Webster’s defines a chimera as “an impossible or foolish fancy.” After the massive electrical power outages that took place in Texas last week you would think that progressive Democrats would re-think their obsession with coercive green-energy mandates. Naturally they are doubling down and refusing to accept the obvious: Alternative energy sources such as wind and solar cannot provide reliable electrical energy in sufficient quantities to power modern-day America. The unspoken secret of course is they know this and have no intention of providing energy anywhere near the requirements needed to allow Americans to continue to enjoy current standards of living.
What happened in Texas was not an unprecedented cold-weather event; it has been colder in Texas before. A search of the historical record reveals multiple instances of sub-freezing temperatures in Texas: Houston experienced 12 nights of freezing temperatures (10 degrees) and 20 inches of snow in 1895. In January 1930, Houston hit a record: 5 degrees over eight nights. There were other cold-snaps in the 1940s, 1950s and 1980s. The difference was that Texans used to have a reliable electrical power system. So, what happened in Texas?
Over the last 20 years, pressure has been applied to elected officials via public alarm that climate change is an “existential crisis” requiring drastic curtailment of fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, an atmospheric trace-gas essential for all plant life on earth. Thus we have subsidized alternatives such as wind and solar power, edicts closing coal-fired and natural gas power plants along with shuttering nuclear power plants and dismantling hydroelectric power plants. The latter two energy sources emit zero greenhouse gases and are of proven reliability. Given that we’re threatened with extinction, according to climate alarmists, you’d think they’d aggressively promote 21st century nuclear power designs and hydropower, at least in the interim to “save the planet.” Nope, that’s blasphemy in the new green religion: Wind/solar only or a technology yet to be developed. No heresy allowed.
The heavy government subsidies of wind/solar have made coal and natural gas plants less economical and although fossil fuels receive some subsidies, solar receives 75 times more and wind 17 times more dollars in subsidies than fossil fuels, according to Jason Isaac in his commentary on the blackouts for The Federalist. This disincentive affects profitability and fossil fuel energy companies failed to invest in winterizing their fossil fuel plants.
Before the major snowstorm hit, half of the Texas wind turbines had frozen and gone off-line. Wind turbine blades hadn’t been treated for icing and the hundreds of gallons of lubricants (oil) inside the wind turbines were freezing up; by the time of the storm the turbines had gone from providing around 35 percent of power to almost nothing. When the big storm hit, power generated by natural gas, which also experienced some mechanical failures due to non-winterization, was diverted to heating homes instead of generating electricity. Fossil fuel plants were able to surge to provide more of the power needed; wind/solar provided zero and weren’t able to surge. Nuclear eventually surged to provide more than half of additional power, but even combined, it wasn’t enough to prevent massive power outages.
The worst sucker-punch to consumers already experiencing flooding from burst water pipes and no water for toilets for days, no food in stores and freezing indoor temperatures, was the massive electrical bills received: bills for thousands of dollars as the price per kilowatt hour went from 85 cents to more than $9,000/hWh. One customer normally paying $660/month received a bill for over $17,000, even with his power off for five days. Customers were advised to contract with a fixed-rate utility service, except they weren’t taking on any new customers at the time.
The greens don’t really care and their anti-fossil fuel crusade demanding conversion of personal transportation to electric power in short order exemplifies their perfidy. In some parts of the world, electric vehicles (EV) were found to emit more greenhouse gases over their life—which includes materials for parts, manufacturing, and disposal—than a gas/diesel car and are environmental catastrophes designed for virtue signaling by their owners more than any benefit to the planet.
According to Ronald Stein, an analyst with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, acquiring the five elements to produce a “1,000 pound EV battery requires mining about 90,000 pounds of ore” with an estimated 3 to 20 tons of extra materials dug up per ton of ore.
