July 11, 2022, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to the latest power outages in Texas:
“It might shock people to discover that the state of Texas has fallen into the same green energy dependency cycle which has captured California. At least that is what the agency overseeing utilities in Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), is reporting.
“ERCOT is urging Texans and Texas businesses to conserve energy this week due to a projected capacity shortage. How could Texas, the king of oil and natural gas, be facing an electricity shortage, you might ask? A combination of record high demand, failure to add new coal, natural gas and nuclear thermal capacity and the failure of the wind to blow is the answer. Remember this is the same Texas ERCOT which has encouraged the growth of wind and solar without increasing the capacity of coal, natural gas and nuclear over the past decade putting all of the future electricity needs of the oil state at the whim of the wind and sun gods. Just two winters ago, it was Texas which suffered from massive power outages due to wind and solar shortages and a cavalcade of other operational mistakes, and now they find themselves in the same exact vice.
“California is well-known for being whacko-stupid in their pursuit of unreliable energy displacing coal, natural gas and nuclear, but the fact that the nation’s second most populous state has allowed its own internal electricity generation system to fall into the green abyss is beyond absurd. The difference is that Texas legislators are supposed to be smart enough to allow markets to work. Unfortunately, they decided on a state run electricity generation plan years ago which is now bearing the sour fruit of shortages, like all socialist systems do. It is time for Texas to revisit their state electricity generation strategy before they become the laughing stock of the country. A state which has mocked California for a generation suffering because they didn’t understand that to have a reliable grid, you need reliable energy sources. As an oil and natural gas producing state, you would think the politicians in Austin might have read their own brochures.”
Attachments:
“Texas hasn’t expanded baseline electricity generation capacity in a decade, boosted wind and solar instead,” By Robert Romano, Vice President of Public Policy, Americans for Limited Government Foundation, March 8, 2021 at https://algresearch.org/2021/03/texas-hasnt-expanded-baseline-electricity-generation-capacity-in-a-decade-boosted-wind-and-solar-instead/
For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.
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