ABOUT RELIABLE GRID NOW: Formed by Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian in March 2021, Reliable Grid Now seeks to educate the general public and lawmakers about the importance of reliable energy.
An obsessive focus on reaching the unattainable goal of carbon-zero caused decades of poor policy decisions that prioritized and subsidized unreliable energy sources (wind and solar) at the expense of reliable sources (natural gas, coal, and nuclear) — something Texans now know is essential to our everyday lives.
On the one hand, climate alarmists say that wind and solar can replace natural gas and coal to meet our energy needs while reducing carbon emissions. But, on the other hand, when unreliables fail they claim they are not to blame because, “wind power was expected to make up a faction of what the state planned for during the winter.” So, which is it?
Resources that could have otherwise been spent adding reliable generation from natural gas, nuclear, or clean coal to keep up with increasing demand for electricity were instead spent on building out transmission lines for unreliable, intermittent forms of energy that were "never expected" to perform during times like these.
The issue isn't the existence of wind and solar energy, but that it has displaced reliable generation not through natural market forces but through punitive regulatory policies and massive subsidies. When looking at federal taxpayer subsidies per unit of electricity generated between 2010 and 2019, oil and natural gas received 39 cents for every $82.46 solar received and every $18.86 wind received.
Unfortunately, we have not gotten our money's worth. While many celebrate the seemingly impressive 30 gigawatt “capacity” of Texas’ wind turbines and solar panels, that capacity has always been an illusion. In the lead-up to the storm, before any wind turbines froze, solar and wind generation fell from meeting over 50% to under 5% of demand—solely due to their inherent unreliability.
We have propped up unreliables at the expense of ensuring reliable capacity that is providing electricity on demand. In 2009, “coal-fired plants generated nearly 37 percent of the state’s electricity while wind provided about 6 percent. Since then, three Texas coal-fired plants have closed… In the same period, our energy consumption rose by 20 percent.”
Unfortunately, it does not seem as though future planned generating unit additions prioritize reliability either. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Texas’ planned additions as of December 2020 include 11.6 GW of solar, 8.4 GW of wind, 5 GW of gas, and no new nuclear or coal.
Texas cannot afford to come within minutes of total electric grid system failure ever again, and the only way to ensure we never come that close again is to reverse public policy choices that have prioritized and subsidized inefficient and unreliable sources of energy, like wind and solar, and instead focus on cheap, plentiful, and reliable sources of energy, such as natural gas, coal, and nuclear.
Click here to send a letter to your elected representatives in Austin and Washington D.C.!