A Free-Market Energy Blog

Texas’ Renewable Fail: Remember Georgetown’s Green New Deal Too

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 24, 2021

“It’s unfortunate that the Georgetown [100 percent renewable] experiment went so quickly from being a success story to being something of a cautionary example,” said Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas office of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group.

“Gore wasn’t available for an interview with E&E News last week to discuss the electric situation in Georgetown [Texas].”

It was supposed to be green and cheap, a 25-year fixed-price contract for solar and wind beginning in 2018. Instead, as one news story in October 2019 reported: “After losing tens of millions of citizens’ money on a green energy gamble, city officials are trying to escape their self-inflicted mess.” How? By filing a lawsuit against its solar provider Buckthorn Westex to cancel its 25-year contract. A countersuit by Buckthorn followed.…

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Oklahoma’s Rolling Blackouts: Remembering Audrey McClendon’s War on Coal

By Charlie Meadows -- February 23, 2021

“… most folks don’t understand the reduced reliability of natural gas when temperatures hover below zero for long. Therefore, the most reliable source of energy, at least in Oklahoma, is coal.”

Just as Joe Biden was blathering about the “existential threat” from climate change and the need to move away from fossil fuels to “green energy,” along came a frigid cold snap never experienced before by anyone alive today in states like Texas and Oklahoma. 

Why are those two states significant? Of all the states, Texas is the largest producer of wind energy, and Oklahoma is second. Wind factories (not farms—those are where you grow crops and livestock), promoted by climate-change alarmists, failed miserably under such extreme cold temperatures. This should be a wakeup call to the dangers of the “Green New Deal” to America and its people.…

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Wind Apologetics (don’t double down on bad, Texas)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 22, 2021

“The U.S. wind industry has … demonstrated reliability and performance levels that make them very competitive.”

– American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), 1986

“If anything, [the Texas power crisis] shows why we need to be investing in building out more renewable energy sources with better transmission and storage to replace outdated systems.”

– American Clean Power Association [AWEA], 2021

The wind lobby in a desperate hour wants to claim the mantle of patriotism and the imprimatur of the future. An industry created from unique government favors calls its critics unfair and backward looking. Never mind that wind is not a modern grid energy because of its ancient problem of intermittency.

Here is the retort from Heather Zichal, CEO, American Clean Power Association (which absorbed the American Wind Energy Association last year):

It is disgraceful to see the longtime antagonists of clean power – who attack it whether it is raining, snowing, or the sun is shining – engaging in a politically opportunistic charade misleading Americans to promote an agenda that has nothing to do with restoring power to Texas communities.

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Wind Subsidies Help Freeze Texans

By -- February 18, 2021
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Texas Windpower: Will Negative Pricing Blow Out the Lights? (PTC vs. reliable new capacity)

By Josiah Neeley -- February 17, 2021
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The UK Energy Shortages of Winter 1946–47 (planned chaos w/o prices and profits)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 16, 2021
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President’s Day: Best and Worst, Energy-wise

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 15, 2021
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Gas Furnaces vs. DOE’s EERE (Trump trumps Obama, but Biden is Next)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 11, 2021
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Manchin Ups the Ante on Keystone XL (bipartisan opposition to climate symbolism)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 10, 2021
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U.S. Offshore Wind: Problems Aplenty

By Sherri Lange -- February 9, 2021
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