From Watts Up With That?
Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Dr. Willie Soon; Unreliable renewables, woke ESG, and claims climate concern is a left wing issue are all “lies” according to USA Today.
These lies about climate change just wouldn’t die in 2022
Elizabeth Weise
USA TODAY
Published 5:00 a.m. E.T. Dec. 29, 2022Key Points:
- Climate change hasn’t always been so polarizing and even today relatively few Americans deny global warming is real.
- Experts say easily disprovable narratives about the climate keeps circulating.
- These lies and distortions target renewable energy, economics and political polarization.
There was a time – a recent time – when concern about the environment was relatively bipartisan, not a cultural flashpoint.
…
Wrong: Summer heat waves show renewables can’t work
Power grids in Texas, California and the Pacific Northwest all faced extreme heat events this summer. Each power system was pushed to the brink by the draw on electricity for air conditioning. And yet none broke.
Nonetheless, a false narrative circulated saying that solar and wind energy had made those power grids – and especially California’s – fragile and unable to cope with high demands.
…
In Texas in July, a heat wave caused the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to take emergency measures, including urging residents to restrict their use and paying power operators as much as $5,000 per megawatt hour to keep generators running.
ERCOT said two factors affected its ability to meet soaring demand: low wind power generation and outages at coal- and natural gas-fed power plants.
Blaming renewable energy as the cause of power crunches is unfair, said David Doniger, senior strategic director in the Natural Resources Defense Council’s climate and clean energy program.
The article goes on to discuss whether ESG is “woke capitalism”, whether climate concern is only for the far left, and whether there is any hope for fixing climate change. USA Today lists “… the American Conservation Coalition, Conservatives for Clean Energy, Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions and Congress’ Conservative Climate Caucus.” as evidence that Conservatives want renewable energy.
But let’s focus on whether it is “fair” to blame renewables for failing during extreme weather conditions.
The answer is obviously YES.
Is it possible for fossil fuel and nuclear plants to fail in hot or cold weather?
Absolutely. But nuclear and fossil fuel plants can be hardened against weather extremes.
The same can’t be said for renewables. When the wind doesn’t blow, and the sun doesn’t shine, renewable energy output drops to near zero.
The full article mentioned California surviving a near blackout because of their batteries, but batteries run out.
Consider the Texas Ice Storm of 2021.
If no fossil fuel generators were available, battery backup would have been required for the better part of a week. And that would not have been a week of ordinary power demand, everyone had their heaters turned up to ward off the bitter cold.
How much would it cost in batteries to keep the entire state of Texas powered up and warm during the next ice storm?
How much would have to be spent every year maintaining those batteries?
Calling this self evident truth a “lie” won’t change the facts, or fix the problems caused by left wing pursuit of unaffordable, unworkable energy solutions.
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