Last Updated on February 17, 2021
Biden regime Press Secretary Jen Psaki falsely claimed that coal and natural gas power plants are responsible for the current blackouts in Texas that are leaving millions without power during an arctic cold snap that is seeing temperature highs in the low single digits, with wind chills colder than Alaska’s.
“There have been some inaccurate accusations out there,” said Psaki, “That it was, the uh, that suggested, that, uh, renewables caused the failures, in, uh, Texas’s power grid.”
“Actually, numerous reports have actually shown the contrary, that it was failures in coal and natural gas that contributed to the state’s power shortages.”
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1362116606776778755
This is blatantly untrue. It was widely reported by mainstream publications that Texas’s wind turbines froze solid during the worst parts of the freeze. As Texas has slowly phased out coal and natural gas to please Washington, D.C. climate alarmists, this complete shutdown of wind energy led to increased reliance on coal and natural gas. As a result, the supply of coal and natural gas power was quickly depleted.
This likely would not have happened, however, without the completely useless frozen wind turbines that now litter rural Texas.
“This is a unique winter storm that’s more widespread with lots of moisture in West Texas, where there’s a lot of times not a lot of moisture,” Senior Director of System Operations for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Dan Woodfin noted, adding, “It’s certainly more than what we would typically assume.”
“As of 3:24AM there are now 1,408,377 customers without electricity in Texas. Rotating blackouts may continue for a while unless additional power generating capacity if found or energy use decreases. Most ‘spare’ capacity was eliminated because many wind turbines are frozen…” Texas Storm Chasers reported on Twitter.
It was reported by The Austin American-Statesman that nearly half of wind turbines in the state are out of commission due to the storm:
Nearly half of Texas’ installed wind power generation capacity has been offline because of frozen wind turbines in West Texas, according to Texas grid operators.
Wind farms across the state generate up to a combined 25,100 megawatts of energy. But unusually moist winter conditions in West Texas brought on by the weekend’s freezing rain and historically low temperatures have iced many of those wind turbines to a halt.
As of Sunday morning, those iced turbines comprise 12,000 megawatts of Texas’ installed wind generation capacity, although those West Texas turbines don’t typically spin to their full generation capacity this time of year.
TampaBay.com echoed this, while somehow claiming it does not matter. The Florida publication notes that in winter months, 25% of Texas’s power supply comes from wind energy, and 50% of this energy is now nonexistent because of the frozen turbines.
The website then suggests that because traditional fossil fuels were unable to adequately make up for the missing energy, due to simple scarcity of not being having enough readily available natural gas to make up for the increased demand generated by both the extreme cold and and useless frozen wind turbines, they should be blamed.
In short, Psaki and Democrat media claim: Wind turbines now make up 25% of Texas’s winter power supply as the state has slowly phased out natural gas and clean coal. Half of these turbines froze, increasing the demand for natural gas. Because less natural gas is readily available, in part due to the relatively new reliance on now-useless wind turbines, we should blame natural gas and fossil fuels for the power failures.
