Why One Conservative Texas City Went 100% Renewable | Hot Mess
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- čas přidán 31. 10. 2018
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Peril & Promise is a public media initiative from WNET telling human stories of climate change and its solutions. Learn more at: www.pbs.org/wnet/peril-and-pro...
Georgetown, TX is a conservative city in the middle of oil and gas country that's committed to 100% renewable energy, and we could learn a lot from them.
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Special thanks to the city of Georgetown and Mayor Dale Ross.
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Host/Writer/Editor-In-Chief: Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Creative Director: David Schulte
Editors/Animators: Derek Borsheim
Producers: Stephanie Noone & Amanda Fox
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"It's not a Republican problem, it's not a Democrat problem, it's an American problem." 🙏
ITS A WORLD PROBLEM DAMN IT
I've heard alot of people voting one way or another because "the other guy is going to ruin the country" or "he's gonna make all my problems disappear." We've started to focus on people instead of on issues. Solving problems is more important than "she appeared to stumble a bit" or "his hair looks like corn." Vote for your best interest!
America is the only country in the world....
It's everybody problem, not just American problem.
@@CamCakes you're joking right?
I'm glad to see a republican politician being rational about renewable energy. He represents what the republican party once stood for.
I like his HONESTY about the whole deal: It is all just about long term MONEY.
-> This is the kind of republican that can save people´s lives. [Not saying anything . . . ]
Be sure to investigate if he doesn't own one of the companies that provides with the supplies for renewable energy.
@@mr2octavio even if he does, that's not a bad thing
Should just demand molten salt reactors, because not all of the world can credits if there isn't enough solar and wind, and backup solar and wind for storage, which won't be cheap. Republicans need to kick the oil habit, and democrats need to kick the "oh, we don't need that much energy" nonsense. We all need to demand the molten salt reactor for wind and solar backup, not FFs!
Unlike Democrats, he didnt force the entire city to spend their own money to buy solar panels they dont need. He didnt infringe on the free will of his citizens just to go green.... liberals take notes! No tax raises, no infringement!
"Clean water, clean air is not a Republican or a Democrat issue, it's an American issue." IT'S A GLOBAL ISSUE
in case you didnt know, america = the world, outside america = the rest of the world.
Lol these are baby steps.
Man, i would vote for that guy. He’s good.
Dominika Łupińska I am a Democrat, but I would vote for him over most Democrats!
Unlike Democrats, he didnt force the entire city to spend their own money to buy solar panels they dont need. He didnt infringe on the free will of his citizens just to go green.... liberals take notes! No tax raises, no infringement!
@@topaznora2055 it's not like that... What he did is exactly what the democrats want.. The same thing!
He should have been the president of USA.
How’s that working for Texans now???🤣🤣🤣
@@DisHappah That blackout wasn't because of any single source of power, but rather a failure of all generators to prepare for the cold. Plenty of natural gas plants went down too. This being said, renewables do still suffer from a lack of controllability and greater need for energy storage. This will likely make going renewable more costly when there's a greater penetration of renewable energy on the grid. Energy storage is a must for it to be practical.
seems like a cool mayor! a nice politician for once is nice
Unlike Democrats, he didnt force the entire city to spend their own money to buy solar panels they dont need. He didnt infringe on the free will of his citizens just to go green.... liberals take notes! No tax raises, no infringement!
Green Energy being a political agenda really looks silly to the rest of the world which is not america. In other countries, the opposition to green energy mainly comes from corporates and not politicians. It's time america(both democrats and republicans) to move beyond the idea that green energy being democrat or a liberal thing. Cheers to that cheery Mayor.
In Germany, the AFD (far-right) declared recently the green party to be their greatest enemy.
I'm from the future. The electric bills average $1,000 a month. Those people are screwed.
here in austria the FPÖ is still denying climate change. not purely an american problem but it seems to be a bigger problem in the usa than most other places
@@robertkubrick3738 The video is misleading since there are lots of cars over there. Plus, wind and solar are not reliable energy sources. They can't provide baseload capacity.
