“… 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.…

“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we need to be investing in building out more renewable energy sources with better transmission and storage to replace outdated systems.”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.

Ed. note: This post, originally published at MasterResource in November 2012, is reposted verbatim for its relevancy now that wind power has two seasons of questionable output: freezing winter as well as stagnant summer. (Two updates are provided in brackets at the end of the article.) The ‘seen’ today is the frozen wind turbine; the ‘unseen’ is the gist of the post below: phantom fossil-fired generation capacity given the ruined economics from unfair competition.

“It is well known that Texas is undergoing a major challenge in maintaining resource adequacy due to improper price signals; less well known is that a significant portion of the problem can be laid directly on the doorstep of subsidies for wind generation.”

The federal Production Tax Credit (PTC), which currently provides a $0.022/kWh subsidy to qualifying renewables, is set to expire at year-end.…

“Artificially low electricity prices offered by renewable generators in Texas have led to bankruptcy for non-renewable generators, including Panda Temple Power, Energy Future Holdings, and Exelon Generation Texas Power.”

While sellers offer special promotions, negative prices in electricity markets make no sense except in the context of renewable energy subsidies. ERCOT explains the anomaly:

Market prices tend to go negative when there is low consumer demand and the thermal generators that have chosen to remain online cannot be backed down further to allow the available, lower-cost wind generation to serve consumer demand. In situations like this, some wind generators will be curtailed to balance generation with load. In these cases, since wind is the marginal generation, it sets the market price, which may be low or negative. In 2017, system-wide negative pricing occurred during 64 hours; in 2018, as of August, during 30 hours.