It was not just a severe cold front that shut down much of Texas last week. Over a decade of misguided green energy policies are wreaking havoc in Texas and the Great Plains states right now – despite non-stop claims to the contrary by supporters of renewable energy.

To put last week’s devastating snow/ice storm in Texas in perspective, nearly 400,000 Austin homes (out of just under 1 million) were out of power by Tuesday as temperatures fell into the single digits. Similar numbers of homes were also without running water, many of which have yet to have their water restored.

The immediate cause for the widespread power outages and vast road closures in Texas last week was extreme cold, snow, ice, and woefully insufficient winterization of the state’s energy systems.

Yet there’s still no escaping the fact that, for years, Texas regulators have favored the construction of heavily subsidized renewable energy sources over more reliable electricity generation. These policies have pushed the state away from nuclear and coal and now millions in Texas and the Great Plains states are learning just how badly exposed they are when extreme weather hits.

Over the last couple of decades, the state of Texas has spent tens of billions of dollars on wind turbines which often don’t work when millions of people desperately need electricity. As the cold weather got worse last week, over half the state’s wind generation was frozen and immobile. Where wind energy provided 42% of the state’s daily electricity on February 7, it plunged to only 8% on February 11.

Unsurprisingly, the failure of wind has sparked a competing narrative that fossil fuel plants were the real cause of power outages. This claim is quickly dispelled with a look at data from ERCOT, the state’s electricity regulator. Even though the extreme cold had frozen cooling systems on some coal plants and natural gas pipelines, the state’s operating coal plants still upped their output by 47% in response to increased demand last week. Natural gas pipelines which remained in operation across the state increased their output by an amazing 450%. Fossil fuels have done yeoman’s work to make up for wind’s unreliability.

Sadly, even these herculean efforts weren’t enough. The loss of wind has been compounded by the loss of some natural gas and coal generation, and one nuclear reactor, which experienced a cold-related safety issue and shut down.

As this is written, things are improving and most Texans now have power. However, many Texans still do not have water and don’t know when it will be restored. Some of the water problems were the result of the power outages, but now they are dealing mainly with broken pipes.

Had the state invested more heavily in nuclear plants instead of pushing wind power, Texans would have ample, reliable, safe, emission-free electricity powering their lives through the worst cold spell in over 30 years.

Instead, over 20 have died from the frigid weather and the loss of power.

This sad outcome was inevitable. Renewable energy sources have taken off in popularity largely because of state mandates and federal subsidies. As they’ve become more popular, reliable energy like nuclear power and coal have felt the squeeze.

Last year, wind overtook coal as Texas’ second-largest source of electricity generation. The most recent federal data indicate that, in October last year, natural gas provided 52% of the Lone Star state’s electricity, while wind generated about 22%, coal kicked in 17%, and nuclear added 8%. The rise of wind means unreliable energy is increasingly relied on for the energy grid.

The Texas energy crisis isn’t a “one-off” event, either. The same thing happened in 2019 when Michigan endured the Polar Vortex. Extreme cold paired with limited natural gas supplies and non-existent renewable energy caused most businesses to close and schools were canceled for a week. California’s rolling blackouts last summer are another example.

As more states mandate unreliable renewables, incidents like this will become more frequent, not less. Every new wind turbine and solar panel means less reliable energy – the energy Americans need to weather the coldest nights and the hottest days.

And then there’s Joe Biden’s nearly $2 trillion stimulus, which includes weaning America off reliable energy. If Biden’s aggressive climate plan is enacted, it will create tens of thousands more wind turbines and millions of solar panels in an expensive effort to achieve net-zero emissions from the nation’s electricity sector by 2050. But doing this will only further spread the problems that Texans are currently experiencing.

America can’t continue down this foolish and dangerous road. Common-sense has already lost to political considerations – and people across Texas and the Great Plains are paying the price.
They aren’t the first victims, and they certainly won’t be the last – if politicians continue to push unreliable renewable energy instead of the reliable sources families need to stay warm and live their lives.

I always wondered why Texas abandoned nuclear energy years ago; now I know.