The administration’s push for green energy investment ignores market dynamics and stymies efficient energy production and distribution in Texas and beyond.
After Texas weathered its second-hottest summer on record and faced unprecedented demands on its power grid, the future of energy supply and use in the state—and the country—has become the subject of national discussion. Air conditioners were in constant use in Texas over the summer as average temperatures reached 85.3 degrees between June and August, and didn’t dip below 100 degrees for weeks on end in some cities.
The strain that the soaring temperatures put on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s energy distribution network, is severe no matter the circumstances.
Making the situation all the more dire is the fast growth of the state’s population and the rising number of tech companies installing or expanding facilities in Texas that require massive amounts of power to run.
More and more people live and work in a state woefully unprepared to cope with soaring demand.
“Peak demand in ERCOT has grown 14 percent since 2019, while our supply of thermal generation—gas, coal, nuclear—has remained essentially flat,” Brent Bennett, policy director of Life:Powered, an initiative of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told The Epoch Times.
The investment of $99 billion in wind and solar infrastructure in Texas, and about $10 billion more in green energy transmission lines, has not only failed to improve energy supply but has exacerbated the problem, he said.
In the view of Mr. Bennett and others, over-investment in green energy comes at the expense of investment in sources that actually work.
Texas Swelters
The summer of 2023 was so hot that officials in some areas came close to adopting daily “load shedding,” or power outages, at least as a temporary expedient—protocols similar to those that have made life miserable for many people living in South Africa, whose state-run energy distributor, Eskom, is notoriously ill-managed.
Texas cities sweltered at 105 degrees or hotter for the most days in a row, on record.
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