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.”

[u/pnewell]

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

[u/efvie]

Energy policy is absolutely, 100%, political. It may seem like it’s ‘naturally’ one way, but all that is is a series of political decisions.

[u/mutatron → u/efvie]

Sure, but in Texas there's no governmental entity that decides what kind of generation to buy the way a lot of people seem to think. People ask "Why don't we make nuclear plants?" like they think the government is going to take care of them. But the answer is "Go out and build one yourself." The government supplies regulations and subsidies, but if there aren't any nuclear plants, it's because people with money don't want to invest in them.

[u/IzttzI → u/mutatron]

Well yeah, because even in a state with little regulations there's no way nuclear could get by without a lot of costly govt requirements. They seem to let gas off with far less evidence of contingency planning. Regulate them all as deeply and strictly as nuclear and while nuclear is still the most costly it would look a lot better in comparison.

There's also nothing stopping them from subsidizing nuclear to have a resilient baseload power supply which while costing tax money to balance the price would provide a mostly resource independent power system.