that is black goal. 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:29.520 There's a reason. 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.840 It's because that's a resource that is all over the 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:34.839 place in Texas and has been for a long time. 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:39.559 And that meant that being independent from the other larger 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:43.760 systems across North America was easier for Texas, right, because 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:48.120 they've got so much natural energy already existing there, not 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:49.200 just oil too. Well. 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.600 Also, they don't want anyone coming in and drinking up their. 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:57.000 Milkshake, right, Yeah, they've got Texas is a resource rich 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.679 state in a resource rich country. They don't just have oil, 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.480 they have natural gas and coal, and natural gas plays 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.960 a big part in today's story. There was a really 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:12.120 interesting study I read a number of years ago about 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:18.920 which US states could function autonomously, like just in terms 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.600 of providing resources for the people who already lived there 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.120 other than geopolitical about it. And you know, California is 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.200 on that list, but Texas is on that list too. 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:30.640 It's a big, big place with a lot of stuff, 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.520 very climate. You know, a ton of agriculture as well. 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:39.240 So with all this, with all these resources already at 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:43.120 their fingertips, the powers that be in Texas were able 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:46.920 to fuel their power plants with in state resources. This 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.720 was very important because it meant that they had encapsulated 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:53.880 this industry all within the state lines. 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:55.240 On both ends. 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:57.320 They were kind of think of it as like growing 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:01.240 or harvesting their own power. And then they also only 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:05.360 sending it to places in Texas. That's the way they 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.800 wanted it because otherwise Uncle Sam gets involved and makes 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.600 you do silly things like be prepared. Back in nineteen 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.640 thirty five, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who's the president at the time, 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:20.120 signed something called the Federal Power Act into law. This 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.160 gave an outfit called the Federal Power Commission the ability 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:30.120 slash mandate to oversee all interstate electricity sales. The Federal 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.839 Energy Regulatory Commission replaced it, and they currently handle all 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.800 this stuff today. So what was Texas's solution to what 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:42.520 they saw as federal overreach? Just never cross the state line. 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:44.959 Just don't ever do it, and then we will be 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:49.400 fine here with our lone star approach to energy and 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.200 the rest of you, you other forty nine states. Well, 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:57.000 there weren't fifty at that point. Can continue your own 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:58.680 song and dance, just leave us out of it. 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:00.640 It makes me think of something Hank Hill I'd say, 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:04.320 is like, Wow, would I ever want to leave Texas? Exactly? 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.640 Well, and also, good luck to you Hawaii and Alaska. 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:10.920 Good look getting power lines out to where you are. 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:17.160 Hah right, The caption says laughs in Texan. Yes, So, 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:22.560 Texas flirted with the idea of regulation at various points, 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:27.520 and until the nineteen seventies they have virtually no regulation. 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:32.080 In nineteen seventy, something probably heard a lot of in 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.240 the news recently was formed. It's the Energy Reliability Council 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.280 of Texas or Urkott. Not to be confused as we 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:44.960 discussed earlier with Ergot poisoning or EPCOT at Disney. Urkott 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.800 is not as bad as Ergot poisoning, and it is 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:52.600 probably not as fun to visit there as it is 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.480 to visit Epcott. So I feel like that's a very 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:57.880 fair way, a fair spectrum. You put Urkott off. 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.560 For sure, Well, you definitely can't get a Belgian beer 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:03.560 while walking around parts of Urkot. I don't think it 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:04.120 works that way. 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:11.960 You're right, that's true. You also probably won't get spasms, diarrhea, mania, psychosis, headaches, nausea, vomiting. 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:14.680 Desquamation not EPCOT. 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:15.680 That's not epcot. 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:16.480 That's not epcot. 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.000 That's not that's not what I got's about, man. 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:24.560 Desquamation is a grizzly word of the day. It's it's 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.800 its street name is skin peeling. Anyway, anyway, before I 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.360 take us two far down the wrong rabbit hole. Urkott 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:36.160 was formed largely in reaction to a massive blackout in 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:40.040 November of nineteen sixty five, which some of our listeners 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:46.360 may may remember. When Texas went back to deregulation in 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:52.760 the nineteen nineties, this agency, this institution, Urkott, assumed additional responsibilities, 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:58.040 and the entire time they kept that old, that old goal. 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.320 They stayed beyond the reach of the FEDS. There were 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:05.560 complications because the thing about these sorts of grand, multi 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:09.600 generational schemes with many moving parts is they never work 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:11.800 out one hundred percent. I wish people would just say 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:13.719 that at the top of this kind of stuff. They 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.520 never work out one hundred percent. There are always exceptions, 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.280 there are always missteps, there are always plot twists, and 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:24.680 over the years, Texas itself has breached its energy independence 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.520 a couple of times out of necessity, I would say, yep. 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.240 Once it happened during World War Two, when special provisions 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:35.280 were made to link Texas to other grids and time 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:38.720 of crisis obviously makes sense. Glad they went along with it, 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:40.840 but I guess they could probably have had their arms 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:45.360 twisted as well. Then there's nineteen seventy six, during an 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:49.520 event known as a very sexy event name the Midnight Connection. 