[ April 19, 2024 ]
An Emergency Order from the Biden administration’s Department of Energy shows Texas energy grid operator ERCOT was instructed to stay within green energy standards by purchasing energy from outside the state at a higher cost, throttling power output throughout the state ahead of a catastrophic polar vortex.
Climate crap kills.
As a social principle . . . It ‘condemns cities, culture, industry, technology, the intellect, and advocates men’s return to “nature,” to the state of grunting subanimals digging the soil with their bare hands.’(Ayn Rand).
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“The dinosaur and its fellow-creatures vanished from this earth long before there were any industrialists or any men . . . . But this did not end life on earth. Contrary to the ecologists, nature does not stand still and does not maintain the kind of “equilibrium” that guarantees the survival of any particular species—least of all the survival of her greatest and most fragile product: man.”
Texas energy commissioner says grid spending placed green politics over reliability
Everything is so politicized these days that it is tough to decipher facts from opinions about what happened this week with the winter storm.
It’s easy to blame ERCOT — and yes, their actions led to the blackouts in part — but the full story is much more complex. One night of bad decisions would not have had such devastating consequences had it not been for decades of poor policy decisions prioritizing unreliable renewable energy sources at the expense of reliable electricity — something Texans now know is essential to our everyday lives.
I have seen a lot of media reports claiming the issue was a decrease in power generated from natural gas, but when you look at the numbers that is just not true. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the hourly average of net power generation from gas went from 17,602 mw before the storm (2/1-2/12) to 33,310 during the storm (2/12-2/17), meaning generation from natural gas basically doubled as demand increased. (1)
Many are blaming fossil fuels because “wind power was expected to make up only a fraction of what the state had planned for during the winter.”(2) This is the problem. Investments in infrastructure are paid for by electricity customers and taxpayers, and our state spent more than $7 billion to build out the CREZ Transmission Lines for wind and solar generation.
This means resources that could have otherwise been spent making our grid more resilient to weather — or adding reliable generation from natural gas, nuclear, or clean coal to keep up with increasing demand for electricity — were instead spent on building out transmission lines for intermittent forms of energy that were “never expected” to perform during times like these.
The issue isn’t the existence of renewable energy, but that it has displaced reliable generation that makes up our “base load,” not through natural market forces but through massive subsidies and punitive regulatory policies from progressives in Washington, D.C. In 2009, “coal-fired plants generated nearly 37 percent of the state’s electricity while wind provided about 6 percent. Since then, three Texas coal-fired plants have closed… In the same period, our energy consumption rose by 20 percent.”(3)
Everyone loves to tout the phrase “all the above” — until it includes energy sources perceived as “dirty,” like coal, or “scary,” like nuclear. However, these energy sources are both extraordinarily safe and dependable in adverse weather conditions like Texas is facing now because one of their key features is on-site storage. If the “all the above” wind and solar advocates are serious about anything more than receiving subsidies, why are they opposed to nuclear, which can produce massive amounts of energy with a ZERO carbon footprint?
There is no single reason we are in the mess we are in now; it is a multifaceted perfect storm. However, every time the government picks winners and losers in business and innovation, it is the average citizens that lose. This week was a wakeup call that there is more to energy policy than the politics of climate change.
1) https://mcusercontent.com/ec5dd75d998816c4f8464c9a5/files/8f37e5af-7b57-45ad-9dbb-4c7f7d0eb850/EIA_Data.xlsx
2) https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/texas-wind-turbines-frozen/
3) https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/2020/august/ercot.php
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44 Comments
3 years ago
WOW. I expected better than this from the Geller Report.
ERCOT was TOTALLY responsible for this! They failed to begin rolling blackouts when the demand rose above production abilities. That caused the power plants’ safety breakers to kick the plants’ production OFFLINE when the line voltage dropped. When they FINALLY started rolling blackouts, they did the unthinkable: they shutoff power to the Permian Basin substations (responsible for pumping natural gas to the nat gas plants!)
I’m no windmill advocate, but they produce 17% of Texas power IN THE WARM MONTHS! During the winter months, you might get 6-8%.
Do we need more thermal plants for production? ABSOLUTELY. Would more plants have kept this from happening? NOT WITH POOR POWER MANAGEMENT LIKE WE GOT FROM ERCOT!
