The Great Texas Freeze of 2021
In February 2021, the temperature in Texas dropped below zero. Not a big deal, right? Texas is the energy state. Just go home, turn on the heat, and hunker down. That’s how it should have gone. But it didn’t. What happened, and why?
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Script:
The week of Valentine’s Day, 2021, the temperature dropped below zero.
Nobody could remember it being this cold for this long.
This was Texas, not Siberia.
But Texas is the energy state. There was nothing to fear. Just go home, turn on the heat, and hunker down.
That’s how it should have gone.
Instead, over five days, four million Texans lost power during what turned out to be the coldest winter storm in a half a century. Hundreds died, including an 11-year-old boy who froze to death in his sleep.
The state’s electric grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, ERCOT, later reported the state was just four minutes away from total grid collapse.
The media was quick to blame the state government for not being fully prepared and not acting fast enough.
This may be true, but ERCOT’s mistakes were symptoms, not the cause, of the problem.
The real cause is decades of misguided policies that have left the Lone Star State with an unreliable energy infrastructure.
It’s a cautionary tale that the rest of the country needs to learn from.
From 2010 to 2020, the population of Texas increased by 4 million people, and the state’s economy grew 35%. But while all this growth was happening, the state’s reliable energy capacity was actually shrinking. Meanwhile, its unreliable energy capacity was surging. In fact, it almost tripled.
Let’s break this down.
Reliable energy is fossil fuels—coal and natural gas—and nuclear. These fuels produce a near-constant flow of electricity. Unreliable, or variable energy, is renewable energy — wind and solar. They’re unreliable because they depend on the whims of Mother Nature.
In 2020, Texans got 25% of their energy from renewables. During the February storm, however, that fell to 8%, at one point reaching a deadly low of just 1.5%.
The reason? Renewable energy only works when the weather cooperates, but it’s useless when it doesn’t — like when it conjures up a giant snowstorm. Solar panels don’t capture sunlight and wind turbines don’t spin when covered in snow and ice.
Given renewables’ unreliability, how is it that Texas, of all places, became so dependent on them?
That story begins in 1999, when Texas politicians on the left and the right fell in love with the idea that they could turn the state into a green energy powerhouse. It sounded like a great idea at the time: Instead of passing any new mandates, they would do it by offering massive subsidies, marketed as “incentives,” to produce wind and solar power. This ended up working out great for wind and solar companies, but not so great for reliable energy providers.
To illustrate this, imagine that you own a restaurant. One day you learn that your competitor down the street is getting government support. He gets so much help that, instead of charging his customers, he can pay them to eat his food. Not surprisingly, your customers abandon your restaurant for his. Your competitor prospers off the taxpayers’ backs while your business withers.
Let’s apply this analogy to the real world of renewable energy. Wind and solar get so much in subsidies they’re guaranteed a profit. And unlike fossil fuel producers, they’re not even required to provide reliable power. It’s no wonder fossil fuel plants are closing, and nuclear plants are not being built.
The wind and solar companies are protected from the laws of supply and demand. They can’t lose, and the fossil fuel plants can’t compete. That’s how out of whack the Texas electricity market has become.
Since 2006, the state has subsidized renewable energy to the tune of $19 billion. All of this came right out of Texans’ wallets, courtesy of ever-increasing electric bills and rising property taxes. And what does Texas have to show for it? An electric grid that failed when Texans needed it most.
Unfortunately, this scenario is playing out across America.
Over the past decade, the federal government has spent over $230 billion on energy subsidies, and that doesn’t even include subsidies the states give away.
For the complete script as well as FACTS & SOURCES, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/the-great-texas-freeze-of-2021
source
Republican lawmakers deregulated ERCOT and then blamed Green energy for its failure to provide warmth when we Texans needed it the most. PragerU is also partially funded by oil companies
I was working from home, along with my coworkers that were in both Orlando, Florida and in several cities in Texas. We didn't have almost half of our workforce due the our coworkers in TX experiencing the freeze, so those of us working were getting killed, while at the same time we were worried about coworker friends. (I also had personal friends and family that I was worried about.)
We had 1 coworker in TX that was able to work the entire time, because he had power the entire time, and most of his family and some of his friends moved into his house. The body heat alone probably kept the house heated, but he had some problems working, because that big a crowd cause noise, and our job is working on phones (call center).