@@nostringsattacked4355 The climate has always changed. You are like the man who thinks a woman won't change. You can't stop change. If you stop vulcanism that produces in one year more greenhouse gasses than man has in the last 100 years, then people will listen to you. The Paris climate accords would only have slowed temperature rise by 2/10ths of a degree, and that's if their model was even close to right which it wasn't. The US is the world leader in reducing carbon emissions. The US produces less carbon emissions than it did in 1983! I challenge the world to match that.
Ahhhhhh I live just outside of Georgetown! I had no idea about this!!!!
hmmmmm
I'm from the future. The electric bills average $1,000 a month. Those people are screwed.
It was a HUGE failure.
You could hear Joe's accent sound more southern when he was speaking to the mayor
Maybe he hides it for IOTBS vids 🤓
@Gap Rame Mlon Eusk he's probably not trying to hide it, but hes trying to enunciate and carefully pronounce his words in a neutral Standard American English in order to communicate complex topics.
I'm a die hard Bernie Sanders' fan and I love this guy!!!
The fact that this town exists makes me happy.
I’m Blue, btw.
Consider consumption rates of countries per head capita.
Where is America in that list?
My point being, "we" (everyone, everywhere) needs to cut energy useage at *the same time* as changing the methods to obtain the energy, and the way its used.
Its easy to change your lights at home to led. I've done it. 33 units, 150w if they're ALL on at once, at full power (they're all dimmable). Little things help. If a million homes did that, it's a LOT of power.
The same with Aircon, heating.
*Insulate* homes so they don't need the heating, or cooling, in the first place!
@@rogerstarkey5390 I'm from the future. The electric bills in Georgetown average $1,000 a month. Those people are screwed.
Do the right thing, no matter what.
It's always nice to have someone in power that execute decisions based on facts and reality. In his conservative perspective, the fact that renewable energy provider gave his town a better deal than traditional ones is a very sensible option, and he took it. I wish all politician from any ideology and platform could think and act like him, the society will benefit more.
That was a really good description of buying energy off the grid without getting caught up in the minutia of renewable energy credits and community choice aggregation! From a girl studying renewable energy, ya’ll are doing a great job!
Sorry Annie I totally disagree. Joe you do a lot of great videos but not explaining Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) is like saying it is OK for electricity suppliers to continue to greenwash this issue. REC "represent the environmental and other non-power attributes of renewable electricity generation" per EPA. (czcams.com/video/_12VYXms6-c/video.html) If Georgetown does not retire the REC, the owner of those REC is claiming the positive environmental attributes. This is double counting and only the owner of the REC has a valid claim. This kind of greenwashing is common and it is up to people like you to educate the public about these issues.
@@Bfould3120 Yes but to do that justice you would need a 30 minute video and you would lose 90% of the audience within the first few minutes. If the issue they wanted to tackle was RECs, that would be a very different video. And Georgetown must be retiring the RECs if they are allowed to claim their energy is renewable otherwise they wouldn't be able to say anything about its green attributes. I agree that greenwashing is a really big issue and unbundled RECs are problematic but I don't think that's where all the energy of a basic video like this should go towards.
@@ShikaAmazingness A simple mention that REC are how renewable energy is accounted for around 5 min. in when Joe says "renewable energy is as much an accounting thing as it is a clean electrons thing" would go a long way to educate the public and hold more utilities, companies and towns accountable for their claims of renewable electricity. Also here is a write up on the town website that states "Since April 2017, Georgetown has been 100 percent renewable based on the state’s system of accounting for renewable power based on renewable energy credits." So they are doing a great job. georgetown.org/2018/06/29/georgetowns-energy-100-percent-renewable-with-solar-plant/
Had long time seeing a Republican with common sense! They need more like him!
I said the same this about the man that runs this channel but about democrats
I mean he only did it to save money but... I agree.
There's a lot more of them than you realize. They just put priorities in other places that they feel are more important or pressing issues.
