Texas Power Grid

 Konni Burton

The only thing standing between Texas and another power grid collapse is a few wind turbines — or so we are told by the bright minds at CNN.

"Wind and solar power are ‘bailing out’ Texas amid record heat and energy demand," reads a breathless headline from the journalistic standard-bearer.

When Texas hit a new record in electricity demand back in June — something it’s done over two dozen times this year — wind generation produced at about two-thirds of its capacity. For progressives and their orderlies in the media, this was proof positive that Texas’ power grid is on the brink of collapse but for the prowess of renewable energy.

But the previous two days to that new record in June, wind generation not only underperformed its own estimates, but it produced less than solar power which has far less capacity.

Throughout the recent weeks-long heat wave that has stressed the grid, including triggering two conservation requests by ERCOT, wind has struggled to produce much meaningful power during the period of highest need: the mid-afternoon to late evening.

On multiple days it has dipped to 2 percent.

TWO PERCENT.

Yet, this is the source on which our grid hinges?? I don’t think that makes the point they think it does.

Despite all the "sky is falling" frantic rhetoric from Texas and national media, Texas’ power grid has stood resilient to everything thrown at it since the blackouts. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have real issues that need to be addressed, like the influx of renewable energy’s effects on the electricity market. But let’s stop this apocalyptic frenzy propped up by the political aspirations of doomed liberal candidates.

Powering a state as big as Texas is no easy feat and anyone telling you they can guarantee without a shadow of a doubt that they know all it takes to prevent any power problems from ever occurring is selling you oceanfront property in Arizona.

States all across the nation deal with power outages (remember the weeks of rolling blackouts in California only a few years ago?) and will continue to.

Texas had a particularly bad one last year, the severity of which was substantially a product of how unused Texas is to winter weather.

But this breathless desire to see grid issues or even a collapse by politicians is sickening. On top of that is the religious devotion to renewable energy, which can serve a purpose but is far from being able to power our daily lives.

The legacy media has run with these two narratives because they desperately want to turn Texas blue.

But don’t buy what they’re selling. For measured, accurate, and fact-focused coverage of the Texas grid and the energy industry that powers it, check out our team’s coverage at The Texan. If you find it useful, please consider subscribing. We think our product is worth a subscription.

On energy, like most issues, hyperbole is the enemy of the truth. But with an issue that is so central to everything that goes on, I think the importance of accuracy is at an even higher premium.

Andrew Breitbart once said that politics is downstream of culture. By the same token, society’s productivity and its rising standard of living are downstream of our ability to provide cheap, reliable power.

Get your antidote to the hysteria.

In Liberty,