I had a discussion with him over our work chat and asked him how he was able to keep power the whole time. He said that he lived in an area where a lot of local and state government officials lived, so he benefited from the fact that they were never going to loose power, because they worked for the government. Ironic, right?
When will people learn that Mother Nature doesn't play by our rules? She only plays by her own rules, and those who are prepared for them are the smart ones who survive; those who think they know better than Mother Nature end up killing everybody.
There was some truth to this video but it pretty much stops after he says Texas was not prepared. Texas's electric grid is unregulated so they are not required to comply with federal laws. I live in a northern state and we had no issues with wind generation. South Dakota gets 80 percent of its power from renewables yet had no issues.
If you listen to the officials from Texas while this was happening they explained the issue and it was not renewables but right-wing media jumped on renewables and ran with it
But let's say it was the wind and solar that created this outage. What about in 2011 when Texas lost power from a winter storm. Renewables were less than 2 percent of electricity generation. But the wind was small in 2011 but mighty then explain 1989 when there was a power outage from another winter storm.
Last thing Renewable energy accounts for over 20 percent of US generation with wind and solar around 12 percent, not 4
Blaming wind turbines is an INSANE lie, the freeze happend due to all of the powerplants not beeing equiped with winter equipment. Also the Texan electric grid is deeply deregulated so the didn't had enought reserve power to supply all those electric heated homes in a verry cold winter. And the Texan grid is seperat from the rest of the us grid so the others couldn't help.
https://youtu.be/PmYvkCXXI4E
That’s why we need to scale up storage capacity. It’s not enough to produce energy from renewables. You also need to store that energy so that you can use it even when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
Prager U lying ass Texas didn’t winterize their electrical infrastructure and renewables and fossil fuels failed during the snowstorm of 2021.
I say we still use renewables.
This message was brought to you by the Oil and Gas lobbyists
It was devastating for us Texans, especially this year when there was a suspected one to happen
Omg what a load of bollocks. Unreliable is renewable, reliable is fossil. Coal and gas plants failed in the Texas big freeze too… they were the biggest contributor to the disaster.
No it's because of republicans never think ahead, prager u couldn't care about people dying of the cold. Because they only think about money
Bahahahahahaha, this guy is either extremely stupid, or a liar… or both… probably both.
The renewables have a maximum potential of 25%… but they were only planning on them to produce 8%… they didn’t “fall to deadly levels” of 8%…. 80% of Texas’s energy comes from natural gas and coal. 50% of the energy that we get from natural gas and coal failed(40% of Texas’ TOTAL power production) because natural gas lines and well froze up… so what seems more likely to be the cause? The 8% that came from wind and solar, or the 40% that came from natural gas? But sure… let’s just blame it on the turbines… after all, after nearly half our power froze, we REALLLYYYY needed that wind power… and it FAILED us! But don’t worry about that measly 40% drop due to gas… that isn’t the issue… 🙄
the last base PragerU five-minute video
So you’re using the Texas Winter Storm to shit on renewable energy? classic prageru
Another question, when is enough going to be enough? One side pushes for nothing to change. The other side wants everything to change. Progress is only valuable when it is measured. That, in part, relies on you and me. Not the government, oil companies or renewable resource companies. We have to stop consuming every want we can get our hands on in the U.S. We joke about zombie apocolypses, but the way we consume energy, food, material items, etc. I think we are already here.
So, a non-accredited school, funded in large part by two oil billionaires is going to give us moral guidance on energy sources. Great. The question is what other information has this video left out? I actually have found most of these videos to make valid points, but then mix in their own skewed brand of "facts." But then end it without giving any real solutions or suggestions.
This entire video is just trying to make you feel bad for fossil fuels like they are a dying market that need our help but the video fails to acknowledge the impact of fossil fuels and the aid fossil fuels get from the government. which is allot more the subsidies, it’s so much we would go to war for fossil fuels.
