Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter last night to explain what went wrong in Texas, saying “The infrastructure failures in Texas are quite literally what happens when you *don’t* pursue a Green New Deal”:
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
And that we need “sweeping next-gen public infrastructure investments”:
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
There’s no way to sugarcoat that Texas’ infrastructure failed, but “facts and analysis are the answer, not rhetoric”:
This is “quite literally” false
There are many factors that contributed to the Texas situation, most evident being a winter storm (things like cold and ice) and lack of preparation.
Facts and analysis are the answer, not rhetoric. https://t.co/YwkD2HFbUN
— Denver Riggleman (@RepRiggleman) February 17, 2021
The big issue in Texas right now is that the fossil fuel plants are down:
Governor @GregAbbott_TX told WFAA that the supply of natural gas is becoming an issue.
Natural gas is "frozen in the pipeline and frozen in the rig," Abbott said.
Could we have natural gas outages?
That gas heats home, fuels power plants. #txwx
— Jason Whitely (@JasonWhitely) February 16, 2021
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And Gov. Greg Abbott is pissed:
Governor @GregAbbott_TX
sounded upset in an interview with WFAA."ERCOT has not been transparent about this. We expeted the utilities would have winterized their equipment for something like this."#txwx
— Jason Whitely (@JasonWhitely) February 16, 2021
Basically, everything went wrong in Texas at the same time:
In Texas’s Black-Swan Blackout, Everything Went Wrong at Once:https://t.co/evFAlQQ7kq
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) February 17, 2021
Gov. Abbott has ordered an investigation:
We are ordering an investigation into ERCOT and immediate transparency by ERCOT. pic.twitter.com/Mt2GPlaFuE
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 16, 2021
But AOC would have you believe that this never would’ve happened with wind turbines and solar panels, which just isn’t true:
Yes the snow covered solar panels and frozen wind turbines would have been so much more effective by themselves https://t.co/iqmo0foXYo
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) February 17, 2021
Never let a crisis go to waste, right?
Politicians are using the widespread US power outages as fodder in the debate over whether the government should back massive investment in clean energy and infrastructure
Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just posted this — https://t.co/C0ouKuyW8a
— Stephen Stapczynski (@SStapczynski) February 17, 2021
Yes, Texas, California, and other places need infrastructure improvements. But spending money to make these improvements to fight climate change is not the route to take:
Climate change is a hoax designed to steal your money and power, both electrical and political. https://t.co/ovO1k0p9mS
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) February 17, 2021
And here’s Chuck DeVore from the Texas Public Policy Foundation explaining how it was Texas’ subsidies for AOC’s beloved green energy made things worse:
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
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