No, Windmills Did Not Cause Texas’s Energy Crisis

Houston residents wait in line to fill propane tanks, Feb. 17, 2021 [AP/David J. Phillip]

By Sarah Leonard

Millions of Texans are enduring freezing temperatures without power, and the death toll is climbing. At least 24 people are dead so far. Even animals are freezing to death. As the emergency builds, residents have been abandoned by their representatives, most notably Senator Ted Cruz, who is in Cancún.

Conservatives have named a surprising culprit for Texas’s emergency: renewable energy.

“The Green New Deal came to Texas,” fumed Tucker Carlson earlier this week. “The power grids in the state became totally reliant on windmills, then it got cold and the windmills broke, because that’s what happens in the Green New Deal!” Fox News also heavily quoted Steve Milloy, a lawyer and lobbyist who is known for using the term “junk science” to denounce studies that don’t suit corporations. "Design and operation of electricity grids based on political considerations, like climate, versus actual needs, engineering and economics is a recipe for disaster,” Milloy said.

But here’s the thing, and I don’t want to shock you: Windmills did not cause Texas’ power failure, and neither did the Green New Deal. Here’s what you need to know.

🌎 Myth: the Texas power failure was caused by unreliable renewables

This one is patently untrue. Most of the state’s power comes from natural gas, coal and nuclear facilities, and, according to Bloomberg, the main factors behind the power failure were “frozen instruments at natural gas, coal and even nuclear facilities, as well as limited supplies of natural gas.” While some windmills have frozen, Bloomberg reports that wind has only been responsible for 13% of the power failure, and that wind actually overperformed this weekend. Environmental engineering professor Daniel Cohan called the criticism of renewables “a red herring.”

♻️ Myth: Texas’s energy crisis system is the product of the Green New Deal

The Governor of Texas was among those inaccurately blaming the Green New Deal over the past week for causing the blackouts. But no sweeping Green New Deal has been implemented in the state. Nearly half of Texans’ energy actually comes from natural gas, a fossil fuel, and companies that extract it have not been able to get their gas lines and wells to function in the cold weather. Even self-proclaimed enthusiasts for the free market have called on Texas to diversify energy sources in response to the crisis. And progressives have declared this a teaching moment: “The infrastructure failures in Texas are quite literally what happens when you *don’t* pursue a Green New Deal.” tweeted AOC.

💨 Myth: Stupid liberals (and their windmills) brought this tragedy to pass

We’ve established that windmills are not to blame. So what is? Well, Texas operates its own power grid, while the rest of the country is hooked up to the Eastern Connection or the Western Connection – huge interstate power grids. Texas chose to go its own way because it has been avoiding federal regulation since the last New Deal. The deregulated Texas system seems to be a race toward the bottom of the free market. Energy companies held few reserves, and used equipment that couldn’t survive cold. With the deadly blackouts, the AP reports that Texas “may have to rethink the go-it-alone strategy. There could be pressure for the state to require power generators to keep more plants in reserve for times of peak demand, a step it has so far resisted.” In short, it’s not bleeding heart environmentalists who are to blame. This failure is what happens when profit comes before the public good.

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