No, Wind Farms Aren’t the Main Cause of the Texas Blackouts

Rogue Valley · Feb 18, 2021

No, Wind Farms Aren’t the Main Cause of the Texas Blackouts

The state’s widespread electricity failure was largely caused by freezing natural gas pipelines. That didn’t stop advocates for fossil fuels from trying to shift blame.

www.nytimes.com

2/17/21
As his state was racked by an electricity crisis that left millions of people without heat in frigid temperatures, the governor of Texas took to television to start placing blame. His main target was renewable energy, suggesting that the systemwide collapse was caused by the failure of wind and solar power. However, wind power was not chiefly to blame for the Texas blackouts. The main problem was frigid temperatures that stalled natural gas production, which is responsible for the majority of Texas’ power supply. Wind makes up just a fraction — 7 percent or so — of the state’s overall mix of power generation. As frigid weather grips the center of the nation, causing widespread power outages, freezing temperatures, slippery roads and weather-related deaths, Governor Abbott’s voice was among the most prominent in a chorus of political figures this week to assert that green energy sources such as wind and solar were contributing to the blackouts. The talking points, coming largely from conservatives, reinvigorated a long-running campaign to claim that emissions-spewing fossil fuels are too valuable a resource to give up. The efforts came despite the fact that the burning of fossil fuels — which causes climate change by releasing vast amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere — is helping to drive the phenomenon of dangerous hurricanes and other storms.

Many electric grids aren’t equipped to handle extreme conditions, putting them at risk for widespread failure. That was the case in Texas, where millions of people suffered rolling blackouts. Grids in the Midwest and Southwest also were strained. Dozens of people have died in the storm or its aftermath. The bulk of the power loss in Texas came from natural gas suppliers, according to regulators, as pipelines froze, making it difficult for plants to get the fuel they needed. Production from coal and nuclear plants dropped as well. A similar phenomenon played out in Kansas and other states. “We have Joe Biden who is nice and warm in his fossil-fueled White House singing kumbaya with his environmental extremists while Americans are freezing to death,” said Representative Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado. Ms. Boebert mentioned a photo shared repeatedly this week on social media of wind turbines she said were in Texas and apparently being de-iced by helicopter with a substance derived from fossil fuels. However, the image was debunked by the website Gizmodo: the photo was from a test 7 years ago in Sweden.

There are 3 electricity grids in the United States - the Eastern Interconnectivity Grid, the Western Interconnectivity Grid, and Texas. Texas cannot buy electric power from the two main grids in emergencies. So, Texas is an outlier, made that way by the Republican's who have been in power in Texas for the past 30 years. Wind/solar sources together make up roughly 10% of the available power in Texas. There are 2 nuclear power plants in Texas and one is shut down due to frozen water pumps. The main power sources in Texas are gas and coal plants. The coal is frozen solid and the water in the gas rigs has frozen also. Basically, the 80% fossil-fuel power-generating plants in the Lone Star state have frozen solid. Texas officials don't much care because this only happens about once every nine years. In addition, they cannot anger their fossil-fuel political donors. So rather than fix things (with increasing climate change in mind), Governor Greg Abbott blames Green Energy and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who perhaps has never even stepped foot in Texas.

I wasn't going to bring it up, but what the Hell .... Texas Gov. Greg Abbot and AG Ken Paxton ridiculed and lambasted California's power blackouts all throughout the summer. Just sayin'.

ecofarm · Feb 18, 2021

Texans will believe their problems are because of green energy. No facts can change that.

NWRatCon · Feb 18, 2021

ecofarm said:
Texans will believe their problems are because of green energy. No facts can change that.

I didn't think facts were allowed to enter Texas... have they developed a border security problem?

ecofarm · Feb 18, 2021

NWRatCon said:
I didn't think facts were allowed to enter Texas... have they developed a border security problem?

I find concern based degradation more tasteful than open disdain. Those people are suffering; let's keep it classy.

NWRatCon · Feb 18, 2021

ecofarm said:
I find concern based degradation more tasteful than open disdain. Those people are suffering; let's keep it classy.

The people of Texas are suffering from the incompetence of their leadership structure (individuals and institutions). Some of this is the result of the outsized ego lauded in Texas (going it alone) which has infected every level of governance, and some, it must be admitted, is the fault of voters who allowed it to happen. I will never blame the victims of natural disasters for their travails (even if self-exacerbated), but I will always hold leaders and their counterproductive behaviors to account.

ecofarm · Feb 18, 2021

Quixote had a lance and Trump lies, but it's pretty much the same thing. In fact, don't ya gotta respect the original Don just a little more? He took it to them. Mono a windmill. But Trump doesn't square up with them. He talks shit behind their backs.

No, Wind Farms Aren’t the Main Cause of the Texas Blackouts

Rogue Valley

Lead or get out of the way