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:53.640 It's also our that's the inspiration for our stuff. They'll 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:54.960 want you to know R and B band. 0:13:56.800 --> 0:14:00.040 Yes, yeah, And that was when a Texas utility on 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.360 purpose flipped a switch and sent power to Oklahoma, just 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:06.160 for a few hours. And this was what the Feds 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:09.360 were hoping for, and it set off a massive legal 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.240 battle that could have brought Texas to their knees in 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:18.200 terms of, you know, power autonomy under federal regulators. Ultimately, 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.320 Texas did win the day and ended up staying off 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:22.320 those larger grids. 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.000 And this wasn't the only event. That's one of the 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.360 big ones, right, there's several others, and Texas ended up 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:30.640 in a bit of a have your cake and eat 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:36.000 it too situation. I love the concept there. In twenty eleven, 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:40.800 the state started getting some power from Mexico during another 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.400 set of issues where they were rolling blackouts where they 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:47.280 kind of had to force some people to go without 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.120 power in order to get power to the places that 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:49.840 it needed to be. 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.000 The expression and have your cake and eat it too 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:53.360 is always really fascinating me. 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:53.520 You know. 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.000 It makes me think of Schrodinger's cat. We call it 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:58.840 like it's there and not there at the same time, 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.360 which is to referra to that as Shirtinger's cake. 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.120 I like that, and we we say it this way, 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.200 having your cake and eating it too. Because this connection 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:10.640 to Mexico a couple this one connection that we just 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:13.680 mentioned earlier. It means that Texas right now does have 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:18.240 several power connections to Mexico as well as to the 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:22.200 larger energy grid in the United States. But it doesn't 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.520 mean that they're being regulated by the FEDS. They've they've 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:29.080 they've still got some regulation when it comes to RKAT, 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.520 that Energy and Reliability Group that we're talking about here, 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:39.080 they are kind of looked over in a way. It's 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.880 kind of strange when you read some of the some 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.520 of the ways it works online, but they're they're kind 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:49.040 of overseen by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. And 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:52.160 I only say kind of because it feels a little 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.880 strange sometimes at least from an outside perspective about who 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:58.760 is actually in charge in many situations. 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.320 Yeah. Absolutely, because we talked a little bit about the 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:09.720 territoriality of different stakeholders in the energy industry. The Public 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:14.320 Utilities Commission has been accused of being toothless in the past, 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.760 and that's why you see Urkott getting a lot of 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:23.320 the a lot of the spotlight of infamy and controversy 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:28.480 right now. Urkott does have They have three ties to Mexico, 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:32.800 two ties to the larger Eastern Grid. The US think 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:37.480 of it in terms of three big grids for the country. 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.840 They're not very creative with the names. One is the 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:44.240 Western Interconnection, one is the Eastern Interconnection, and the other 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.480 one is Texas. Ninety percent of Texas falls under the 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:53.600 purview of Urkot, and well, as I think we mentioned earlier, 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:57.800 the parts of Texas that were in that ten percent, 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:01.960 or we're in areas that ha and full deregulated. Whethered 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:07.600 the literal storm better than their neighbors. So all five 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.600 of those links to these other grids can be used 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:12.920 to move commercial power, and they can also be used 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:17.040 in emergencies. But to your point, Matt, they do not 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.560 They do not trigger federal oversight, which is what these 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:29.040 organizations want. Everything was going fine now under a deregulated market. Yes, 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:34.160 many people in Texas were paying more for power than 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.320 they would have in a more regulated market, but that 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:41.679 wasn't necessarily the priority of these companies. Things start to 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:45.119 go wrong earlier this month, in early February, the s 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.560 hit the fan. And by s we mean massive winter storms. 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.119 I really thought you're going to say massive winter. 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:55.720 Well, we'll keep this part in. 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:01.440 They just or we could just bleep the storms. 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:05.600 Remember that line from that robot voice track on Okay Computer. 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.280 He literally says froze and winters. 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:11.680 Yeah, yeah, okay, So let's keep this whole thing. 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.800 So there was this, because we'll need the levity in 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:20.600 a second, there was an unprecedented Matt. You've heard there 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.159 was a massive storm. There were actually two. There was 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.400 a pair of winter storms that caused record low temperatures 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.800 across the state. First one hits February tenth through February eleventh, 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:36.600 and then another one February thirteenth to February seventeenth. Just 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:40.560 for a snap shot, temperatures in Dallas Fort Worth plummeted 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:46.080 to negative two degrees fahrenheit minus nineteen degrees celsius. 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:51.080 And it is clearly like unprecedented, to be fair, maybe 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:55.560 is the right word. This is something that's never really 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:57.000 happened there before, right. 0:18:56.960 --> 0:19:00.000 Right, Yeah, this was a record that hadn't been broken 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.240 in for seventy two years, at the very least in Dallas. 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:07.640 But your absolutely rights, unprecedented for all two hundred and 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:11.240 fifty four or so counties in Texas to have winter 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:16.840 storm warnings. And then things get even worse. Just imagine it. 