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With temperatures of minus 20 degrees, Texans froze last week. In the worst case, 5 million people were without electricity.
The media speak of several people who were frozen to death in their own homes.
Not only did it freeze, it was also critical to the 30 million people who were told to boil their drinking water.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, used the energy crisis to defend the use of gas and coal.
“This shows that fossil energy is necessary for the state of Texas and other states to be able to heat their homes in winter and cool them in summer,” Abbott told Fox News.
Abbott wasn’t alone in blaming wind power. Several Republicans and right-wing media blamed the energy crisis on wind power and green politics, writes the New York Times.
- “This is what happens when the power grid is forced to rely on the wind for power,” wrote Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw in Twitter.
- The Fox News television station had a banner with the text “Green Power Failure” – “Green Power Failure” – in their reports on power outages in Texas.
- The Wall Street Journal wrote in an editorial that the answer to power outages was coal and gas.
- Fox News host Tucker Carlson was the clearest of all. “Windmills broke like the ridiculous fashion accessory and people in Texas died,” Carlson said during one of his shows.
Windy and flat, Texas, like here in Loraine, is made for wind power.
Photo: NICK OXFORD / Reuters
7 percent of wind energy
Much of Texas is flat and rich in wind. This makes the state ideal for wind power.
The result is that Texas is by far the state that draws the most energy from the wind. According to Power Technology, Texas has three times more wind power than number two on the list, Iowa.
However, wind power makes up only a small part of the state’s electricity production. Figures from the Texas Tribune show that at this time of year, 7 percent of the state’s electricity comes from wind power.
Instead, by far the majority of electricity in Texas comes from natural gas.
– Texas is a gas state, is the clear conclusion of Michael Webber, professor of energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin.
Wind power came back faster
The New York Times has reviewed the food supplies in Texas during the cold snap hour after hour.
The figures show that the drop in natural gas deliveries was five times that of wind power.
While the problem with wind power was that many of the turbines were stopped by ice, the pipes that carry natural gas to power plants were frozen.
– All power sources did worse than expected. But much, much worse than anything else combined was the natural gas failure, says Daniel Cohan of Rice University in Houston.
Additionally, Forbes writes that renewable energy sources like solar and wind came back to work more quickly than traditional energy sources.
– The idea that renewable energy could not compete with traditional sources in difficult situations, that traditional sources were “tougher” than renewables, turned out to be completely wrong, writes Forbes.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott leaving a press conference on the energy crisis last Thursday. Abbott is in a wheelchair after a tree toppled over him when he was 26 years old.
Photo: Jay Janner / AP
Call the behavior “embarrassing”
Heather Zichal, leader of the American Clean Power Association industry association, which works for renewable energy.
Now he accuses opponents of renewables of trying to divert attention from the failure in other parts of the system and “slow the transition to cleaner energy.”
“It is a shame that opponents of clean energy, who attack it whether it rains, snows or the sun is shining, are misleading Americans by promoting an agenda that has nothing to do with providing energy to Texas communities.” , He said.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has also responded to those who try to blame renewables.
In an interview with CNN, Gates said that since climate change is the cause of extreme weather events, renewable energy is what can prevent even worse disasters in the future.
“It’s ironic to blame renewable energy and not realize that we will struggle with this if we don’t get everyone to cut emissions,” Gates said.
Instead, Gates believes that much of the blame for power outages falls on Texas politicians, such as Governor Abbott, who failed to ensure that gas-fired power plants could weather the cold.
– These are primarily gas plants that were not protected from the elements. We could protect them, but it costs money and we decided not to. The tragedy is that it kills people, Gates said.
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