Unlike Democrats, he didnt force the entire city to spend their own money to buy solar panels they dont need. He didnt infringe on the free will of his citizens just to go green.... liberals take notes! No tax raises, no infringement!
@@topaznora2055 How d'you plan on paying for the change to renewables?
I want to expend on that quote: "It's not an American problem, it's not a Chinese problem. It's a Humanity problem."
Way to go, Mayor! Dale Ross is a hero! Take notes, everyone.
Can you guys make a video on capturing carbon dioxide from air ?
dhruva sakhare wouldn’t be too hard, I’m sure there is a chemical reaction that would allow for the collection of carbon dioxide from the air. Or a reaction that requires CO2, and just happens in the air when not provided with pure CO2, it would be slow, but it should happen, just have to find the reactions.
Yes! We are actually working on that episode now. Look for it in the next few weeks!
There is a TED talk episode on two systems. Actually, it's harder than ýou may think and needs quite an energetic input, which is not surprising, considering that CO2 is the product of a process to release energy from carboniferous sources.
czcams.com/video/XY_lzonfE3I/video.html
Conga Spy How about photosynthesis? Planting trees is probably the easiest way to capture CO2.
When i first learned about global warming( about when i was 10 or 9) I imagined large nets carried by planes caching carbon dioxide
So this would be really cool
what a wonderful story
I'm from the future. The electric bills average $1,000 a month. Those people are screwed.
To bad it completely failed. You like $1000 a year increase in your electric bills? Well, neither do the people who got stuck with them in Georgetown.
Glad to have found this. This is exactly what we need. Common sense approaches.
A republican you can get behind.
I said the same this about the man that runs this channel but about democrats
Love this. Climate change is not a partisan issue.
I've had this thought recently: the only way to go forward with environment-friendly ways (to "save the world") is to convince the big guys with deep pockets that YOUR option will make them MORE money. They have all the power, and there's no denying that the thing they care about the most is the money. Make them rich, and you will save the world.
*the most beautiful town in all of Texas*
Best republican mayer I have seen.
I went to college in Georgetown, Texas. Nice to see the town make this change. This happened after I was out of school.
I'm from the future. The electric bills in Georgetown average $1,000 a month. Those people are screwed.
These is a type of a Republican I can support. Interested in a solution for a problem not party politics.
Fantastic job on this video. I hope to use this in my college class. You will actually find that most Republicans are open to innovation and certainly good business and being accountable to their citizens. I am a Conservative minded scientist but politics never colors my teaching as science and fact are sacred to me.
I'm from the future. The electric bills in Georgetown average $1,000 a month. Those people are screwed.
100% Renewable, Aarangkada na sa Pilipinas! Amen! ✝️ Mabuhay! 🇵🇭 Labaw (•ᴗ•)
Actually, according to latest reports, this town is losing big money due to their variable renewables plan...
THE SILENT GOD because the cost of renewable energy is going down and their 20-year contract would cost less if implemented in the future...so actually, that's good news and a bigger incentive for others now. Thx!
@@zf8604 not actually that simple, solar&wind are only economic at lower penetration levels, their value decrees the higher their penetration gets, the higher the penetration the less economic to add more
Yep, that's why I preach that the enviorment is NOT a
bipartisan issue.
Something people should learn about Texas is that we are not just an OIl Economy, we are an *Energy Economy*. There is a reason why we have a separate power grid from the rest of the US. Oil was big for us in the past and wind is our future (hopefully solar too). We currently produce about 25% of the US's wind energy. Energy is our gold.
Only if we can apply that to an entire country...
The entire world is better.
Then you wouldn't have power...
@@jayyoung5627
We would if we built more nuclear power plants for heavily populated urban areas alongside wind and solar. People who refuse to accept the necessity of nuclear power are just uniformed idiots for the most part.
Latest news: accountants got the math wrong
7/11 Truther. Uranium is hard to get and can’t supply all energy needs. It can work on a small scale.
I’ve lived in Georgetown Texas for 13 years now and I never knew this lmao
Well, it's a start. Good on 'em.
