Imagine a world where there is no available heating other than burning wood. Imagine electric cars that don't run, computers that sit idle, no clean water, and the inability to get money out of the bank. You might say that was what life was like in the Middle Ages when the average lifespan was 35.
Well, such a world came to Texas for several days during the middle of February 2021. While people spoke of unprecedented cold, it is something that has happened before.
In 1899, on Valentines Day, a severe blizzard and extreme cold spell struck most of the United States. In fact, Dallas, Texas, experienced its coldest recorded temperature of −8 °F (−22.2 °C). Dallas experiences cold and heat extremes with an average of 22 days, where the minimum is below freezing. At the upper end, Dallas averages 20 days a year of at least 100 °F. In 1980 there was a consecutive streak of 42 days.
When extremes of temperature occur, and there is a heavy demand for air conditioning or heating, there needs to be a minimum base load of power. In other words, — if we use a car analogy— we need to be running on all eight cylinders. We need fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) as a source of reliable energy. Also, nuclear power is a clean and efficient form of energy generation.
What about renewables: wind and solar? They are great when the elements cooperate. Unfortunately, during the recent cold snap in Texas, blizzard conditions rendered solar panels useless, and the frigid temperatures froze the wind turbines.
I have travelled extensively through the Texas countryside, and I was amazed and surprised at the number of giant wind farms with thousands of wind turbines. Texas currently has more turbines than any other U.S. state—yes, oil and gas-rich Texas.
The electricity generation from wind power in Texas is 25%; ten years ago, it was 6%. During the frigid conditions, even coal and gas-fired energy plants were struggling. With no wind power available, a disaster was in the making.
To make matters worse, several coal-fired plants were shut down in the last decade. Since most gas-powered plants don't store gas, it has to be pumped from the gas line. Pumps that ran on gas to lift gas and liquid into the gas power plants now run on electricity. So, of course, they didn't work during the power outage.
The irrational obsession with going green and eliminating fossil fuels can be quite destructive. Texas had quite a taste of this and a glimmer into how easily we can be rendered to Third World status. The result was that some 40 people died, some attempting to keep warm by running their vehicles and succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning.
In Australia, Germany and California, there have been similar events with the loss of power due to the shutting down of coal-fired plants and over-reliance on renewable energy. Of course, renewable energy is subsidized by who? Ultimately, by the taxpayers. Wind and solar need to stand on their own without subsidies.
We have made tremendous strides in the West in the past 50 years in reducing air pollution. We have more fuel-efficient cars, home insulation and many other technologies. Today, there is more greenery in the world than in the past 100 years.
Even coal-fired plants have been cleaned up with scrubbing technology that reduces emissions. All the power that runs on fossils fuels is cheap, efficient, and not subject to the weather's whims. At this point, we cannot say that about wind and solar.
Then there is the issue of wind farms polluting the visual landscape, causing health issues in people who live nearby and destroying bird life. But then, that is another issue in itself.
Rusting Wind Turbines On Big Island Of Hawaii
Meanwhile, the people pushing the "The Green New Deal" claim that the earth will perish within 12 years—or is it 9 years? The goal posts keep changing. The Biden administration plans to totally eliminate fossil fuels by 2035—14 years from now and retrofitting every building in America. This is insanity!
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. You need to gradually transition to new forms of energy as they become viable. The reality is that we cannot live without traditional fossil fuels, whether it is for our cars, plastics, home heating and air-conditioning, lighting, running water, sewage and hundreds of other uses.
If we follow those proposing the Green New Deal's radical agenda, we will render society back to a more primitive state with life, health, and society suffering.
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