James Dickey

Texas Government Affairs | Former GOP State Chairman & RNC Member | Fox News, C-SPAN | Host, Winning On Issues | Stanford • Baylor MBA |

[Doug Lewin @douglewinenergy]

Air conditioning demand in extreme Texas heat pushed the ERCOT grid beyond 91 gigawatts today. Before yesterday, we had never exceeded 86 GW so this record shatters the old one. Note there was >20 GW of buffer, no energy emergency, no conservation call. #txlege #txenergy 1/

[John Stossel @JohnStossel]

Some politicians want to slow down AI.

But if we do, says @paigelambermont: "You’re going to be getting the authoritarian Chinese version of AI rather than the US innovator’s version."

More ways “progressives” like Bernie Sanders and AOC want to stop progress:

[James Dickey @jamesdickey]

@Liberty4TheKids @GregAbbott_TX Now we need to grow the program so even more Texas families can benefit!

[Konni Burton @KonniBurton]

"From 2011 to 2018 there were nearly $2,000,000,000,000 spent around the world on wind & solar energy. And at the end of that process, they covered about 3% of the world's energy needs."
Batteries? "Tesla's 5 BILLION dollar gigafactory is the country's largest battery manufacturing facility and the total amount of batteries it makes in a year would only be enough to store about 3 minutes of America's electricity needs."

[SemiAnalysis @SemiAnalysis_]

Datacenters have always kept reciprocating engines on site as emergency standby, kicking in when the grid drops and running a handful of hours a year. That role is changing, as recips are increasingly being repurposed to prime power, energizing datacenters around the clock. We estimate that recip OEMs (e.g., Caterpillar, INNIO, Cummins) have been contracted to supply ~1 GW of BTM power this year, and 4+ GW in each of 2027 and 2028. Our SemiAnalysis Energy Model tracks these BTM contracts OEM-by-OEM, project-by-project. Yet, that is dwarfed by the opportunity to come. (1/3)🧵

[Wayne Christian @ChristianForTX]

SHOCK AUDIO: When Texans were suffering during COVID-19 and losing their jobs, @Jon_RosenthalTX applauded it as an excellent opportunity to push Universal Basic Income.

Socialists never want a crisis to go to waste. It would be a disaster to have this Marxist overseeing oil and gas. #txlege

[James Dickey @jamesdickey]

@Burrows4TX @LtGovTX Thank you both.

[Texas Public Policy Foundation @TPPF]

Spot on!

"Doing nothing while so many young people are undereducated is not an option. We need to support and reform our traditional public schools, and we need more choices for families across the board." https://t.co/0Q7jD70Urn

[James Dickey @jamesdickey]

https://t.co/NcvAfjHQIW

[James Dickey @jamesdickey]

@robhenneke @HicklandHillary @dallasnews @GregAbbott_TX “Low-income families and disabled kids are the big winners of education savings accounts.” -exactly as promised.

[Robert Henneke @robhenneke]

@dallasnews Editorial Board touts success of #Texas @GregAbbott_TX school choice program #txlege

[James Dickey @jamesdickey]

Datacenters are "gonna kill my property value."

That's a Texas land owner testifying at a county commissioners court hearing last month.

It's an often-repeated fear. But does it have any basis in reality?
🧵

[Texas Family Project @FamilyProjectTX]

The adoption system is too expensive and time intensive.

It needs to be revisited next legislative session.

[Shanu Mathew @ShanuMathew93]

Interesting... the monetization of queue spots begins

"$76.5m // Plug Power sells a 164MW ERCOT interconnection position to a data center developer. Part of a $275m-plus liquidity push, the hydrogen developer is monetizing this live grid interconnection slot instead of building the green hydrogen project it originally sited there, showing where the value is concentrating in ERCOT right now.

[Doug Lewin @douglewinenergy]

The most electricity ever used in Texas is 85.5 gigawatts. ERCOT forecasts higher demand *every day* this week, with the highest peak expected Wed. at an astounding 89 GW.

Supply is expected to exceed demand by >30 GW with solar at or near record levels. #txlege #txenergy

[David Sacks @DavidSacks]

Kimi K3 just fixed 15 critical security bugs that Codex and Fable refused because of “cyber guardrails.” There’s no reason to limit American models on tasks that Chinese models handle without issue. We’re only making ourselves less competitive.

[James Dickey @jamesdickey]

Energy and permitting continues to be key to datacenter development, and Texas continues to be best on both!

