XPost: tx.politics, sac.politics, alt.global-warming   
   XPost: rec.sport.football.college   
   From: the-ignorant-left@facebook.com   
      
   Basically, Texas has its own grid to avoid dealing with — you   
   guessed it — the feds. But grid independence has been violated a   
   few times over the years — not even counting Mexico's help   
   during blackouts in 2011.   
      
   Why does Texas have its own electric grid?   
      
   Texas' secessionist inclinations have at least one modern   
   outlet: the electric grid. There are three grids in the Lower 48   
   states: the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection   
   — and Texas.   
      
   The Texas grid is called ERCOT, and it is run by an agency of   
   the same name — the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. ERCOT   
   does not actually cover all of Texas. El Paso is on another   
   grid, as is the upper Panhandle and a chunk of East Texas. This   
   presumably has to do with the history of various utilities'   
   service territories and the remoteness of the non-ERCOT   
   locations (for example the Panhandle is closer to Kansas than to   
   Dallas, notes Kenneth Starcher of the Alternative Energy   
   Institute in Canyon), but Texplainer is still figuring out the   
   particulars on this.   
      
   The separation of the Texas grid from the rest of the country   
   has its origins in the evolution of electric utilities early   
   last century. In the decades after Thomas Edison turned on the   
   country's first power plant in Manhattan in 1882, small   
   generating plants sprouted across Texas, bringing electric light   
   to cities. Later, particularly during the first world war,   
   utilities began to link themselves together. These ties, and the   
   accompanying transmission network, grew further during the   
   second world war, when several Texas utilities joined together   
   to form the Texas Interconnected System, which allowed them to   
   link to the big dams along Texas rivers and also send extra   
   electricity to support the ramped-up factories aiding the war   
   effort.   
      
   The Texas Interconnected System — which for a long time was   
   actually operated by two discrete entities, one for northern   
   Texas and one for southern Texas — had another priority: staying   
   out of the reach of federal regulators. In 1935, President   
   Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Power Act, which   
   charged the Federal Power Commission with overseeing interstate   
   electricity sales. By not crossing state lines, Texas utilities   
   avoided being subjected to federal rules. "Freedom from federal   
   regulation was a cherished goal — more so because Texas had no   
   regulation until the 1970s," writes Richard D. Cudahy in a 1995   
   article, "The Second Battle of the Alamo: The Midnight   
   Connection." (Self-reliance was also made easier in Texas,   
   especially in the early days, because the state has substantial   
   coal, natural gas and oil resources of its own to fuel power   
   plants.)   
      
   ERCOT was formed in 1970, in the wake of a major blackout in the   
   Northeast in November 1965, and it was tasked with managing grid   
   reliability in accordance with national standards. The agency   
   assumed additional responsibilities following electric   
   deregulation in Texas a decade ago. The ERCOT grid remains   
   beyond the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory   
   Commission, which succeeded the Federal Power Commission and   
   regulates interstate electric transmission.   
      
   Historically, the Texas grid's independence has been violated a   
   few times. Once was during World War II, when special provisions   
   were made to link Texas to other grids, according to Cudahy.   
   Another episode occurred in 1976 after a Texas utility, for   
   reasons relating to its own regulatory needs, deliberately   
   flipped a switch and sent power to Oklahoma for a few hours.   
   This event, known as the "Midnight Connection," set off a major   
   legal battle that could have brought Texas under the   
   jurisdiction of federal regulators, but it was ultimately   
   resolved in favor of continued Texan independence.   
      
   Even today, ERCOT is also not completely isolated from other   
   grids — as was evident  when the state imported some power from   
   Mexico during the rolling blackouts of 2011. ERCOT has three   
   ties to Mexico and — as an outcome of the "Midnight Connection"   
   battle — it also has two ties to the eastern U.S. grid, though   
   they do not trigger federal regulation for ERCOT. All can move   
   power commercially as well as be used in emergencies, according   
   to ERCOT spokeswoman Dottie Roark. A possible sixth   
   interconnection project, in Rusk County, is being studied, and   
   another ambitious proposal, called Tres Amigas, would link the   
   three big U.S. grids together in New Mexico, though Texas' top   
   utility regulator has shown little enthusiasm for participating.   
      
   Bottom line: Texas has its own grid to avoid dealing with the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)