[HN Gopher] Fossil Fuel Apologists Crafted Lies Blaming Wind Pow...
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Fossil Fuel Apologists Crafted Lies Blaming Wind Power for Texas
Blackouts
Author : wombatmobile
Score : 31 points
Date : 2021-03-02 19:23 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (theintercept.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (theintercept.com)
| barbacoa wrote:
| "Republicans failed to ensure that the Texas power grid could
| withstand a cold snap, so the party's broadcast arm recycled lies
| about wind energy to deflect blame on to Democrats."
|
| That is such an intellectually dishonest way to frame temperature
| ratings discussion of critical infrastructure. The people who
| oversee and maintain the grid operate independent of government
| and wouldn't let any partisan elected official touch grid
| infrastructure with a 10' stick.
|
| The right is blaming wind the left is blaming natural gas, they
| both are wrong, both failed at similar rates.
|
| Trying to frame this according to ideological narratives just
| comes off as sleazy.
| Armisael16 wrote:
| > The people who oversee and maintain the grid operate
| independent of government and wouldn't let any partisan elected
| official touch grid infrastructure with a 10' stick.
|
| ERCOT is overseen by the Public Utility Commission of Texas,
| which could have the power to mandate that power producers
| winterize if elected officials passed appropriate legislation
| (nothing particularly unusual from a legal perspective would be
| required).
|
| Elected officials absolutely can be blamed for not taking steps
| to prevent this.
|
| Blaming natural gas for this as a general energy source is as
| wrong as blaming wind - both are vulnerable but can be
| protected - but the idea that the state government had nothing
| to do with it is silly.
| [deleted]
| wombatmobile wrote:
| Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Monday called for the resignations of
| Public Utility Commission Chair DeAnn Walker and Electric
| Reliability Council of Texas CEO Bill Magness, criticizing
| them for a lack of preparation ahead of the deadly winter
| storm that led to massive power outages across the state for
| multiple days.
|
| "Both the PUC Chair and the ERCOT CEO said they were prepared
| the day before the storm hit in full force, but obviously
| they were not," Patrick said in a statement. His statements
| come after the officials testified for hours late last week
| in committee hearings as state lawmakers grilled them over
| the power grid failures.
|
| www.texastribune.org/2021/03/01/dan-patrick-texas-ercot-
| resign/amp/
| aeoleonn wrote:
| I saw/heard this same effect from politicians in the US Congress
| & Former President.
|
| Politicians denigrating "wind mills" i.e. wind turbines. And
| exaggerating their fault in Texas' February 2021 power outages.
| Clearly the particular politicans are biased towards the fossil
| fuel lobbyists. I just really hate when they play politics with
| economic factors such as power generation.
|
| Less polluting, Renewable Electricity/Power generation is a
| public good.
|
| It should be prioritized over the private gains of fossil fuel
| executives/employees/lobbyists.
|
| Stop playing politics with my power system.
| wombatmobile wrote:
| Something similar happened in South Australia in 2016.
|
| One of the worst storms to hit South Australia in 50 years
| knocked out 22 high-voltage power pylons, plunging the state into
| darkness. The lines on those pylons carry electricity generated
| near Port Augusta to the rest of the state. [1]
|
| The government of the day blamed renewable energy, even though
| the outage was caused by the loss of core transmission lines that
| are generation neutral. Australian news media, including press
| that is 70% owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox in the US,
| repeated the claims across the news cycle.
|
| - - -
|
| [1] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-
| news/2016/sep/29/south...
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(page generated 2021-03-02 23:03 UTC)