“Accessing about 90,000 pounds of ore requires digging and moving between 200,000 and over 1,500,000 pounds of earth,” Stein wrote for The Heartland Institute. “An EV battery typically contains about: 25 pounds of lithium, 30 pounds of cobalt, 60 pounds of nickel, 110 pounds of graphite, 90 pounds of copper.”
Most of the rare earth metals in an EV are found in China and Africa: both use slave labor and the latter is infamous for child labor. The batteries last about four to five years and cost $3,500 to $8,500 (today’s prices) to replace.
One way or the other, greens will have us freezing in our homes and using a horse to commute to work, if we are allowed to work at all. Δ
Al Fonzi had a 35-year military career, serving in both the Vietnam and Iraq wars. Respond with a letter to the editor emailed to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 4, 2021.
Mr. Fonze is back in full ignorant force citing climate deniers as legitimate sources. Here’s what the Committee for Constructive Tomorrow is all about: CFACT sponsors the climate denial website, http://ClimateDepot.com, which is run by Marc Morano, who previously worked for Rush Limbaugh and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) both vocal climate change deniers. Fonzi then goes on to quote the humanitarian issues brought up by the mining of metals required for EVs. In fact, these issues do exist but are being ameliorated by new policies enacted by automakers to ensure cobalt for batteries is not being mined by children. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business… finally, what begs to be said is that Elon Musk and the EV community is working to eliminate cobalt from the manufacturing of its batteries .
Mr. Fonzi’ falsely claims that: “In some parts of the world, electric vehicles (EV) were found to emit more greenhouse gases over their life—which includes materials for parts, manufacturing, and disposal—than a gas/diesel car and are environmental catastrophes designed for virtue signaling by their owners more than any benefit to the planet.” Fonzi cites no source for this statement because it is based on no substantiated, reliable information. It is constructed from Fonzi’s imagination. In fact, a reliable source has gone to great lenghts to address long term emissions issues of conventional vehicles versus EVs. https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-how-…
Like most of Mr. Fonzi’s “facts,” these…..aren’t. Any 7th grader can google the truth about Texas (although “truth” is not core to most arguments proffered by the GOP-adherent). According to ERCOT itself–Texas’s power company–61% of the power loss was due to thermal energy, meaning coal, nuclear and gas. Half of their windmills continued to operate and, if ERCOT had bothered to winterize them (as they do in Scandinavian countries), they all would have continued to operate. There’s another reason that Texas had problems beyond the scope of those experienced by Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana: It was their “go-it-alone” foolishness that eliminated interstate pacts that share the electrical grid. ERCOT did not want to be subject to Federal regulations–the kinds of regulations that kept El Paso, Texas (not part of ERCOT) lit and warm, as they were able to take advantage of a 14-state energy grid. It’s as though a city refused to be part of a mutual aid compact for police and fire, and was left on its own in a catastrophe. Additionally, ERCOT uses a “look-backward” system of weather forecasting, ignoring changing climate, because….well….Texas. Texas came dangerously close to a complete energy shutdown–a virtual China Syndrome of despair. Al Fonzi’s reliance on foolish sources has made him appear equally foolish, because he is dead wrong.
Who regulates all power sources? The gov’t at one level or another.
Who is to blame when there are power failures? The companies regulated by the gov’t.
While Texas generates about 24% of its power with wind, other nations and states have comparable numbers—Minnesota relies on 18% wind power; Finland almost 10%, etc. But, of course, the largest wind power producer in the world is China, producing five times the amount of wind energy as the entire U.S. Most of China is at a higher latitude than Texas, so it gets cold there, yet there are no reports of massive power losses in Beijing or Shanghai.
The reason that Texas suffered this winter is because it has dedicated itself to doing everything through the “free market.” And, while that may work for widgets, it does not work for things like health care (18% of Texas citizens were without health insurance, double the rest of the nation and dead last overall) or power. The simple fact is that Texas officials did not spend the money necessary to harden their grid by weatherizing their wind turbines or their natural gas infrastructure. It’s quite ironic that they didn’t do this because global warming has produced consistently warmer temps in Texas and they simply discounted the idea that Texas would revert to the bitterly cold temperatures which are recorded in the state’s history.