As a chili lover, I'm jealous of that Hot Sauce Shop
thanks to Koch Brothers and the rest of big oil companies for making this harder to implement
Probably my favourite video on this channel so far
That kind of business deal is called collective bargaining. The more you know.
This needs more views!
He looks cute too. A little cute teddy bear
Hey, way to go Georgetown!!!
I love this channel so much! Keep up the great work bringing us the climate change stories we need to hear!
Another problem in the US is that a lot of energy is wasted, like the fan in the shop.There you could install a motion sensor, the same with fridges, light bulbs and of course in industrial processes.
This story makes me smile....my faith in humanity is restored(a bit but at least)
Everyone should be an Independent. Hail Caesar!
I find the title a bit confusing. With "100% renewable" I thought you were pointing to a city independant from fossile fuels.
It is great that they managed to buy all their electricity as green enegry hopefully showing others it is a good thing, but I guess heating and transportation is still dependant on fossile fuels.
Still, I wish Georgetown all the best with sticking to renewable.
well, it is in one definition correct, as they are economicaly independent from fossil fuels. to make it reality in every definition you would have to replace or disconnect every fossil fuel plant from the grid or make individual grids (which is highly inefficient with our current HV AC infrastructure. the point of this measure is to offer a large client better choices while financing renewable energysources and increasingly shifting the source relience of the whole grid to greener solutions
@@naotamf1588 As mentinoned above, I support that the city now buys green electricity and I don't mind the energy trading. A decade ago in Germany green electricity came from scandinavian water PP which is more or less the same what the City did. At least it incentivices building more renewable power.
I don't know how much heating is an issue in texas, but as long as radiators aren't powered with electricity from renewable energy, they still rely on fossil fuel. as an example, Germany relies heavily on natural gas for heating during winter
@@naotamf1588
Why are microgrid inefficient?
I'm from the future. The electric bills in Georgetown average $1,000 a month. Those people are screwed.
I'm somebody with mostly conservative views, but I also support policies that are environmentally friendly such as renewables and electric cars.
Texas is the best state in America!
DAYUMMMMM! !!! I just saw CONSERTIVE Progressive. AND, he powers his town with 100 percent renewable energy. AWESOME!!!
And then you see the vehicles. A good start but a long way to go
This blew me in many levels: As an outsider, this mayor steered my point of view on republican politicians; and this is in Texas! (as in going Texas). Was expecting something like this from anywhere else, but not in Texas (maybe Colorado or any other place where weed is legal, IDK. But not from Texas).
Btw the new Brazilian president is willing to open the Amazon up for logging. Great vid btw.
Dude, I want to go to that hot sauce shop.
That’s nice , keep it up!
I noticed that you said that Texas had its own grid but when the map lit up, not all of Texas was on that grid.
hm, maybe advertise it more on the main channel... 69k subscribers seems criminally low
They want this to grow though. Once it grows people might go back and watch it.
Which one is main?
@@marlena436 "It's okay to be smart"
It's not his channel it's a PBS channel focused on climate problems, he's just ONE of the faces of the channel. Plus all the episodes here are supported by some non-profits
@@fixafix69 hm, ok, my bad then, the growth of this channel just seems way too slow in comparison
"We let the facts dictate the best decision to the people that we were elected to serve."
... That we were elected TO SERVE.
It's so nice to see a politician who recognises and respects not only WHO put them there, but WHY they were put there in the first place: to serve the people!
If it sounds to good to be true, run.
Truly an inspiring story I hope to be a role model for the whole of US.
6:27 that made me laugh so hard hahahaha
Ding, Ding, Ding... Business!
TLDR: It's cheaper
So proud of my little city!
Arizona has a ballot initiative to use more renewable energy! Vote Yes on Prop 127 :)
Amazing
I love how your voice gets slightly lower when you're talking to the mayor vs. in the cut aways
If one republican should have been the president, he should be!
What an inspiration for folks in Alberta, where bitterness between the energy sectors can leave a person feeling lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut…
"We let facts dictate the best decision to the people we were elected to serve." 👌
And a scintilla of optimism was born...
