So, people are freezing in Texas and the power is goign out. Conservatives blame windmills. Liberals blame not enough windmills. What is the truth?
You can’t handle the truth.
We cannot know what the truth is about anything any longer because out media sources are all unreliable. They all specialize in telling us their own brand of truth because that is what drives their revenues and paychecks.
Windmills and solar did not cause Texas’ energy crunch. Energy producers know with certainty that those technologies are hobby-farm levels of electricity. They know with certainty that they are unreliable and should not be counted on for anything important… like keeping the lights on. So they have massive extra capacity from Natural gas generation. Not “just enough” or “enough for 95% of normal demands. MASSIVE.
Reliance on fossil fuels did not cause the crunch or make it worse. Windmills and solar fill a niche in an otherwise natural gas/nuclear/coal dominated generation facility.
Capitalism did not cause the crisis. Power companies all pretty much run the same way whether they are not for profits, co-ops, or public utilities. They all cover the operating costs with service fees and put a buffer aside to fix things that break and improve the grid over time. Government interference like what happens in California is the only thing that destroys the ability of those companies to operate efficiently.
What did cause the crisis:
- Massive immigration from outside the USA and from “Blue” states, increasing the population much faster than the grid expanded. (windmills included)
- Massive cold weather of a type that is nowhere near normal for that area. Texas homes don’t have the insulation factors we have in the northern states. Texas residents have to make up for that the only way they know how, by cranking up the heaters, making demand for electricity skyrocket.
- Covid lockdowns keeping people in their homes causes their normal daily demands for energy to increase to keep their homes comfortable beyond their normal non-working hours while at the same time, businesses are still carrying a full heating bill for the 5% of people who still show up.
It’s no one’s fault. All the people in Texas simply demanded more electricity than was possible to produce.