3 years ago
Reply to
WadeBaker
Agreed. But these are ROLLING blackouts. Do you think any grid in the world could take every heating device in it’s locale being turned on all at once? Of course not…but that’s what happened in Texas Monday night. Rolling blackouts of 500,000 homes for 30 minutes, then 500,000 homes in another area for 30 minutes while the first 500,000 heat back up would have prevented the system failure that only ERCOT is responsible for.
3 years ago
Reply to
Mad Conservative
I don’t know the details but almost always when a catastrophe like this happens government interference and government regulations are behind it. From Bhopal to Chernobyl to the California fires.
I always blame the government first. And I think if I wait a little while, as almost always, the culprit will be proven to be the government.
3 years ago
Reply to
Mad Conservative
Seems logical enough, but I’d rather we just use oil, gas, nuclear, and coal and then nobody needs to suffer. No excuse for this ineptitude.
3 years ago
Reply to
Mad Conservative
Natural gas furnaces utilize electricity solely for the blower and pilots. Moroever, the pilots draw next to nothing. And, blowes draw very little amperage. I cannot see how even one million furnaces, kicking on at similar times, would be that large of a draw.
Please explain.
3 years ago
Reply to
Achmed Mohandjob
Sadly lots of folks there turned to electric heaters etc in that cold snap…!
3 years ago
Reply to
mtman2
Electric heat, whether furnace, baseboard, or heatpump costs substantially more than a natural gas powered furnaces.
I can understand, if they’re rural and no gas lines are availble. But, even then, run cost comparisons of propane v electric.
I guess some people have so dayummed much money that doing stupid things seems natural.
3 years ago
Reply to
Achmed Mohandjob
OK handjob.
A LOT of homes in warm Texas use heat-pumps (electrical, no gas) and most homes in Texas DON’T use natural gas. A lot of Texans use small space heaters (they usually draw 750-1500 watts EACH) or their central heat and air units use heat strips. When EVERY home in Texas kicked the heaters into overdrive (especially since 6 coal burning plants have gone offline in the last two years) the enormous load was too much for our grid (especially after Biden denied the coal, gas and nuke plants to raise production above 60% due to EPA air standards.)
Hope this helps.
3 years ago
Reply to
Mad Conservative
OK, Maddi. Looks as if most Texans are flat out stupid, if that’s actually the case.
No cure for stupid, little one. Looks as if they got what they deserve.
Natural gas is VASTLY more efficient and FAR less costly than electric heat, whether baseboard or heatpump. For rural areas, where there exists no gas lines, even propane is more efficient and less costly than electric.
If people are SO stupid as to choose the less reliable and far more expensive electric model, they get what they deserve.
3 years ago
Reply to
Achmed Mohandjob
Of COURSE it’s cheaper. I use propane to heat my home during particularly cold weather. The problem is a lot of sub-divisions don’t have natural gas plumbed to it.
…and I’ll try to NOT be offended about your comment, “Looks as if most Texans are flat out stupid, if that the case.”
Remember, WE LIVE IN A WARM CLIMATE here. Our biggest temperature concern is the 100 + degree summers that we need tons of A/C for. A few years ago, here in central Texas, we had a month and a half of 100 degree days. To be honest, winters are an after-thought.
3 years ago
Reply to
Mad Conservative
In reference to subdivisions, they typically are found in suburban areas. In the majority of Texas suburban areas, natural gas lines are available. If someone chooses to purchase a home, even with natural gas available, in a subdivision without it …. That’s on them.
I lived in Texas for around eight years. One of my residences was one of the older “shotgun” homes, in Austin. I had no air conditioning. I did, after a year of living there, put in one window unit in my bedroom. I realize that Austin isn’t the hottest spot, in Texas. However, I purchased a rural home, Fredericksburg area (Hill Country) with no A/C. Didn’t find it oppressive.
Perhaps, I grew up in Iowa, where summers easily reach temps in excess of 100F for weeks on end … in certain years … not every year … but more than you’d imagine. We had no A/C. Splashed water on our wrists, but still bailed hay, fed our cattle, and made fence in those temps.
You can survive, easily, without A/C. That’s something you cannot do without heat.
If you choose electric heat, the onus is on you.
3 years ago
Reply to
Mad Conservative
As far as I know, most suburban homes here in Houston do use gas furnaces. Homes as in houses.
Still, my furnace is an older model that still uses glow plugs. They draw quite a bit while they’re firing up the gas.
