Texas's 'Nightmare' Energy Situation Is a Warning to the Rest of America About Reliance on Wind and Solar Energy

Townhall ^ | 02/16/2021 | Leah Barkoukis

[SeekAndFind]

Millions of Texans have lost power in the middle of a cold snap that brought below-freezing temperatures across the state. Struggling to keep warm in homes that are poorly insulated, some are turning to unsafe methods that will likely get them killed. One resident told The Washington Post that after only eight hours without power in Houston it was like an “apocalypse,” and she feared they’d “see a nightmare situation in the next few days.”

Commenting on the blackout in his home state, former Energy Secretary Rick Perry pointed out how important it is to have a diverse energy landscape. In recent years, however, reliance on coal has declined while renewable energy sources have been increasing. 

How’s that working out? We’re seeing it play out now, Fox News's Tucker Carlson said Monday during his monologue. 

“The windmills froze, so the power grid failed. Millions of Texans woke up Monday morning having to boil their water because with no electricity, it couldn't be purified,” he commented, noting the Green New Deal has arrived. 

“The ironically named Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the grid, had no solution to any of this. They simply told people to stop using so much power to keep warm," Carlson continued. "So in Houston, hundreds of shivering Texans headed to the convention center like refugees to keep from freezing to death. Some Texans almost certainly did freeze to death. Later this week, we'll likely learn just how many more were killed as they tried to keep warm with jury-rigged heaters and barbecues and car exhaust.”

While blackouts have become commonplace in states like California, it’s surprising in Texas. 

If there's one thing you would think Texas would be able to do, it's keep the lights on. Most electricity comes from natural gas and Texas produces more of that than any place on the continent. There are huge natural gas deposits all over the state. Running out of energy in Texas is like starving to death at the grocery store: You can only do it on purpose, and Texas did.

Rather than celebrate and benefit from their state's vast natural resources, politicians took the fashionable route and became recklessly reliant on so-called alternative energy, meaning windmills. Fifteen years ago, there were virtually no wind farms in Texas. Last year, roughly a quarter of all electricity generated in the state came from wind. Local politicians were pleased by this. They bragged about it like there was something virtuous about destroying the landscape and degrading the power grid. Just last week, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott proudly accepted something called the Wind Leadership Award, given with gratitude by Tri Global Energy, a company getting rich from green energy.

So it was all working great until the day it got cold outside. The windmills failed like the silly fashion accessories they are, and people in Texas died. (Fox News)

And this is one of the renewable energy sources the Biden administration and his climate allies are so eagerly pushing on the rest of America, despite the fact that they’re less reliable, inefficient, more expensive, and kill a ton of birds. 

What the rest of us think matters not, however, because “green energy is the ultimate inside game” for the small number of individuals who profit.

[ifinnegan]

It’s a total condemnation.

More than a warning.

[Cen-Tejas]

......I’m sitting here typing and hoping the power doesn’t go off for the 3rd time in 24 hours before I finish this post. The reason we have no power is the same reason 544 people in D.C. have destroyed the U.S. with 25 plus trillion debt. In a word, It’s “Corruption”.

ERCOT has been around 50 years and gradually the lefties took it over. IF I could depend on my power provider to just provide power here in my power providers district then there never would be a problem in the area I’m in.

But, NO, lefties like consolidation of CONTROL in one group in one physical building where they can manipulate and intimidate and bribe decision makers. ERCOT needs to close up and return power/control to the individual power providers in their various geographic areas. If they can’t manage their power and keep it ON then the people in their area will rise up and throw em all out when the power goes off. SIMPLE!!!

[rxsid]

A picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

The entire rationale for wind turbines is to stop global warming by reducing the amount of CO2 being returned to the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels.

In the attached picture, recently taken in Sweden, freezing cold weather has caused the rotor blades of a wind turbine to ice up bringing the blades to a complete stop.

To fix the “problem” a helicopter is employed (burning aviation fuel) to spray hot water (which is heated in the frigid temperatures using a truck equipped with a 260 kW oil burner) on the blades of the turbine to de-ice them.

The aviation fuel, the diesel for the truck, and the oil burned to heat the water, could produce more electricity (at the right time to meet demand) than the unfrozen wind turbine could ever produce. (Before it freezes up again).

The attached picture is a metaphor of the complete insanity of the climate change debate.

In decades to come this one photo alone with sum up an era of stupidity, when rational thought, logic and commonsense was abandoned and immense wealth and resources needlessly sacrificed.

[EinNYC]

I sent an email of concern to a Texas friend to see how she and her family were coping. Their heat goes on and off, as does their electricity and internet. They are keeping water dripping so their pipes don’t freeze up. Thank goodness they had purchased a generator 2 weeks ago. Hope they don’t run out of gasoline to power it. They will be changing their power company as soon as a free choice law comes on line in a couple weeks, to one that does not shut off your power in rolling blackouts.

[joesbucks]

But not a small portion of wind shut down. It’s the bigger way the jangle electricity that is the problem. Not wind.

[joesbucks]

Well self correct messed up the previous reply. Texas list about half the f their wind capacity or 10 gigawatts. They have lost another 30 from traditional sources. Wind is a contributor, not the cause.