I hope that light bulb that just switched on is LED!
Welcome to Georgetown, the greatest town that ever was and ever will be.
I hope you get the reference.
I'm from the future. I get that The electric bills in Georgetown average $1,000 a month. Those people are screwed.
Very interesting that energy pool Analogy, but what prevents Producers or Consumers from claiming to have invested in 100% clean energy, while still having funded dirty energy?
e.g. I pay extra for 100% renewable energy, but the power comes from the grid, and my supplier doesn't actually produce any of the energy. As long as I don't have a source of my own that produces the energy, I can't claim to know if I'm living on 100% clean energy. Add on top of that, that the products I buy from supermarkets or online get produced mostly using fossil fuels, I'm suddenly less than 40% energy efficient (and I don't even drive a car, or take public transport).
A energy producer can claim to produce 30% of renewable energy. They can also claim they supply that specific energy to whomever demands it, allowing them to get a better reputation, without helping the environment as much. I fear for a time when we find out we've all been conned, while we thought we were doing the right thing.
The products that aren't made from renewable energy is a good point but other than that your argument is kinda flawed. Your town buys energy from an energy producer. Lets say it produces 100W of energy and sends it into the grid. Now as long as your town uses less than 100W from the grid and pays the equivalent you are essentially buying it from the producer
Not everybody on Earth has access to electricity.
Let's move this mayor up in politics!
Go texas!
Great video, if only everyone in the world watched it
Came here for the environmental story, stayed for the flirty glances the mayor was giving the presenter in the hot sauce shop 🏳️🌈
This made me feel really good
Ok, I gonna recommend it to people now
6:35 I think Yeah
I would love to hear the story of how and why Texas has its own power grid.
Just popping in to the comments from the future
Wondering how this town did during this past freeze?????
0:39 - Actually, it exactly what I expected. Al Gore did a piece on him the sequel.
You should update this story considering this experament failed miserably.
I wonder how the performance would be if Georgetown were completely off the Texas grid, as in, here´s Georgetown, and here´s all the wind turbines and solar panels that power Georgetown with absolutely no connection to other power sources. I bet there would be at least an occasional problem with maintenance cost and/or performance.
The mayor like Scotty Kilmer
Well I live right here in Georgetown, and I can go ahead and say that his plan didn’t work. We experience frequent power outages and the price of our electricity is through the roof. Great idea, but in this case, I can tell you first hand that this didn’t work
I usually vote Republican and love this guy and everything he represents in this interview. This is how to win the environmental debate: it has to make sense for the individual as well as the community/nation. Republicans aren't against the environment, we just don't want the community at large to trounce or put down the individual. And no,the individual isn't more important than the community, they are equal. That's a hard balance to make and compromise and concessions need to be made in both directions. When going green makes financial sense, everyone will do it, or almost everyone. Without coercion.
Is it just me or does the interviewer looks like a smart Johnny Knoxville?
"go back to the hot sauce place"
oh man, you dont have to tell me twice
Is Joe really that tall?
He is. czcams.com/video/0cuO5OSDMbw/video.html
The other guy seems really short
6’3
I'm moving to Georgetown
Dear god there is actually a republican that understands facts
oh brother. are you really dunking every single Republican into your hate tank?
weird czcams.com/video/OgZI49J_tF0/video.html
That's precisely what we need to do to get those aboard who care only about the bottom line and nothing else - bring the price of carbon emissions up to make sure they're no longer competitive.
Well, they still seem to have a lot of big cars...
6:05 careful, blind people might thought that's true
Sees a battery powered flahlight
He sounds like Lil’ Gideon, only older :D
and less evil.
Please please please! I’m begging all elected officials, regardless of party affiliation, make decisions based on facts. The stereotypes associated with what you are ‘supposed’ to believe or choose based on affiliation are extremely damaging!! This is a perfect example of fact based decisions regardless of affiliation and stereotypes.
He was wrong. I'm from the future. The electric bills in Georgetown average $1,000 a month. Those people are screwed.