DescentBB

How many here believe the fire in Maui was caused by man made climate warming like the Dims are now claiming? Well you'd be wrong. It was the electrical company who neglected to turn the grid off under a high wind warning...that and neglecting to clear the brush under the power lines. And the 100 people who died can blame the water Czar who dithered about letting the fire fighters from using extra water to fight the fire. Ain't liberalism grand!

I hear it was really dry on the island, though. More try than normal.

Climate change doesn't have to create the initial spark that starts the fire, it just has to provide the conditions that let it more easily grow out of control.

woodchip wrote: ↑Mon Aug 28, 2023 6:10 pm How many here believe the fire in Maui was caused by man made climate warming like the Dims are now claiming? Well you'd be wrong. It was the electrical company who neglected to turn the grid off under a high wind warning...that and neglecting to clear the brush under the power lines. And the 100 people who died can blame the water Czar who dithered about letting the fire fighters from using extra water to fight the fire. Ain't liberalism grand!

Ain't conservatism grand. They'd rather blame liberals than themselves or humanity itself instead of working to remediate the problems caused by excessive human growth into formerly pristine wild areas, poor land and farm management, invasive plant species run amok and especially a changing climate. Right now in my little town north of me, I hear them cutting down trees and bulldozing for roads/lots just to build more subdivisions within those forests and former farmland with absolutely no considerations about future clean water supplies or that those trees nestled tightly around their lovely homes are a 100+ feet tall and can burn like gasoline soaked torches in the summer.

You just can't make people happy can you? Stop urban growth, then people ★■◆● that they need housing. Shut off the power when wind is forecast and they ★■◆● about that. Leave it on and then they ★■◆● when their homes burn. They ★■◆● when the water supplies are scarce and then complain when they have to choose between drinking water supplies or water needed for fire fighting. You sit there in your lounge chair and ★■◆● about liberals when you have absolutely no idea of the scope of our problems OR even want to be part of the solution. You and your whole damn party is part of the problem because they'd rather ★■◆● about liberals than work WITH liberals to come up with viable solutions for all of humanity. Go suck eggs.

Of all the complete ★■◆● takes woody has ever posted, this ranks up there. What a tool.

Top Gun wrote: ↑Mon Aug 28, 2023 11:21 pm Of all the complete ★■◆● takes woody has ever posted, this ranks up there. What a tool.

I can make a worse take: Breaking Bad is an isekai.

I have been advocating the mitigation of the effects of climate change for decades. (my water resource plan for instance)

I had a long discussion right here on this board with slick and others that simply poo pooed all of my ideas but instead insisted the only thing that was important was reducing carbon burning. (how is that working out for you?)

So, I don't think it's really fair to blame conservatives alone for not taking action to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Tunnelcat wrote: ↑Mon Aug 28, 2023 10:43 pm

woodchip wrote: ↑Mon Aug 28, 2023 6:10 pm How many here believe the fire in Maui was caused by man made climate warming like the Dims are now claiming? Well you'd be wrong. It was the electrical company who neglected to turn the grid off under a high wind warning...that and neglecting to clear the brush under the power lines. And the 100 people who died can blame the water Czar who dithered about letting the fire fighters from using extra water to fight the fire. Ain't liberalism grand!

Ain't conservatism grand. They'd rather blame liberals than themselves or humanity itself instead of working to remediate the problems caused by excessive human growth into formerly pristine wild areas, poor land and farm management, invasive plant species run amok and especially a changing climate. Right now in my little town north of me, I hear them cutting down trees and bulldozing for roads/lots just to build more subdivisions within those forests and former farmland with absolutely no considerations about future clean water supplies or that those trees nestled tightly around their lovely homes are a 100+ feet tall and can burn like gasoline soaked torches in the summer.

You just can't make people happy can you? Stop urban growth, then people ★■◆● that they need housing. Shut off the power when wind is forecast and they ★■◆● about that. Leave it on and then they ★■◆● when their homes burn. They ★■◆● when the water supplies are scarce and then complain when they have to choose between drinking water supplies or water needed for fire fighting. You sit there in your lounge chair and ★■◆● about liberals when you have absolutely no idea of the scope of our problems OR even want to be part of the solution. You and your whole damn party is part of the problem because they'd rather ★■◆● about liberals than work WITH liberals to come up with viable solutions for all of humanity. Go suck eggs.