[NEMDF]

We are having the “rolling blackouts” in Omaha, NE today. It was 22 below when I came to work.

[Joe 6-pack]

Yep. He got his and is laughing from his grave.

I always called him T. Boondoggle Pickens. A man about whom it was said, could sell air conditioners to Eskimos, and as it turns out, that claim may have been more literal than figurative.

[Socon-Econ]

The shortage would have been much greater if people were driving electric cars.

[Kershul]

I see three of the four nukes in TX are still running:
https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/reactor-status/ps.html

[FamiliarFace]

Love that image!

[EliRoom8]

Could you explain how you have first and knowledge?

[George from New England]

I think we can conclude that it the average Texas home, the air conditioning mode uses less power than the heat mode.

If it were just heat pumps then the load should be sort of matched. Albeit a heat pump is not match for sub-32 temps.

IT IS THE ELECTRIC HEAT that is NOT USING A REFRIGERANT in the process that is killing the state. Most baseboard heater use much more than the comparable air conditioning does.

Watch the liberal solution be to BAN electric heat strips and baseboard heaters !!

[servantboy777]

My email to Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick this morning after a long tough night in Tx.

Hey Gov. Abbott...glad to see you received the Tri Global Energy’s Wind Leadership award. You must be very proud. Now, let me share how our night went with rolling blackouts on the energy grid in sub-zero temperatures. Likely we will have damage to our equipment such as heaters, septic, water lines and water well due to the frigid temps and the constant power surges all night long.
Texas has plenty of natural gas. A clean burning fuel. WIND ENERGY SUCKS. Not only does wind energy suck, the thousands of wind mills scattered across the landscape steals away the natural beauty of Texas.
Mr. Abbott, for all that is good and holy, could you stop listening to those damn liberals. If we are short of energy, how bout using some of that rainy day fund to build another clean burning NATURAL GAS power generation station.
Signed,
Pissed Off

[Sequoyah101]

I’m posting this on every thread on this subject.

Last night I watched the WFAA report on this rolling black out and power shortage in Texas. They laid the blame of utilities being to cheap to winterize their power generation facilities. Not one mention of wind mills / turbines and how they shut down in very cold weather, something I don’t really understand unless it is associated with ice on the blades.

Nonetheless Texas, in their isolated power grid, now rely on windmills for 23% of their electricity second only to natural gas. Some 23% of their power supply is just missing owing to the cold weather. That kind of gap can’t be made up.

Texas is getting what they wanted, what the customers were given the right to ask for when they have free choice about where they buy their power and by them making that feel good choice to be Free to Choose (the slogan for Texas’ power choice program) renewable power. We are seeing the outcome of a misinformed public making the choice to Go Green. The really sad part is everyone is being made to suffer because of the choice of some to feel good and Go Green instead of they alone being force to suffer the impact of their foolishness.

If your are freezing in Texas and your pipes burst blame some of your neighbors who made the choice for Wind Power(less).

Instead of sending all of us on the pathway of folly a region of the US should be designated or volunteered as the pilot project region for renewable power. Don’t allow any emergency bail-outs, isolate the region and make it exist on the poison the Greenies want to feed all the rest of us. See how it goes. Texas is not the right place because this cold is not normal. It is just giving us a taste of what would become an every day way of life living with renewable energy. The impact could be mitigated with enough money but I am sure the cost would be staggering to provide reliable Green energy.

This article appeared on Accuweather yesterday.

From this article:

https://www.accuweather.com/en/winter-weather/power-outages-approached-1-million-as-storms-swamp-us/899860

this excerpt:

Around 9:30 a.m., local time, CenterPoint told customers that those in the dark “should be prepared to be without power for at least the rest of the day.” A large reason for the continued lack of power has been due to frozen wind turbines in West Texas, grid operators said.

Typically the state’s wind farms generate a combined 25,100 megawatts of energy, but those turbines were ground to a halt by the moist winter conditions. In 2020, wind power generated 23% of the all the energy in Texas and was the second-largest source after natural gas, according to Statesman.com.

Innocent and helpless people are are going to be made to suffer at the hands of these green fools. That is just one of the many things underlying my anger about this subject in addition to abject stupidity, ignorance of facts and science not caring about either, obscene cost and waste, the fraud, that new generations have a false sense of normal and the suffering that many will experience at the hands of these fools. I’m sorry people in Texas are freezing and doing without power and water. I have family there who are suffering for the folly of fools.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[SheepWhisperer]

Especially considering that there is strong indication that we are entering a grand solar minimum which could last through 2050, according to noaa and NASA observations.

We’ll see, but last summer had very odd cold fronts well into May, which is interesting

[xp38]

Same up here in Ontario. Things are screwed up royally of course but the electricity seems fairly reliable. Having the largest nuclear power plant in the world doesn’t hurt of course. :)

[musicman]

BTTT!!!

[xp38]

We are living in interesting times.....Chinese curse of course.

[FamiliarFace]

I hope their inboxes are full of letters just like yours. What I hope for more is that they have had to go through the power outage like the commoners are dealing with. Shared sacrifice and all that.