ENB Pub Note: This article is from Joanna Friebele on Substack, and we recommend subscribing! This is an important story from Texas and the Permian Basin. We will cover this on the podcast later in the week.
“Electricity is to modern civilization what blood is to the human body.” A quote from Energy Expert Lars Schernikau. And the truth is much of the ERCOT grid has clogged arteries just like we do, all due to bad decisions. Corporate and political actors under false pretenses of job creation and tax revenues have driven what is now a desperate rush for more gains by initiating a plan for “reliability” for all, through massive transmission lines fish boning across the country. It is presented with the guise of improving our grid health and future needs, but it will be off the backs of customers with little say in decisions that have already been made at the top. Bad decisions to patch the last bad decisions.
Despite all the talk about needing public input and feedback, the system is rigged to only include our voices after the fact, with little to no binding impact for that participation. The system is rigged for us to be in defensive mode; we need to be in offensive mode. We do have a say, and we need our voice to be heard, and we need to make a stand.
Many of you have been reading about the transmission lines in the ERCOT region, but you are thinking it really that doesn’t concern me, they aren’t near me. Most people just want to flip the switch and the lights work, it just needs to happen, after all it is a service we pay for and expect. That’s where you are wrong. THIS PROJECT AFFECTS US ALL – EVERYONE WITH AN ELECTRIC METER! WE PAY!
The original price estimate of $33 billion will cost you another $10-$20 dollars a month, depending on how long they want to recover their investment. You know how estimates are, it will likely end up being closer to $50 to $60 Billion, so more like $20-$40 on your monthly bill.
While many people can absorb an extra charge, many cannot. The ERCOT system has 27 million customers and about 1/3 of them have some trouble paying their electric bills. That’s huge! What will another extra charge do to them?
This affects the least able to afford it more than anyone else, our elders on a fixed income, single mothers trying to make ends meet, young people trying to buy their first home and start a family, and many more. We all need to have access to affordable electricity.
The sad thing is that people in cities know nothing about this project and the costs coming to them in their future bills, and their news outlets will not carry this information to inform them. While rural Texas is being inundated, landowners are losing control of about 71,000 acres of their land.
I am asking you to do just that, inform as many people as possible in Texas cities and have them contact their senators and representatives. They don’t need these bills just like we don’t need these gargantuan power lines on our land. There are better ways, and more thought needs to be put into more careful planning. This urgent rush is very evident in the TSP’s documentation to the PUC, as the they push to get this done as quickly as possible.
AI is causing part of the problem, but AI will sort out their own issues, and these lines will be left as a monument to stupidity and greed with us holding the bag on the cost. Local generation and local microgrids are much more secure and reasonable answers to the problem. Nuclear in the form of smaller reactors will be available long before this grid is built. The Army is already working on it for their own security and the Navy has had them in submarines for over 50 years! There are many companies rushing to get to the finish line first.
The Permian Basin is the energy capital of the world, they are perfectly capable of building their own generation and local grids to service themselves. This plan is based on their need for reliability, which sounds absurd.
The solar and wind industries have brought this upon us with a dilute land covering generation source that now needs more transmission, billions more in batteries and government loans to gas generators for peaker plants, all for wind and solar to stay relevant. They have cost us enough including lives due to their intermittent nature and strain on the grid. Now they want us to pay to fix it! It’s time for people to step up and speak up. Or the alternative of pay up! Which would you prefer?
There is a lot of information on the transmission lines on the Edwards Plateau Alliance website (EdwardsPA.com) on what you can do and how to voice your opinion. You can protest this project, you don’t have to be an affected landowner, though they would prefer you didn’t know this. If you are going to pay more – you should have a voice.
Source: Joanna Friebele on Substack, and we recommend subscribing.
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