Shabbat Shalom,
Greg Abbott is the Governor of Texas. Here he is in September 2020 during Clean Energy Week in Texas:
“Texans know that responsible stewardship of our environment must be a priority as we continue to utilize the natural resources available to us while also preserving the treasure that Texas is. For this reason, clean and renewable energy are a valuable part of America's future and are closely tied with Texas' prosperity and success. While Texas continues its leadership in production in our oil and gas sector, the Lone Star State also is a national and international leader in wind energy.”
Here’s Mr. Abbott on Sean Hannity’s show Tuesday night on Fox Schmooze (the network’s new name for primetime viewing hours):
“This shows how the Green New Deal is a deadly deal for the United States of America.”
Nice. Typical, political blame shifting, lying, and politicization. No self-reflection or acceptance of responsibility. Much has been made about the electrical grid failure in Texas this week. Many have blamed renewables and primarily wind. And the blame is so patently absurd it insults our intelligence.
Here are some facts:
1) North Dakota has wind turbines.
2) Iowa has wind turbines.
3) Antarctica has wind turbines.
I, your faithful writer of this unsolicited Friday oped, will not insult your intelligence by stating average winter temperatures in these places as compared to Texas. You understand my point: wind turbines, and more importantly power grids, can work in freezing temperatures if planned accordingly. Wind turbines did freeze in Texas this week. Yes. But that’s because they’re not built with days of freezing temperatures in mind.
The grid failure in Texas comes down to one thing: in Texas’s highly competitive, unregulated energy market, energy companies are not incentivized to a) store extra power for backup or b) build and improve infrastructure to handle extreme weather situations BECAUSE they compete on price SO when a freak weather event occurs, the infrastructure doesn’t hold up.
Some more facts. These from Texas this week:
1) Piles of coal froze.
2) Pipelines carrying natural gas and the natural gas in those pipelines froze.
Did anyone hear Governor Abbott admonish coal or natural gas? No, you didn’t. And you didn’t hear the Governor talk about the positives and negatives of Texas’s energy system in an attempt to have a grand, philosophical discussion: yes, you don’t have power or water and people die every 10 years, but between these events, you have super cheap power… so, how do we balance this? (By the way, something like this did happen in Texas 10ish years ago, so it’s not that freakish of a weather event.)
There’s a discussion to have about price and regulation in the confines of our favorite hair-pulling, head-splitting free market versus government regulated industry conversations. What are the tradeoffs? How much regulation is enough? How much is too much? Instead Governor Abbott is talking about the Green New Deal. Disingenuously, at that. Because he’s lying about the Green New Deal and he’s skipping the part that’s obvious in a deregulated, competitive market: there wouldn’t be wind energy if it wasn’t cheaper for Texans. So you can’t have it both ways, Governor.
Want more proof he’s a babble rouser? The Governor is out and about coming up with solutions. And his solutions don’t include ripping wind turbines and solar panels out of the ground. They include winterizing infrastructure. His party in Texas agrees with him. One state representative from San Antonio plans to file legislation that would require, REQUIRE, winterization of power generation. A quote from Rep. Steve Allison, R-San Antonio about his legislation:
“This must not be a suggestion or request for study or report, but a mandate that such weather protections be in place to guard against the freezing consequences Texans are currently experiencing.”
The government requiring regulation! Energy regulation is complicated. But here’s an interesting part of the system: for the majority of the country, our power companies are regulated monopolies. So for example in Georgia, Georgia Power is regulated by the Georgia Public Service Commission, and essentially, the state guarantees the company a profit. So when Georgia Power generates 26% more power in the winter in the event of freak weather (a fact) or when Georgia Power upgrades their infrastructure, the PRIVATE company knows it won’t lose money because the state won’t let it. Yes, Georgia Power passes that cost to us. But now we’re seeing an alternative world as we watch a highly unregulated Texas market.
Anyway, the point here is that politicians treat us like idiots, and I don’t like it. It’s been a week of lots of work and little sleep. Great work! But still little sleep. So I’m a bit cranky and in no mood for typical babble and finger pointing. I’d much rather see solutions. Like Mr. Allison’s. Or at least honest discussions about what you get in one system as opposed to another and which is better. It’s clear that outside of Fox Schmooze, Abbott is actually having good policy discussions. Maybe I shouldn’t pick on this one interview. But the problem is that a lot of people get their news in these quick, primetime hits (on both sides) and context, facts, and details are lost in that kind of consumption. Knowing this, primetime hosts should strive to be better.
Shabbat shalom to you and your family. There are a lot of little people birthdays on my calendar this weekend. Two firsts included! I’m not going to parties. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t dream of it. I bring this up to say that we continue to live. We continue to celebrate. We continue to enjoy our lives even with politicians being politicians and talking heads being talking heads. Try and help Texans if you can. It seems more cold weather is coming, and there are still issues with power and water. And let’s continue to DOUBLE mask and DOUBLE tip our baristas.
Shabbat shalom,
Jason