Opinion: Renewable Energy Failed During The Unprecedented Storm

Texans bundled up and lit fires last month in an attempt to avoid the lingering cold. Their lamps didn’t light and their heaters didn’t buzz, a result of the wildly unreliable renewable energy sources that failed Texans when they needed it most. 

The only ones that seemed to voice an opinion on the matter were those who don’t live in Texas. There were plenty of people angry with Ted Cruz, plenty of people attempting to blame fossil fuels and plenty of people that were broadcasting their opinion although they were nowhere near the actual issue. 

The first thing one must understand about the power outage is that Texas doesn’t really experience a true winter season. Sure, it gets cold, but hardly ever below 30 degrees, and most of that is wind chill. It doesn’t really snow, but it ices, covering the trees and power lines and roads in a thin sheet of frozen water.

“Unprecedented weather” is an understatement. 

Winterizing the state is rather unnecessary, since we experience more 100-degree days than we do 40-degree days. Our homes have less insulation, we don’t own snow plows and we don’t prepare with generators or chains on our tires. 

Secondly, the majority of Texans hate the renewable energy wind turbines that have been placed on our beautiful horizon. They’re not only ugly, but they’re also undependable. When the winter storm broke through Texas, the wind turbines froze, and the solar panels were snowed over, deemed useless to frozen Texans. These turbines provided 42% of Texas’s electricity on Feb. 7, a number that fell to a meager 8% on Feb. 11. 

Plenty of opinion articles swarmed the internet blaming fossil fuels and natural gases without actually looking at the data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s regulator on electricity. The data reports that even though coal and natural gas plants witnessed frozen pipelines, coal plants in the state increased their output to 47%, and natural gas plants worked in overdrive, increasing output to an insane 450% while wind turbines stood frozen. 

Thanks to state mandates and federal subsidies, wind energy has become more widespread, which will inevitably lead to another power crisis, likely as the summer season begins and air conditioners blow at full force.  

Lastly, Texans were left to their own devices during the crisis, being ignored by the new president and watching as their senator flew to Mexico. The red state didn’t panic, and they didn’t beg for the government to come save them. Farmers and ranchers birthed calves, neighbors lent generators and they banded together as Texans are known to do. 

Texans are notoriously good at taking care of themselves and not relying on the government to do it for them. They understand the importance of true liberty and independence, both of which are God-given. When their legislators chose to utilize the ugly wind turbines and socialized green energy, it failed epically, plunging the Lone Star state into darkness and begging the question: how reliable really is the government when it comes to a human’s most basic needs?

Savanna Graves is the News Editor. Follow her on Twitter at @SavannaLeigh.

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