The OP wasn't about conservatism or liberalism. It was about the real cause of the Maui fire. Want to say a dry weather cycle contributed, that's fair enough, but the question remains if direct human ineptness hadn't occurred, would the fire have happened? Done as much damage? Would 100+ people have died? Would a idiot President you voted in have gone there and told some tall tale about some minor kitchen fire was a reason he could empathize with the families who lost everything. And I would suck eggs if it would help the Maui families who lost loved ones. And what have the liberals done to help "all of humanity" One has only to look at cities like Chicago to get a taste of what liberals do.

Top Gun wrote: ↑Mon Aug 28, 2023 11:21 pm Of all the complete ★■◆● takes woody has ever posted, this ranks up there. What a tool.

And what is the take of the Great Educator? All I ever see is a tool of the lefts only ability is to name call. Is this how you teach...or do you indoctrinate? Hate to see how you handle a student if he doesn't agree with you.

I agree with you Spidey. Pushing only carbon emissions reduction is a fools errand that liberals seem too focused on. We're already past greenhouse gas reduction as a solution with the arctic permafrost already melting and releasing methane by the tons. Add in other countries not on board and we're just spitting into the wind in the U.S. We can't stop the runaway carbon train now. And the huge push to get rid of natural gas for home heating and electrical power generation is getting a lot of pushback here and I think the ploy is being very shortsighted. Already we've had power grids being stressed to the point that our power companies have asked for people to cut back on power usage during our recent heat waves. The power grid in its current state doesn't have the capacity for everyone from now on to have an electric car or electric home heat. The lack of viable alternative electrical power generation is seriously lacking in the rush to get rid of all carbon emissions, forgetting that natural gas is way cleaner than coal and safer than nuclear. And solar may be an alternative, but the controversy here, right now, is that those solar farms they're planning are taking over viable productive farmland.

But all the extreme right wants is the status quo. More dirty coal plants with their dirty emissions and toxic ash ponds, more gasoline production, more gas and diesel vehicles, no research into alternative power generation or modes of travel at all. Drill baby drill and leaking oil pipelines are great. Tough luck to those people who's land or water becomes long term polluted because of those leaking pipelines. Keep right on breeding more humans and taking increasingly drier and drier land for those people to live on. Who cares that water tables aren't being recharged and that theyll eventually run out of water, for drinking AND agriculture. Bulldoze forests and farmland for housing. No thought as to fires or water availability affecting those new developments. No thought as to dwindling food production because of lack of land and water for all those new people. Woody and his ilk can go to hell whenever they blame liberals when THEY are just as much part of the problem. At least liberals see the threat and are trying to do something, as ham fisted and short sighted as it is.

woodchip wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 9:23 amThe OP wasn't about conservatism or liberalism. It was about the real cause of the Maui fire. Want to say a dry weather cycle contributed, that's fair enough, but the question remains if direct human ineptness hadn't occurred, would the fire have happened? Done as much damage? Would 100+ people have died? Would a idiot President you voted in have gone there and told some tall tale about some minor kitchen fire was a reason he could empathize with the families who lost everything. And I would suck eggs if it would help the Maui families who lost loved ones. And what have the liberals done to help "all of humanity" One has only to look at cities like Chicago to get a taste of what liberals do.

Yes it was. The word "Dims" was pretty clear. You blame liberals for that fire and you have no sympathy for those dead people because you don't know them personally and they're just pawns in your hateful political aspirations. Should I start saying conservatives are to blame for coal ash slurry ponds failing, killing and poisoning people and destroying whole communities, or people and whole communities adversely affected by your beloved leaking toxic oil pipelines? I could make that claim and be right. You are sick.

Tunnelcat wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 9:32 amThe lack of viable alternative electrical power generation is seriously lacking in the rush to get rid of all carbon emissions, forgetting that natural gas is way cleaner than coal and safer than nuclear.

We already have many ways to make nuclear power much safer than it has been in the past. But they would require major government oversight, safety standards, and routine inspections, something conservatives would oppose.

Also, for woody: If someone took a can of gasoline and poured it all over your kitchen, but didn't actually light it, are you saying it would be your fault that your house burned down when you next turned on your stove?

