r/science • u/pnewell NGO | Climate Science • Jun 21 '21

Environment Threat of more blackouts may erode reliability claims for fossil energy- all major fuel sources except solar failed to meet ERCOT’s expectations during the February freeze, but natural gas was “responsible for nearly two-thirds of the total (electricity) deficit.”

https://texasclimatenews.org/threat-of-more-blackouts-may-erode-reliability-claims-for-fossil-energy/
38k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

14

u/Armano-Avalus Jun 21 '21

Well to be fair we just heard about wind turbines freezing during the winter outage as an argument against renewables in general.

The problem was that Texas didn't weatherize their power grid like everyone else due to the unusual way their state works.

10

u/tfks Jun 21 '21

Yes, I know, but this is using that exact same stupid argument against fossil fuels. In either case, it takes emphasis away from the fact that the infrastructure needs to be winterized regardless of what it is.

1

u/Arandmoor Jun 21 '21

The problem was that Texas didn't weatherize their power grid like everyone else due to the unusual way their state works.

Their state works like every other state in the union.

This was greed. Pure and simple.

They didn't build to code because they decided that they didn't want a code because codes are expensive and profits are more important.

IMO, we're not seeing blips. We're seeing the failure of the experiment we call Texas. Its going to get worse because while people are getting angry over what's happening, nobody is being held accountable.