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According to NOAA, the 2020-2021 (Dec-Feb) winter in Texas averaged 46.6°F for a lean temperature. That is only -0.7°F below normal and the 42nd coolest winter out of 127 winters. Winters in Texas have warmed by +0.6°F per decade since 1970. The warmest winter was 2016-2017 in Texas averaging 52.9°F and +5.6°F warmer than normal. In Texas, February 2021 averaged a mean temperature of 44°F which was -5.4°F cooler than normal. It was the 9th coldest February in TX History. It was coldest February in Texas since 2010 and before that 1978. The warmest February ever in Texas was 2017 averaging at 58.4°F being +9°F above normal. Februarys have warmed by +0.4°F per decade since 1970. In the continental United States, the 2020-2021 winter was 33.6°F or +1.4°F above normal. It was the 31st warmest winter ever in the USA. The warmest winter ever in the USA was 2015-2016 being 36.8°F being +4.6°F warmer than normal. Winters are warming at a rate of +0.6°F per decade since 1970. February 2021 in the USA was 30.6°F or -3.2°F below normal and the 19th coolest February on record. 2021 was America’s coldest February since 1989. The warmest February for America was 1954 (although 2017 is a close second) being 41.4°F or +7.6°F above norm. Februarys have warmed +0.2°F since 1970 across America. So while 2021 winter was cold for Texas, winters overall are warming up.
And this is video is propaganda. Renewable energy works if you can store its energy. We need massive action on climate change.
This is the foundation of how Democrats operate. They take from those who make money and give it to their cronies that give them money back. It’s called crony capitalism and it is how the left makes capitalism bad.
The reason the renewable grid failed was Texas allowed solar companies to cut corners and nothing was winterized so it failed… This is such propaganda
Way to try to blame it on the one thing that might actually save us. Anyone seriously watching this channel and buying their bs is a damned fool. Prager u is simply a corporate mouth piece. Sad.
No mention that gas power generators were sitting idle to artificially inflate customer prices- this is likely the purpose of PU gaslighting renewables as the cause.
PU’s assertion that the relatively small percentage Texas renewables contributed to the grid was responsible for power grid failure has been widely debunked- the gross failure came from profit manipulative failures holding gas power generation idle to inflate consumer costs, and structural failures in the vast “natural” gas majority portion of the grid. The next question is, then, ‘why do they want us to believe this narrative… and to whose benefit?’
As we’ve come to expect, PragerU strategy of repeating demonstrable lies continues unabated. Absent fact and truth, they show that ANY position can be rationalized. The onus is on us to discern the spin and discover the motive behind the lie.
https://youtu.be/PmYvkCXXI4E
On 2/8, right before the temperature dived below normal for 12 days, Natural Gas provided a mere 4,000 Mega Watt hours, due to the various government incentives to rely on intermittent Wind and Solar versus Natural Gas. At the same time, Wind provided about 19,000 MWh. By 2/10, as temperatures dropped a modest 20 degrees below normal, intermittent Wind and Solar generation plummeted and the situation reversed. Wind and Solar had virtually failed, down to about 1,000 MWh, while Natural Gas came to the rescue providing about 20,000 MWh. From 2/10 to 2/15 Natural Gas steadily increased generation and supplied a spectacular 45,000 MWh by 2/15, while Wind rose to about 9,000 and Solar was at zero.
The power system provided record breaking levels of power from about 2/12 to 2/15, with Coal, Nuclear Energy and especially Natural Gas achieving those records, with zero support from Solar and modest, intermittent support from Wind.
Yes, immediately after 2/15, when the temperature was the coldest below normal, Natural Gas falters to the lower level of about 30,000 MWh, a 15,000 drop. But, at the same time, Wind went to zero. To ZERO! And, Solar went to ZERO every single night during those 12 days!
And remember, at that time no producers were paid to provide backup capacity, including Natural Gas generators. Intermittent Wind and Solar were not required to provide backup even as their supply fluctuated wildly due to solar and weather conditions. In addition, relative to intermittent Wind and Solar, Coal and Nuclear performed extraordinarily well, while many Wind and Solar advocates imply otherwise.
Many Wind and Solar advocates seemed to indicate after the event, that all the power sources performed equally poorly through the twelve days of below normal temperatures. While Natural Gas, Coal and Nuclear had their difficulties, it was Wind and Solar that brought Texas to within minutes of a complete power outage that would require weeks to restart the system. It was Natural Gas, Coal and Nuclear that saved that from happening.
And if renewable energy subsides where stopped tomorrow, most of those companies would be out of business in a year.
Unfortunately, this video is just some kind of propaganda. There was a freak storm, energy grid shut down. Now they are looking for scapegoats.
Reasonable people didn't prepare for this. Like that 11 yo boy who froze to death – why didn't they buy a goose down comforter and wool pants?
I'm literally in disbelief that I just had to skip a solar panel ad in order to watch this video… wtf