Where to start? Well, first let’s talk about the “climate crisis.” Most of what you’ve heard or read about the “crisis,” is baloney. From 900 to 1200 AD (roughly), it was far warmer than it is today in Greenland, Labrador, and what’s known as the North East Tibetan Plateau (modern NE China). By “far” warmer, the estimate is at least 3 degrees C. Why do we know that? Because in all of those locations, agriculture flourished where today it is far too cold.
So, did the world end? No. It was followed by what was known as the “Little Ice Age,” which ended, coincidentally, with what we refer to as the Renaissance.
Further, with a modicum of physics understanding, note that there are 320 million cubic miles of sea water on the planet. We know that sea water temperatures and atmospheric temperatures are closely linked. The case against CO2 is that it acts as a “greenhouse gas” to prevent the radiation of energy from the earth into space, while allowing the absorption of energy from the sun. Stay with me on this. Today that level of inbound and outbound radiation are roughly in balance. If you had sufficient CO2 in the atmosphere to block all outbound radiation, it would take 37 years to raise the temperature of the oceans one degree C. No amount of new coal fired power plants or other terrifying generation of CO2 could reach that level in anyone’s imagination. If we increase the CO2 in our atmosphere, perhaps it will decrease our radiation by one or two percent. So, by that measure, consider it 1,850 years to raise the temperature of the earth as we know it by 1 degree C.
If someone has a better measurement, I’m all ears. But one tires of the absurdity of the “climate crisis.” What that “crisis” actually represents is the opportunity for the government to control every aspect of our lives; a fevered dream of those in power.
Wake up folks. you will need to balance the repeated narrative with some independent investigation.
I wonder where Clovis Dad got his PhD in climatology?
When actual scientists such as Michael Mann and James Hansen tell me that we need to take action against warming, then I’m all ears. Combine that with actual data telling us that the last 10 years are the hottest ever recorded and I tend to dismiss non-scientists who have gleaned their “facts” from right wing TV and radio hosts who are paid fabulous sums by the fossil fuel industry to outright lie to the American people.
Al Fonzi blames the Texas cold spell disaster on green energy just like he blamed the Capitol riot on antifa instead of the neo-Nazis who really participated in the riot, incited by Dear Leader. Maybe Al also thinks that Bill Gates ,with the help of “globalists” blocked out the sun over Texas with space lasers. I’m waiting for Al to tell us that all Democrats & liberals eat babies & drink their blood to acquire supernatural occult powers. We know that QAnon cultists claim that fantasy is real, so since Mr Fonzi is cool with those nutjobs maybe he believes it too.
Reports warned Texas wasn’t ready for cold weather 10 years ago
A federal report from 2011 and a state report from 2012 warned the Texas power system could not handle extreme cold, following a storm that caused widespread outages
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/investig…
Texas natural gas production fell by almost half during recent cold snap
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.p…
Fact check: Renewable energy is not to blame for the Texas energy crisis
Natural gas, the state’s dominant energy source, has provided drastically less energy than expected, according to experts and industry data.
“Wind was operating almost as well as expected,” said Sam Newell, head of the electricity group at the Brattle Group, an energy consulting company that has advised Texas on its power grid.
“It’s an order of magnitude smaller” than problems with natural gas, coal and nuclear energy, he said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fact-…
“The reason that Texas suffered this winter is because it has dedicated itself to doing everything through the “free market.”
And, while that may work for widgets, it does not work for things like . . . power.
The simple fact is that Texas officials did not spend the money necessary to harden their grid by weatherizing their wind turbines or their natural gas infrastructure.”
So, “officials”, not the power companies permitted under the officials dedication to the “free market” failed to spend money . . .
Really?
Is it the market or the “officials”?
Do the “officials’ regulate the power companies?