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.480 Demand for power skyrocketed as people were trying not to 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:25.240 freeze to death. Supply plummeted because you see, the power 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:29.280 plants were also affected by the storm, and one by 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.880 one they started going dark when the people needed them 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:36.800 the most. As a result of this, more than four 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:41.919 point three million homes and businesses in Texas alone lost 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:43.760 power for some amount of time. 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:48.040 Yeah, and forty seven that we know of people lost 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:53.840 their lives as a direct result of this absolute catastrophe. 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.680 And the causes of death here range from the actual 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:02.520 cold itself leading to someone death, to carbon monoxide poisoning 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:06.240 from people attempting to find creative ways to find heat 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:08.600 to get heat to their bodies and into the house, 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:14.199 to drownings to house fires to hypothermia. There were automobile 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:18.760 accidents related with this whole thing. It's just it's been tough, 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:21.520 and I think the way you put it as a 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:27.400 catastrophe is it's almost a too light of a word, 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:29.280 but it's a terrible thing that has gone on. 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:32.000 It's certainly a step up from a disaster because it's 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.760 like literally a perfect storm where so many things went 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:37.320 wrong at the same time. 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:42.560 Exactly well put. And this leads us to our question 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:47.320 what happens when things go wrong? How did we get here, 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:52.120 and perhaps most importantly, what happens next. We'll dive into 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:53.920 this after a word from our sponsor. 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:02.159 Here's where it gets. 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:09.760 Crazy, corruption conspiracy. Since Texas did not have federal oversight, 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.800 the various people that would be described as stakeholders in 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:17.680 this energy game were not mandated to do things that 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:22.040 other organizations and other states do have to do. They 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:27.840 didn't institute certain safety measures like winterizing equipment and facilities. 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:31.080 Winterrizing is being thrown around like a buzzword, but it 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.560 just means weather proofing, you know what I mean, Like, 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:38.640 it just means let's get maybe insulator material around various 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:41.280 equipment and components and structures. 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:43.639 On a smaller scale, it reminds me a lot of 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:46.159 what happened here in Atlanta several years ago with the 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:48.760 snow Pockellipse. On a much smaller scale, this was more 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:54.080 a situation of massive inconvenience. I believe a few people 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:58.320 maybe died in traffic situations like cars sliding off the 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:00.520 roads and all that, but it was just they just 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:04.840 weren't prepared, you know, for that level of icing of roads. 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:09.680 And this is that but on a completely fundamental level 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:13.760 that affects so many things. Because again that word interconnectedness, 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:14.240 and we're. 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:15.320 Going to get to a lot of that. But one 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:18.840 of the reasons that it is not quite the same, 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.200 but it is applicable here. The situation in Atlanta during 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:25.680 snow apocalypse is that Atlanta as a city learned from 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:28.320 what occurred. And I don't know if you guys remember, 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:31.720 but we've had some pretty intense snow since that time, 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:35.320 and there is now an infrastructure built up around it, 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:38.119 and the infrastructure has been improved to the extent where 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:40.639 the highways at least are not going to be a 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:44.399 place where a ton of motorists get caught up for 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:45.320 a couple of days. 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:48.760 I have anything. They overprep now or they like overreact, 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:49.200 you know. 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:53.960 Oh, I'll I'll know if that will last, because we 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:55.680 have to we have to be very conscious folks, and 0:22:56.480 --> 0:22:58.320 it's our city, so I think it's fine for us 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:02.280 to dunk on it. We live in a where part 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.919 of the interstate will just sort of drop out of 0:23:05.960 --> 0:23:09.760 the sky. Like remember one time a bridge on eighty 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:12.600 five just like part of it just wasn't there, and 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:16.199 we got a really sketchy story about people starting a 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:20.280 fire a bridge, which is like an episode of Always Sunny. 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:23.480 They also blamed it on like the homeless population, smoking 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:27.439 math or something that ended up being a complete fabrication 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:29.399 or at the very least a real reach. 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:32.439 I am not I'm not speaking to this nonsense of 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:34.280 which you are speaking. This is nonsense, and I agree 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:38.000 all that stuff ridiculous. Watch my video on YouTube, which 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:39.879 you can still find, I think on our YouTube channel 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:43.480 of the of the burning of a highway in Atlanta. 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:49.120 But what I mean is a very specific thing occurred 0:23:49.359 --> 0:23:52.640 that was a major problem. And let's be honest here 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:57.399 a pr issue for sure for the city, and steps 0:23:57.440 --> 0:23:57.919 were taken. 0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:01.399 Sure, yeah, but then we also have to consider again 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:04.399 It's like the argument I set up at the very 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:10.359 very top. People, there's a great quote in literature. Maybe 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:12.520 it was Chekhov, soone check me on this, check me 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:15.679 on my checkof I can't remember which authors said it, 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:18.119 but they said, like the mark of a good story 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:20.920 and a good writer is when the author becomes invisible. 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:24.560 That's the mark of good infrastructure as well. I know 0:24:24.720 --> 0:24:28.680 this might be maybe unpopular, something people don't want to 0:24:28.720 --> 0:24:31.160 hear right now, But if we look at this situation 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:34.919