Darth Wang wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 9:59 am
Also, for woody: If someone took a can of gasoline and poured it all over your kitchen, but didn't actually light it, are you saying it would be your fault that your house burned down when you next turned on your stove?

Yes

Spidey wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 10:40 am

Darth Wang wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 9:59 am
Also, for woody: If someone took a can of gasoline and poured it all over your kitchen, but didn't actually light it, are you saying it would be your fault that your house burned down when you next turned on your stove?

Yes

If I left my door car doors unlocked in a bad neighborhood and returned only to find my wheels and catalytic converter had been stolen, is it my fault?

No, but you would be just as dumb as a fool that would strike a match in a room full of gasoline fumes.

Gandhi wouldn't be proud of this post:

Spidey wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 1:18 pm No, but you would be just as dumb as a fool that would strike a match in a room full of gasoline fumes.

Or I could be more dumb and say that was a trick question: It was my fault for owning a car.

Spidey wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 7:18 am I have been advocating the mitigation of the effects of climate change for decades. (my water resource plan for instance)

I had a long discussion right here on this board with slick and others that simply poo pooed all of my ideas but instead insisted the only thing that was important was reducing carbon burning. (how is that working out for you?)

So, I don't think it's really fair to blame conservatives alone for not taking action to mitigate the effects of climate change.

At least the way you have this phrased here it sounds like "mitigating the effects" isn't the same as "correcting the root cause". If everyone went after your ideas, perhaps it was because they were only treating the symptoms and not the disease?

As for woodchip, blaming the weather on "Dimms"? Perhaps if the climate hadn't dried up, the place wouldn't have been a tinderbox in the first place, but we all know you are too "Dim" to notice that.

Also typical conservative, talking about a problem that he hates all proposed solutions to. (See also: Climate, Gun Violence, Drugs, Immigration, Inequality, Etc.)

It's always best to treat both the symptoms and the disease.

You are making a false assumption that I don't advocate both, but I simply leave all of the disease curing to others because there are plenty of people advocating that and the solutions are brain dead obvious, so why just add to the noise.

I think people don't advocate mitigation out of the fear that somehow everyone would just get used to the new normal and stop trying to cure the disease.

Obviously the solutions aren't obvious, or the 2 political parties wouldn't be fighting over solutions that've been already put forth. So far, I've seen no "solutions" from the far right side of the isle, other than to continue down the road as we have in the past, drill for more oil, build more pipelines and keep on growing our population without any planning for the future lack of water and dry fuel fires destroying property in our new hotter normal. In other words, nothing essentially. However, as insurance companies refuse to insure more and more homes in the increasing number of fire prone areas, reality will hit home, as in California. There are also tornadoes and hurricanes, which are getting larger and stronger. Soon, tornado alley and many coastal areas will join fire prone areas and become property insurance deserts. Build at your own risk.

And the left wants to rush headlong into electricity for everything, but with no long term non-problematic solutions to deal with old, under capacity power grids and few clean alternatives to coal and gas power generation. We have hydropower in the PNW, but those dams have almost made native salmon go extinct and smelt runs are now gone. Windmills have a waste blade problem and require the use of oil to produce. They kill birds too. Solar takes up valuable land that's needed for farming. Solar panels are dirty to produce as well. Lithium batteries are expensive to replace once they've reached their end of life in a car and a lot of owners will suddenly get sticker shock just to replace them. Mining lithium is environmentally destructive, not clean at all.

Darth, there are several small scale reactor companies like NuScale out there with working concepts for safe small local power plants. But like all fission reactors, we still have the waste to deal with long term and security issues around the plants themselves.

woodchip wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 9:31 am And what is the take of the Great Educator? All I ever see is a tool of the lefts only ability is to name call. Is this how you teach...or do you indoctrinate? Hate to see how you handle a student if he doesn't agree with you.

My "take" is that you listed some of the immediate causes of the actual event while predictably neglecting to mention the giant 2-ton elephant in the room: a rapidly-intensifying drought, coupled with invasive grass species leftover from over a century's worth of plantation land misuse, and topped off by crazy winds driven by stronger-than-ever tropical systems. In other words, climate change, plain and simple.