3 years ago
Reply to
Mad Conservative
It was worse than that. In our area of North Texas, cities said we would have 25 minutes of blackout. What we had was 25 minutes of power per day with 23 hours and 35 minutes of blackout each day for three days. We should destroy all wind turbines and rebuild coal and nuclear plants. Spending good money after bad to “winterize” wind turbines is just crazy.
3 years ago
Reply to
Whirlwinder
Sorry, but with the callsign “Whirlwinder” and being against wind-power is hilarious.
3 years ago
Reply to
Mad Conservative
We could have managed to avoid rolling blackouts if we had reliable energy sources, like we used to. Not the bird-butchering windmills and the Chinese-made solar panels.
3 years ago
Reply to
Mad Conservative
Here you go. I’m going with this. This makes sense.
Why The Texas Blackout Has The Greens So Scared
Deflecting blame to a more exciting apocalypse.
Wed Feb 24, 2021 Rael Jean Isaac
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/why-texas-blackout-has-greens-so-scared-rael-jean-isaac/
3 years ago
Reply to
Mad Conservative
Not to forget the Fed regulatory stranglehold imposed on the independent minded Texans…!
3 years ago
Texas is floating on gas and oil. Windmills are kaput when you need them the most.
There’s a big red flag there somewhere….
3 years ago
Reply to
spfoam1
No just remember that people like Warren Buffet and Tom Steyer can’t make money competitively unless they can put a gun to your head. Remember to smile when they do and tell them thank you.
The Epic Hypocrisy of Tom Steyer
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/04/the-epic-hypocrisy-of-tom-steyer.php
From black to green: U.S. billionaire’s ‘Road to Damascus’
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-steyer-coal-insight/from-black-to-green-u-s-billionaires-road-to-damascus-idUSBREA4C06B20140513
3 years ago
Reply to
Rusty
What exactly are you saying “no” to?
What do you think I meant by big red flag?
Of course privileged billionaires are making a fortune. Our problems come from families of billionaires who have been using every influence of wealth and political power to rob and ruin us. Profit is the short term reward on the road to absolute power and a centrally controlled world.
3 years ago
Reply to
spfoam1
Agreed. That week of the big freeze, in which 59 people perished, we were solid overcast the entire week. By Thursday, the display on my solar G-Shock watch had disappeared.
What good would solar panels have been?
3 years ago
Texas is floating on gas and oil. Windmills are kaput when you need them the most.
There’s a big red flag there somewhere….
3 years ago
And if one considers that all sorts of “green” generators still do not work without oil products, then the message of alarmists to refuse oil and gas becomes super – senseless.
3 years ago
The main thing is that these alarmites imagine that everyone around them is idiots. In this case, when these Chinese windmills freeze, they are treated with special aerosols, which, according to the alarmists, are very harmful for the ecology, to spray the aerosol one requires using a helicopter that runs on fossil fuels and emits quite a bit of carbon dioxide. Not to mention that these windmills are killing thousands of birds around the world. So what’s the point of using them?
3 years ago
Reply to
Nelly
1) “Stupid is as stupid does” –
2) And only stupider idiots sanction such by having no commonsense.
3) Stupider yet are the voting “useful idiots” whom cannot think their way out of a wet paperbag that put them in office…!
4) Birds are Gods incredible statement of his Creative ability and windmills now kill over 100,000 protected birds a year -not to forget the massive solar systems burns birds alive in the mirrored heat rays.
5) Both of these so called “green energy” sources take more hydrogen sourced energy to create build and transport then they will put out in a their short lifespan- to then clutter landfills with junk…!!!
3 years ago
States have to go their own way from now on. California pioneered that, ignoring federal law and rules.
3 years ago
Reply to
AlgorithmicAnalyst
A green energy zealot should be hanged each time their garbage fails us.
3 years ago
Reply to
AlgorithmicAnalyst
Agreed. We Texans got a good preview of what is in store for everyone under this insane Green New Deal by having just lived through it. And it ain’t pretty.
We survived the blackouts by parking the welding rig in the carport and wiring the electricity through the house fuse panel in order to run the house heater and lighting the place with candles and camping lanterns.
We gathered up my wife’s two daughters, their husbands, and granddaughters aged one and six to share with us.
We don’t want that as a steady diet.