[SemiAnalysis @SemiAnalysis_]

MASSIVE DELAY ALERT TO ORACLE’S STARGATE SITE AND BLOOM ENERGY🚨🚨

Oracle’s Project Jupiter behind-the-meter datacenter project in New Mexico that plans to use Bloom Energy is at risk of a 1-2 year delay due to permitting and pipeline building blockers. (1/8)🧵

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

In Texas I was taken to a grocery store called H-E-B.

I asked what the letters stand for. My friend said, "Howard Edward Butt."

I waited for the rest of the name. There was no rest. The man built an empire on his actual name, and the empire did not flinch.

Inside, a woman in a red apron said, "Welcome! Finding everything okay?"

I had been inside for eleven seconds. I had found nothing. I had not begun to look.

"...I have only just arrived."

"Well, let me know if you need anything, sweetheart."

Sweetheart. From a stranger with a price gun. I held the cart handle with both hands and tried to proceed as a man who had not just been loved at the produce section.

The store was clean in a way that suggested someone cared about it the way my grandmother cared about her kitchen floor. Not for the guests. For the floor.

A man named Dale in the meat department was cutting brisket behind glass. I watched him work. He held the knife the way a calligrapher holds a brush. Each cut landed in the same place twice.

I bowed slightly. I could not help it.

Dale looked up. "You want a sample, boss?"

"...I was paying respects to your blade work."

He paused. Then he cut a piece, put it on a toothpick, and handed it over the counter.

"Well, that's a first. Most folks just ask if I got any ribs left."

I ate it. It was perfect. I told him it was perfect.

"Appreciate that. Twenty-six years behind this counter."

Twenty-six years. The same counter. The same knife. In my country we would call this man a living national treasure and put him on television. Here he wore a red apron and asked if I wanted it wrapped.

Then the storm came.

I do not mean this as a metaphor. A hurricane was approaching the coast, and I learned something about this grocery store that I did not believe until I saw it with my own eyes.

H-E-B has mobile kitchens. Disaster relief trucks. A full-time Director of Emergency Preparedness. Over a hundred and fifty thousand employees they call Partners, and when the wind starts to build, the Partners do not go home.

They drive toward it.

During Hurricane Harvey, this grocery store fed thousands. They sent trucks into flooded towns before the government arrived. Before the Red Cross set up. Before anyone asked.

A grocery store. With a meat counter and a bakery and a sign that says HERE EVERYTHING'S BETTER.

Texans have a name for H-E-B during hurricanes. They call it the FEMA of Texas. I have confirmed this. Multiple Texans said it to me without smiling, the way you state the name of a general who does not lose.

I asked Dale if he had worked during Harvey.

He stopped cutting. He set the knife down, which I had not seen him do.

"Drove in at four in the morning. Water was up to my truck doors. Store was the only thing open for nine miles. We made sandwiches till we ran out of bread. Then corporate sent more bread. Then we ran out again."

"...How long?"

"Sixteen days."

I stood there holding a package of brisket in both hands and tried to find the word.

"...You are not a butcher, Dale."

He picked up his knife. "Sure I am."

In my country, a man who feeds his village through a disaster is honored for the rest of his life. In Texas, he is called a butcher, and he goes back to the counter on Monday, and he does not mention it unless you ask, and even then he picks up his knife before he finishes the story, because the brisket is not going to cut itself.

The store was founded in 1905 by a woman named Florence Butt, who put sixty dollars' worth of groceries on a shelf on the ground floor of her family's home in a town called Kerrville. That was the whole store. One shelf. One room. Sixty dollars.

A hundred and twenty years later, the family still owns it.

I walked out with four bags. A boy in a red apron carried two of them to my car. I told him I could carry my own bags. He said, "I know you can. But I'm already here, so."

I did not tip him. He would not let me.

I drove home past the highway where the flood line was still visible on the guardrail, three feet up, and I thought about Dale, and the bread, and the knife, and the name Howard Edward Butt, who was not embarrassed by it, because the name is not the point.

The shelf is the point.

Florence Butt put sixty dollars on a shelf in 1905. A hundred and twenty years later, when the water rose and the power died, the shelf was still standing, and there was bread on it.

A store is not its name. A store is whether the bread is there when you need it.

The bread was there.

[Fmr. Rep. Jason Isaac @ISAACforEnergy]

If you're opposed to data centers, make a pledge to stop using everything they power.

Go ahead... we'll wait.

A no-data-center pledge = guaranteed misery.

[Adam Thierer @AdamThierer]

what's fueling the sudden surge in American entrepreneurialism?

That's right: AI

“The technology appears to be greasing the path for entrepreneurs, removing some barriers and allowing them to get their enterprises off the ground more quickly."

👊 💥 📈