And I don't need to justify your bull★■◆● with a response, but for the record, given that I teach an entirely-objective subject, unless we're discussing a topic of opinions, if a student doesn't agree with me, they're wrong. But when they're wrong, I use that as a teaching moment, because they're kids who are just learning the material and have every excuse in the world to be mistaken sometimes. You, on the other hand, have long since squandered any benefit of the doubt, so I deal with you as I would any other total waste of oxygen.

Tunnelcat wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 9:32 am I agree with you Spidey. Pushing only carbon emissions reduction is a fools errand that liberals seem too focused on. We're already past greenhouse gas reduction as a solution with the arctic permafrost already melting and releasing methane by the tons. Add in other countries not on board and we're just spitting into the wind in the U.S. We can't stop the runaway carbon train now. And the huge push to get rid of natural gas for home heating and electrical power generation is getting a lot of pushback here and I think the ploy is being very shortsighted. Already we've had power grids being stressed to the point that our power companies have asked for people to cut back on power usage during our recent heat waves. The power grid in its current state doesn't have the capacity for everyone from now on to have an electric car or electric home heat. The lack of viable alternative electrical power generation is seriously lacking in the rush to get rid of all carbon emissions, forgetting that natural gas is way cleaner than coal and safer than nuclear. And solar may be an alternative, but the controversy here, right now, is that those solar farms they're planning are taking over viable productive farmland.

I'm sorry, but saying "we can't stop this now" is defeatist bull★■◆● that's used to justify doing absolutely nothing. "Things are really bad, so why should we bother?" Because the alternative is far, FAR worse. If we take major action now, we can still mitigate the worst effects of future climate change, and put the infrastructure in place to start reducing it in the future. If we don't do anything, we're committing global suicide. So you tell me, what's the better approach?

Yes, we need to invest in infrastructure improvements to our power grid. That's part and parcel with shifting to better energy-generation methods. No, natural gas is not substantially cleaner than coal when it comes to carbon emissions, and it's sure as hell not safer than nuclear power. Nuclear power generation is every bit as safe as solar and wind power in terms of actual impacts to overall human health. And hey, guess what, if you plan right you can grow crops and harvest solar energy on the same patch of land. It's almost like people are capable of figuring out solutions to these problems if given the opportunity to do so!

Tunnelcat wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 7:59 pmLithium batteries are expensive to replace once they've reached their end of life in a car and a lot of owners will suddenly get sticker shock just to replace them. Mining lithium is environmentally destructive, not clean at all.

Fascinating video, Krom. But I would never walk near that place without a mask. I especially wouldn't be near an open bag of "black mass" without a mask either. I don't know what grade of mask you would need to protect against battery particles, but that's something do no want in my lungs and body.

Top Gun, I didn't say we should throw up our hands and give in to our fate. I said it's probably already too late to stop the inevitable warming. The arctic permafrost is already melting and all that previously frozen organic matter is now rotting and releasing methane. That heavy carbon train is already moving. But of course, we should do whatever we can to slow it's progress. But right now, no efforts are being made to upgrade our fragile power grid. It just doesn't have the capacity to suddenly charge everyone's cars or power everyone's furnaces right now. It's already strained to the point of failure during hot and cold weather. In fact, there was talk about removing some of the Snake River dams in order to save more salmon. Yet no one offered replacement power generation methods for losing the power those dams produce or for the loss of water for agriculture. Yes, NG is carbon intensive, but until we put forth the effort to upgrade and harden our power grid, and I see little movement on that right now, outright banning natural gas in new homes and businesses is putting the cart before the horse. People in the Willamete Valley have already gotten 2 of those bans that were installed by city commisioners reversed by a vote, and we're a very liberal state. If we want to reduce carbon, do so in a more planned way that makes sense and that people will support, en masse.

Krom, I wasn't talking about Lithium battery recycling. I was talking about mining it, and Cobalt too.

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/02/09/ ... sts-of-evs

Then there's the issue of the composite blades with wind turbines, both in production and end of life disposal.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 3X17300491

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-polit ... ades-dump/

Everything we humans produce has an impact. But we shouldn't trade one problem for another and call it "green".

Sorry folks, my comfort is way more important than how habitable the earth will be in 500 years. Let those losers worry about it.

Don't get me wrong Vander. I'm for mitigating as much carbon as possible. The next car I purchase will probably be an electric. I DO like the concept and the technology has progressed quite far. Plus, maintenance isn't nearly as intensive as with a gas powered car and I already have a 50 amp plug installed in my garage for a level 2 charger. And our electricity in the PNW is pretty cheap compared to the rest of the country.

