In typical fashion, Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter Tuesday night to explain how the power outages in storm ravaged and frozen Texas are the result of what happens when you “don’t pursue a New Green Deal” but found the truth does not substantiate her ridiculous claims.
Millions of people in Texas awoke Wednesday without heat again following an historic winter storm that has killed 21 people so far. Some 2.7 million Texas households were still without power, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot), a cooperative responsible for 90% of the state’s electricity. Ercot said 600,000 households had power restored overnight.
There is a lot to be said about the failed power grid in Texas and per usual, AOC wasted no time slamming Texas leadership for not embracing her New Green Deal.
According to AOC the root causes of the power outage is leadership not making appropriate “infrastructure investments” and not focusing on “equity” which results in “communities left behind” and, my personal favorite, “climate deniers” who “don’t long prep for disaster.”
The infrastructure failures in Texas are quite literally what happens when you *don’t* pursue a Green New Deal.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 17, 2021
Weak on sweeping next-gen public infrastructure investments, little focus on equity so communities are left behind, climate deniers in leadership so they don’t long prep for disaster.
We need to help people *now.* Long-term we must realize these are the consequences of inaction.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 17, 2021
Fortunately, a voice of reason, Chuck DeVore from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, stepped in and schooled AOC on the damage relying on solely green energy really does and how it actually made this situation worse.
Do you support more green energy in the US?
Much misinformation out there about #Texaspoweroutage, @ERCOT_ISO, wind and solar power, and thermal generators (gas and coal). Let’s review what we think we know right now. @TPPF @Life_Powered_ 1/10
— Chuck DeVore (@ChuckDeVore) February 16, 2021
Two problems in #Texas, one short term and exacerbated by the long term issue, and one long term. 2/10
— Chuck DeVore (@ChuckDeVore) February 16, 2021
The short term failure came at about 1 AM Monday when #ERCOT should have seen the loads soaring due to plummeting temperatures and arranged for more generation. 3/10
— Chuck DeVore (@ChuckDeVore) February 16, 2021
Texas came very close to having a system-wide outage for the whole state (ERCOT area, about 85% of the state) due to not arranging for more generation. 4/10
— Chuck DeVore (@ChuckDeVore) February 16, 2021
This tripped the grid, knocking some reliable thermal plants (gas and coal) offline. This was a failure of the grid operator (ERCOT) not the power plants. 5/10
— Chuck DeVore (@ChuckDeVore) February 16, 2021
In the last 4-5 years, Texas lost a net of 3,000 megawatts of thermal out of a total installed capacity 73,000 megawatts today. We lost the thermal power because operators couldn’t see a return on investment due to be undercut by wind and solar… 6/10
— Chuck DeVore (@ChuckDeVore) February 16, 2021
…which is cheap for two reasons – it’s subsidized and it doesn’t have to pay for the costs of grid reliability by purchasing battery farms or contracting with gas peaker plants to produce power when needed, not when they can. 7/10
— Chuck DeVore (@ChuckDeVore) February 16, 2021
Meanwhile, Texas has seen a growth of 20,000 megawatts of wind and solar over the same period to 34,000 megawatts of installed capacity (they rarely perform anywhere close to capacity). This subsidized (state and federal) wind and solar have pushed… 8/10
— Chuck DeVore (@ChuckDeVore) February 16, 2021
…reliable thermal operators out of business or prevented new generation from being built as operators can’t make money off of the market. This reduced the capacity margin – grids must have excess capacity to ensure stability. 9/10
— Chuck DeVore (@ChuckDeVore) February 16, 2021
Texas is experiencing what California has – with California affecting the entire Western Interconnection due to its policies. Blackouts are a feature of the push to have more unreliable renewables on the grid. Must pay $$ for reliable backup w/ renewables 10/10
— Chuck DeVore (@ChuckDeVore) February 16, 2021
The entire problem in Texas was summed up by a statement released by the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Life Powered Project
“It has been known for years that a weather event combining low wind and solar production and record demand could lead to blackouts. This week, that event became reality as new wind and solar generation failed to produce when it was needed the most.”
“Contrary to numerous false reports that coal and natural gas plants were also “frozen,” almost all those reliable generators were operating without interruption until this system failure, just as they do in much colder climates all over the world.”
“This situation could have been avoided had ERCOT acted more swiftly — but it never would have been an issue had our grid not been so deeply penetrated by renewable energy sources that contribute the least when they are needed the most, yet are propped up by billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies every year.”
The Dems New Green Deal that Biden seems to support will wreak havoc in our nation. It has already cost jobs with the killing of the Keystone Pipeline and raised the price of gasoline, which will continue to climb at tremendous rates, it will literally leave us in the dark.
ARTICLE SOURCE: thefederalistpapers.org