3 years ago
Reply to
Drew the Infidel
I know what you mean. We have a whole home generator. We had my parents with us, as well as four neighbors. Two nights with us. Made for some interesting dinners.
Of note, grilling in 20 degree weather is not recommended (because my wife thought, “Why not do burgers? They’re easy!”)
3 years ago
The true power intended to “be throttled” is the Texas independence movement…!!!
3 years ago
Keep reminding those climate change people that their efforts to avert a questionable crisis – has actually caused one!
3 years ago
It’s true that we’ve got to stop burning coal and petroleum — coal and petroleum are too valuable to burn! We need them for chemical processes! But it’s plain that wind and solar alone aren’t enough. We need everything else as well: Thorium nuclear, mini-hydro, tidal, hydrogen, fuel-ethanol, biodiesel, geothermal, generated methane, and anything else we can come up with.
3 years ago
Lot of dumb and do goodness to go around.
3 years ago
Just proves how backward and uninformed Schumer’s criticism of Texas was. It is an overreliance on green energy that led to so many people without electricity, not under reliance. Schumer has become a disgusting cartoon character of a human being. His hatred for the still American half of America shows with every word and deed. Behold the “world citizen.”
3 years ago
Here is the way it is …… only about 60 degrees of arc provide a “usable” level of solar energy, if the skies are “clear” … so solar is only “viable” for a few hours each day. Wind it intermittent as best, the wind does not always “blow” (unlike many politicians). When the wind does blow there is a narrow band of “wind speed” that is useful.
When you do manage to have “proper” conditions to “harvest” this “green” energy there is no place to “store” any of it. Small “home” units can “store” energy is a “battery bank” but IT DOES NOT WORK ON A COMMERCIAL SCALE. When the “green” energy is “on-line” there MUST be a coal-fired, oil-fired, natural gas fired, or nuclear, power plant up, running, at heat, ready to “switch-in” at a moment’s notice. How “green” is keep these back-plants running at idle ready to take up the load when clouds form or the wind dies.
Anything of “commercial grade” “green” energy is a pipe-dream … just like the socialist idea of “utopia”
Senile Biden just cancelled the pipeline. Ask you self, “How many railroad tank-cars full of oil would have flowed through that pipeline each second?”
Who owns the railroad tank-cars? The pipeline runs though open land or underground – the railroads run right through the cities and neighborhoods. Which are more prone to “accidents” … railroads, or pipelines? Men like Buffett made a fortune from “government subsidies” on the wind generators. Now they will make another fortune hauling crude 30,000 gallons at a time.
3 years ago
I lived in Texas 05-06, and saw no end of big rigs on I-20 loaded with wind turbines. It was clear a huge amount of money was being spent on those then. Fat lot of good it did them.
3 years ago
Reply to
Martina Vaslovik
We’d drive across north Texas on our way to Colorado, and there were lots of eggbeaters out there.
3 years ago
I lived in Texas 05-06, and saw no end of big rigs on I-20 loaded with wind turbines. It was clear a huge amount of money was being spent on those then. Fat lot of good it did them.
3 years ago
Believe there is truly insanity among progressives who want to kill fossil fuels…but…not winterizing equipment is also brain dead…Yes, killing clean coal, demonizing nuclear power and targeting natural gas is nuts…as is relying on wind blowing 24/7 and sunshine every day…it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to point out solar and wind are variable like the weather…it’s common sense…ergo, if we don’t have ways to store energy (like batteries), we’re going to run out of power just when we need it most…exacerbate that by stupidity, like not winterizing equipment –perhaps because many have been conditioned by global warming propaganda — and we are facing catastrophe…Answer might be we need “sanctuary energy states” that stand firm against the lunatic left…kind of like 2nd amendment sanctuary states and so on..
3 years ago
If the “all the above” wind and solar advocates are serious about anything more than receiving subsidies, why are they opposed to nuclear, which can produce massive amounts of energy with a ZERO carbon footprint?
“B-b-b-but (sputter) China Syndrome! You want that? It was in a movie, dammit!!”
3 years ago
The photo up top leading this article. I got flagged by FB about 10 days ago for sharing it. The soy boy fact checkers sitting in mommy’s basement watching porn said they were using “hot water” to de ice the fan blades not de-icing chemicals. The same that airports use to de-ice aircraft wings. Joseph Goebbels would be proud of the current propaganda ministry run by the six corporations that currently own the MSM.