Meanwhile, a very not-so-normally-dry Maui continues to burn. I wonder if woody understands that the very WET tropical paradise we all knew in the 1960's is now turning into a dry windblown grassland that burns very easily. People on the islands have no clue as to wildfires. Rain, Tsunamis and volcanoes maybe, but not wildfires. The "Dims" certainly had nothing to do with this new fire either. More structures were lost as well.

https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-new ... contained/

And the power company is claiming that the early morning fire started by their downed lines that fateful morning was actually initially put out. Then another fire of unknown origin started a little further a ways, even though they claim the power was still turned off. The area is now very DRY. Any spark will start a fire anywhere there and the high winds from that hurricane sent it downwind in a hurry. The fire company had no chance to stop it the second time. Say what you want about the botched response and warning systems, but they'd never dealt with fire like this before. You know, because it's normally WET in Hawaii.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/28/hawaiia ... fires.html

TC, I should also point out that your rant about the power grid not being able to handle increasing amounts of electrification is wrong. Not everything will be electrified overnight and upgrades to the grid are happening constantly at an accelerating rate. Just in my area which is practically the middle of nowhere they are building lots of wind and solar farms. The other big thing renewables need is grid storage and that is also being worked on at a massive scale. By the time everyone has gone full electric the grid will be able to handle it just fine. For the most part the grid can handle today just fine, and the investment to make it able to handle tomorrow is happening. The problems with electrification are solvable, the problems with fossil fuels are not.

Tunnelcat wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 9:10 am Krom, I wasn't talking about Lithium battery recycling. I was talking about mining it, and Cobalt too.

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/02/09/ ... sts-of-evs

Then there's the issue of the composite blades with wind turbines, both in production and end of life disposal.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 3X17300491

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-polit ... ades-dump/

Everything we humans produce has an impact. But we shouldn't trade one problem for another and call it "green".

I want to call these statements out, because I don't see what you're going for with them. Yes, any method for generating electricity is going to have some sort of impact on the planet. There is indeed no such thing as a free lunch. But when the choice is between current methods that cause massive health and environmental impacts on a global scale, versus newer methods that cause substantially smaller impacts on a local scale, the choice is obvious.

Krom wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 3:08 pm TC, I should also point out that your rant about the power grid not being able to handle increasing amounts of electrification is wrong. Not everything will be electrified overnight and upgrades to the grid are happening constantly at an accelerating rate. Just in my area which is practically the middle of nowhere they are building lots of wind and solar farms. The other big thing renewables need is grid storage and that is also being worked on at a massive scale. By the time everyone has gone full electric the grid will be able to handle it just fine. For the most part the grid can handle today just fine, and the investment to make it able to handle tomorrow is happening. The problems with electrification are solvable, the problems with fossil fuels are not.

Krom, you should know full well that upgrades to our national grid will cost money, a lot of it. Most people in this country right now probably wouldn't be willing to fork over the cash to harden and upgrade the grid. Barring the domestic terrorist issues on local substations, which is already a small problem, most people can't afford it or see the need for it, yet. Of course, once the power starts going out all the time and they can't get on the net to surf their social platforms, shop, or charge their phones and cars to drive anywhere, or even heat or cool their homes, then the poop will hit the fan and people will scream bloody murder. That's usually how things work in the country. The wheel won't get greased until it's frozen solid.

In many older cities in the country, the grid was built in the 1950's and hasn't been upgraded significantly at all. The Texas grid already has issues during extreme heat and cold. Some of our local cities are asking customers to conserve during heat waves right now. The power lines in my neighborhood were installed in ground 40 years ago. The company that installed them claimed a 20 year life. Those wires are now 20 years past that, and are failing. But no one is forking over the cash to replace them all. Right now, it's replace when they fail, no preventative replacement at all because there's no cash. I'm with you on electrifying the country, but I'm a realist. It just isn't going to be done overnight. NuScale, promising to build SMR's, is even running into resistance trying to get their reactors certified and up and running, from environmental groups and red tape. Their plans keep getting pushed back, to 2029 at this point, if not further.

