That's the running score from Winter Storm Sucks-Ass, though I am sure that Congresscritter Chainsaw Dan Crenshaw is far from the only Tex-ass wingnut to claim otherwise.
Despite the Electric Reliability Council of Texas itself saying that frozen controls at ALL non-renewable power plants were a serious problem with electric generation AND that it knew in advance that some wind turbines would be offline due to icing, AND that their lost power was only a small percentage as compared to the much larger loss from frozen controls, etc., ALL as documented by Politifact ...
That didn't stop Chainsaw Dan Crenshaw from lying his ass off on Twitter.
In a Tweetstorm of epic stupidity even by his standards, he tried to not only blame renewables, but blame California for doing some sort of Vulcan mind meld on Texans to pawn off renewables.
#1: It’s a once in a century weather event. California has constant energy problems and high prices.
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) February 16, 2021
#2: The reason for blackouts is complex, but in summary: Texas took too many lessons from Cali, over-subsidized renewables, & pushed out baseload energy like natural gas.
How do you deal with that?
Well, moving beyond Politifact, the REAL problem is one that Texas exceptionalists often boast about as not a problem, or even a benefit.
That is that Texas' electric power grid is largely disconnected from the rest of the nation.
And, this is NOT the first time that's backfired.
West Texas, the High Plains and Permian, had a pretty back cold snap a decade ago. Texas had to "borrow" electricity from Mexico.
Indeed, the StartleGram's editorial board references this (well, in terms of how it messed up Jethro Jerry Jones' Super Bowl) and says, bluntly, heads need to roll at ERCOT.
The Chronic piles on, in a news story with this quote:
The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union,” said Hirs. “It limped along on underinvestment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances.
Sadly, a lot of ConservaDems in Tex-ass have peddled the ERCOT Kool-Aid right along with Rethuglicans.
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