Texas politicians including Greg Abbott believe that the free market will solve everything. Therefore, Texas decided to use a power company which failed to strengthen its grid. Abbott was happy with this arrangement and Texas citizens were happy with it, because it saved money, bottom line. Everything in Texas is about making the individual rich at any cost. Meanwhile, nearly 1 in 5 Texans has no health insurance. The state has settled for a subpar electric power situation, all in order to save a buckthe almighty dollar rules in Texas.
I’m all for the free market, but it just does not work when it comes to some of the necessities of life. The free market leaves many Americans behind and when you add that to a lack of health insurance or dependable electric power then you have a serious societal problem.
In his State of the Union speech to Congress in 1944, FDR said, “We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
You know Gail, I get the whole libertarian thing and could actually get on board with it, but that would only be if everyone started with the same advantages in life, especially when it comes to education and access to health care. Gene Burns was a longtime radio host out of SF. He was a big time libertarian and ran as the party’s VP in 1984. But on a vacation to Tahiti he was taken ill and almost died. When he returned he was amazed that he spent several weeks in a French hospital with the vey best care, but never got a bill. From then on, he often voiced progressive positions and voted for Obama in both 2008 and 2016, something you would have never guessed if you had listened to him in the 90’s and early 2000’s
It seems to me that the least America can do is provide a reliable source of electricity and health care for its population.
Gail Katherine Lightfoot
You mean those BOUGHT AND PAID FOR POLITICIANS? I thought that wonder “free market” didn’t need regulations to do what’s good for everyone? Oh right ONLY if it means it doesn’t hurt their PROFITS during boom times!!!!
Yes blame the regulators from the party who doesn’t want or believe in regulations/government
FREE…When you are free you can make choices. Some will be good, some will be bad. Learn from the bad choices as well as the good ones. Even in Texas pressure has come to bear on those people to make “clean” power choices, in a “free” society, you can use oil and coal as long as you can find it and produce power with it. No one gets to force you to stop because they think they know better or pay some college schmuck to write a paper finding your choices “unclean”. I want to be free, even in California where everyone seems to “know” better than everyone else. Don’t you?
The biggest problem for Texas, and other places, is the INABLITY to upgrade the infrastructure in a timely manner AS well as relying on green power over other sources – and NOT just ‘fossil fuels’.
When you look at the numbers, fossil fueled energy in Texas makes up about 72%. With Wind, Solar and Biomass making up about 19%. Of course nobody wants to talk about that ‘other’ power source…. NUCLEAR power! Which, in Texas comes from just two small plants but supplies 8.6% of the power. Those plants were built waaaay back in the 1970’s!! That’s over 50 years now!! But even though they have been successful, no more plants are being built because of all the regulations and court cases preventing their construction in the first place. We would rather see OUTDATED plants that are not as efficient, nor as safe, as a modern plant, yet when someone wants to build another, the opposition points to them being ‘inefficient’ and ‘unsafe’?!?! Modern plants are smaller, use less fuel, produce MUCH more energy and are MUCH safer – but we don’t want that! We hate nuclear just like we hate fossil fuels.
So, of course there is the Solar/Wind option – both of which will NOT work during extreme temperatures (high OR low) and need to be shut down accordingly. So, if they/we give up on fossil fuels (gas,oil,coal) then where’s the ‘backup’?
Remember, solar only generates during CLEAR daylight hours and wind only works when the wind is blowing at a rate of between 8mph and about 45mph. That means that if/when storms come through, even without ice, if the wind is too strong the blades are ‘feathered’ and won’t produce electricity.
Eventually, we will likely set up gigantic solar satellites in space and ‘beam’ the energy down to the surface – it’s the best ‘clean’ way to do it as the solar is ‘pure’ up there and 24/7…
But in the meantime, Nuclear is the best way to go – it’s why so many OTHER countries are building them while we sit around thinking about them blowing up on us.