https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/ ... ar-nuclear

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/0 ... -reactors/

Top Gun, can we get everything electrified, in the world, without poisoning ourselves first? It's a race against time, but hopefully not impossible. Right now, REE's (rare earth elements) are king. The mining of those minerals rips up and poisons the land, period. Alternative technologies and methods are coming down the pipeline, but will it be fast enough and sustainable? I'm not against mitigating CO2, but are we rushing into things without thought and planning? Right now, it appears that way.

https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/ ... stainably/

https://hir.harvard.edu/not-so-green-te ... th-mining/

Speaking of power lines, I've been making custom printable navigational maps and one of the features I like to add are large power lines. I also add cellphone towers (these are hard to get), wind turbines, churches, and other large towers. Not to mention natural geographic info. And I also mark the magnetic declination lines on the map itself. If anyone wants one, let me know the area and I'll post it in the PTMC gallery for you to download.

Tunnelcat wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 2:35 pm Krom, you should know full well that upgrades to our national grid will cost money, a lot of it. Most people in this country right now probably wouldn't be willing to fork over the cash to harden and upgrade the grid. Barring the domestic terrorist issues on local substations, which is already a small problem, most people can't afford it or see the need for it, yet. Of course, once the power starts going out all the time and they can't get on the net to surf their social platforms, shop, or charge their phones and cars to drive anywhere, or even heat or cool their homes, then the poop will hit the fan and people will scream bloody murder. That's usually how things work in the country. The wheel won't get greased until it's frozen solid.

In many older cities in the country, the grid was built in the 1950's and hasn't been upgraded significantly at all. The Texas grid already has issues during extreme heat and cold. Some of our local cities are asking customers to conserve during heat waves right now. The power lines in my neighborhood were installed in ground 40 years ago. The company that installed them claimed a 20 year life. Those wires are now 20 years past that, and are failing. But no one is forking over the cash to replace them all. Right now, it's replace when they fail, no preventative replacement at all because there's no cash. I'm with you on electrifying the country, but I'm a realist. It just isn't going to be done overnight. NuScale, promising to build SMR's, is even running into resistance trying to get their reactors certified and up and running, from environmental groups and red tape. Their plans keep getting pushed back, to 2029 at this point, if not further.

https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/ ... ar-nuclear

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/0 ... -reactors/

Top Gun, can we get everything electrified, in the world, without poisoning ourselves first? It's a race against time, but hopefully not impossible. Right now, REE's (rare earth elements) are king. The mining of those minerals rips up and poisons the land, period. Alternative technologies and methods are coming down the pipeline, but will it be fast enough and sustainable? I'm not against mitigating CO2, but are we rushing into things without thought and planning? Right now, it appears that way.

https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/ ... stainably/

https://hir.harvard.edu/not-so-green-te ... th-mining/

And like I said, this money is already being spent! What do you think huge portions of the green energy bill Biden signed into law went to?

Funny you should bring up Texas having issues. Texas has their own electric grid separate from the national grid because Texas is a libertarian paradise free from onerous federal regulations on the electric grid like reliability in bad weather and stuff like that. Literally the whole point of the Texas grid being a total piece of ★■◆● is because they made it that way on purpose! Similarly to how California privatized and deregulated their electric grid and it quickly turned into a complete and total cluster ★■◆● with huge wildfires and rolling blackouts. I bet if you are having issues with your local grid failing or not getting upgraded it is because your state or area deregulated it and now the invisible hand of the free market is entirely focused on picking your pocket and not doing anything else.

They deregulated electricity in Oregon for industrial and commercial customers only, not residential and I'm on a co-op power company in my location. Decades ago, it was known for constant power failures and mismanagement. Customers got fed up and voted in a whole new group of board members. Things have been better since, but they pretty much only have money to replace equipment. If they have to buy power beyond what they've contracted for during the year, they have to pay a much higher market rate from Bonneville. During the last hot spell, the power company south of me almost had to buy extra. Fortunately, customers responded to their calls for conservation and that was avoided.

At least here, the only infrastructure upgrading I've seen so far is overhead internet fiber being installed. However, I won't benefit from that unless they start installing that fiber underground in my neighborhood and give Comcast some competition. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening.

I know about Texas and their snooty private little grid. They start whining whenever their grid crashes and burns. Frankly, I hope they roast in the summer and freeze in the winter and go fly a kite when they get in trouble and ask for an interconnect to get extra power.