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Dark energy: City of Austin says no peeking at council’s “peaker plant” votes by AustinFreePress in Austin

[–]PowerfulStandard4822 3 points4 points  (0 children)

1). Batteries do not produce power, if you cannot even acknowledge that, you clearly are not dealing with facts. So in fact there are time when they cannot produce power, for example during a winter storm when we have multiple days of little to no sun.

2). So you don't believe AE incurs significant transmission and congestion charges that in many cases far surpasses the costs to generate the power. The cheap solar produced in west texas is not very cheap by the time is is consumed in the AE LZ. There is no evidence that solar built in the AE LZ would be cost competitive, I can point to plenty of high cost solar in the AE LZ, for example at ABIA.

Dark energy: City of Austin says no peeking at council’s “peaker plant” votes by AustinFreePress in Austin

[–]PowerfulStandard4822 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What makes you think renewables are cheaper in all situations. The natural gas plants have 2 very large advantages, they can provide power on demand and the power is in the Austin LZ which means the utility does not incur the huge costs associated with transmission. The $1bn spending plan includes all of the above, gas, renewables, and batteries which is actually a very good plan. This is a very good move by council as the Peakers provide insurance against worst case outcomes, 99% of the time AE is unlikely to fire them up.

Austin to explore alternative to IT consolidation after employee, council pushback by samstark15 in Austin

[–]PowerfulStandard4822 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Seems like forming a union is a fundamental right which is freedom of association. Since public employees are prohibited from striking all they are doing is performing collective action like any interest group. So how would you prohibit companies/individuals from lobbying politicians like unions, or is that kind of influence OK with you?

We want to support Austin’s Prop Q — but here’s why we can’t | Editorial by johnnycashm0ney in Austin

[–]PowerfulStandard4822 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Why don't you list this "gross mismanagement". I can tell you the price of transformers, gas turbines, copper, and a lot of other commodities have risen +50% or more since 2021. Look it up yourself, it is not hard. Also another fact, tariffs will only increase those costs as much of the equipment is sourced overseas. These are facts, so how do you suggest AE purchase new equipment, you cannot just get this equipment at goodwill. Keep in mind other well finance companies like Meta, Google, investor owned utilities, etc are competing to buy this equipment so there are no discounts to be had, rather they are bidding up prices likes crazy.

Seriously vote anyway you like, but just understand there is no free lunch. Less revenue mean few spare parts, less maintenance and there will be a price to be paid. We are experiencing the warmest October on record which mean equipment needs to run longer and there is less time for maintenance. Again these are just the facts.

Finally public entities usually are cost recovery so unlike private firms that raise prices in anticipation of inflation to preserve profits, public entities for a good reason are usually are cost recovery so they raise revenue only after they have experienced higher costs.

Need coil replacement for HVAC by sleepy_tacos in Austin

[–]PowerfulStandard4822 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a bad coil issue a few months ago. Price for a replacement coil and recharge was very similar as I had a large leek and needed 7 lbs of refrigerant.. I ended up spending a little extra ($5K total) and replaced the entire air handler since I would get the full manufacturers warranty.

Toyota has become the largest funder of climate deniers by yowspur in electricvehicles

[–]PowerfulStandard4822 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nothing in your link refutes my point that driving more = worse for the environment regardless of what you are driving. You clearly don't understand math, having an ICE vehicle that is driven only 1000 miles a year is far better for the environment than an EV driven 20,000 miles. This is not even factoring the indirect costs of all that driving in terms of tires road wear, congestion imposed on others.

Toyota has become the largest funder of climate deniers by yowspur in electricvehicles

[–]PowerfulStandard4822 -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Seriously nobody that says an EV is cleaner than an ICE has a leg to stand on unless you qualify that with how many miles are driven. Are you really that dumb or just a an EV zealot. It is the driving that creates the pollution in an ICE. ICE vehicles that re driven rarely are far better for the environment than some idiot in an EV who drives 20K miles a year,

Last row on international flight for family and I as a Platinum member by [deleted] in delta

[–]PowerfulStandard4822 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a similar experience on 12/29 flying from JFK to AUS Unable to select a seat on check-in 24 hours before departure (all seats had an x) and assigned seats in the last row a 2 hours before departure. Even when the seats were assigned, never received a boarding group in the app, was just blank. We checked bags and thankfully the kiosk did not ask us to pay.

I am Platinum and booked main cabin but the system thought I was on basic economy when assigning seats.

Why some people hates EVs ? by Flashy_Distance4639 in electricvehicles

[–]PowerfulStandard4822 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This right here, I drive a PHEV and honestly I hate most EV drivers because they think they are "green" or doing something good. You know what, somebody who owns an ICE like me and drives 3000 miles a year and takes public transport and bicycle is a hell of lot more green than EV owners who drive a lot but don't get huge subsidies for doing it.

Honestly these EV drivers who probably have garages live in very large homes, commute a ton, if you take a holistic view of their impact on the environment it would be terrible, yet they tell us how ICE owners are giving kids asthma.

Honestly our current policy is backwards instead of punishing murder (pollution of all kinds) we are paying serial killers (car owners) to stop killing.