Remember the Main

           From CBS News

"To ensure destruction of all harmful bacteria and other microbes, water for drinking, cooking, and ice making should be boiled and cooled prior to use for drinking water or human consumption purposes… The water should be brought to a vigorous rolling boil and then boiled for two minutes." 

City of Odessa statement, Texas after a water main broke, causing a water loss for at least two days

"How can we boil water that we don't have?" A wise Odessa resident.

One thing the GOP-leadership in Texas loves to spend money on: finishing Trump’s border wall, stopping truck traffic from Mexico for roadworthiness inspections (after US Customs inspected the vehicles at the border, letting produce rot in a state where 35% of its produce comes from Mexico), enforcing anti-abortion, social media restrictions and anti-CRT laws (including legal cost to fight battles in federal courts), volunteering Texas National Guard to protect the border, fighting disease control limitations, expanding civilian gun-use and executing prisoners. But they hate, really hate, spending money on public schools and infrastructure that has long-since worn out.

The state’s latest bout with a 60-year-old water and sewage system during a horrific heat wave, from the June 14th The Texas Tribune: “More than 165,000 residents in Odessa have gone nearly 24 hours without water as a major water line break occurred in the West Texas town — and may need to boil water once service is restored.

“The break occurred at 6 p.m. Monday [6/13], and Mayor Javier Joven said it was difficult for maintenance crews to isolate the break, leading them to shut down the city’s entire water system… ‘Because of the critical nature of the loss in pressure, we were compelled to take the plant offline to begin the repairs that are ongoing,’ Joven explained during a press conference Tuesday [6/14]. ‘Crews have been on site since 6 p.m. Midland has been a big help. They have sent equipment and crews. We are in contact with the state and we have more water en route.’

“Ector County Judge Debi Hays issued a disaster declaration and a boil water notice as a result of the break. The system will be turned back on when the repair is fixed, which is expected to be around 9 p.m. The system will need at least 10-12 hours to fully restart. Odessa residents can pick up bottled water from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Ector County Coliseum, 4201 Andrews Highway. Each person will be limited to one case.

“There were reports throughout the day about nursing homes needing assistance and surgeries being canceled until the break is resolved… ‘We have assisted the hospital with some of their needs. We wanted to make sure we provided that water for them,’ said John Alvarez, fire chief for Odessa Fire Rescue. ‘We have delivered water to the nursing homes that needed it.’” Hey, that’s just one Texas city. Back in February of 2021, Texas experienced a statewide collapse of its entire grid system – with the exception of El Paso, Texas opted out of a regional agreement for neighboring states to cover each other during a power failure – during a nasty cold snap.

“In February 2021, the state of Texas suffered a major power crisis, which came about during three severe winter storms sweeping across the United States on February 10–11, 13–17, and 15–20. The storms triggered the worst energy infrastructure failure in Texas state history, leading to shortages of water, food, and heat. More than 4.5 million homes and businesses were left without power, some for several days. At least 246 people were killed directly or indirectly, with some estimates as high as 702 killed as a result of the crisis.

“State officials including Republican governor Greg Abbott initially blamed the outages on frozen wind turbines and solar panels. However, data showed that failure to winterize power sources, primarily those of natural gas, had caused the grid failure. Texas's power grid has long been separate from the two major national grids to avoid federal oversight; this disconnection made it difficult for the state to import electricity from other states during the crisis. Deregulation of its electricity market beginning in the 1990s resulted in competition in wholesale electricity prices, but also cost cutting for contingency preparation.

“The crisis drew much attention to the state's lack of preparedness for such storms, and to a report from U.S. Federal regulators ten years earlier that had warned Texas its power plants would fail in sufficiently cold conditions. Damages due to the cold wave and winter storm were estimated to be at least $195 billion, likely the most expensive disaster in the state's history. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the Texas power grid was ‘seconds or minutes away from’ complete failure when partial grid shutdowns were implemented During the crisis, some energy firms made billions in profits, while others went bankrupt, due to some firms being able to pass extremely high wholesale prices ($9,000/MWh, typically $50/MWh) on to consumers, while others could not, as well as this price being held at the $9,000 cap by ERCOT for allegedly two days longer than necessary; creating $16 billion in unnecessary charges.” Wikipedia. The Texas legislature still has not authorized sufficient upgrades and repairs to prevent this from happening again.

Red states seem obsessed with culture wars, promulgating policies that enthrall evangelicals and right-wing extremists but fly in the face of national sentiments. Climate change is a particularly favorite whipping boy, especially in oil and gas states, even as hurricanes are hitting primarily red states with unprecedented fury (frequency and intensity); coastal flooding is now an everyday occurrence (streets are flooded all the time in Miami and its environs), farms are drying up and blowing away and searing heat waves are taking lives and putting pressures on the power grid as AC becomes a necessity (for those who have it). They reject expanding the Affordable Care Act into their states, forcing millions of their citizens to live without meaningful healthcare. They’d rather react to the trillions of dollars of mounting damages obviously attributable to climate change than spend job-creating money to combat it.

Meanwhile, Texas billionaires are raking it in as oil prices negatively impact most of America. They benefit humongously as the global price of oil skyrockets, causing massive inflation in every sector. Are they offering Americans a price break at the pump? Seriously? Off course not, as these self-declared “patriots” continue to fund radical right-wing candidates who will do what it takes to stop those who are trying to tackle the ravages of climate change. Sell more oil and gas. Stop building alternative energy power generation. Censor social media. Are you watching Elon? Even as most large cities are very blue, the gerrymandered voting districts make sure those urban areas are diluted into oblivion into big fat red zones. Ever wonder why Texas residential real estate is so cheap? Location, location, location.

I’m Peter Dekom, as reality sinks into our daily lives, I wonder why we do not simply call that “right-wing” the “wrong wing.”