On Sunday [February 13], demand for electricity hit a winter record, at 69,150 megawatts, and by Monday morning, more than 30,000 megawatts of power went offline. These plant outages represented twice the level that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, considers an “extreme generator outage” in its scenario planning.
(Jesse Jenkins, “A Plan to Future-Proof the Texas Power Grid,” NYTimes, 2-18-21)
A cold, sharp dagger has slashed through Texas, America’s largest and proudest producer of fossil fuels, while stranding millions without heat or light… embarrassing a political class that just weeks ago pledged to defend the oil and gas industry — its own Alamo — from the Biden administration.
(Richard Parker, “Texas Could Have Kept the Lights On,” NYTimes, 2-17-21)
“Get off your ass and take care of your own family!… No one owes you or your family anything; nor is it the local government’s responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim, it’s your choice! The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING!… Only the strong will survive and the weak will perish. Folks, God has given us the tools to support ourselves in times like this.” [Facebook rant of Tom Boyd, ex-mayor of Colorado City, Texas]
(Guardian Staff, “US mayor quits after telling residents it’s ‘sink or swim’ amid deadly snowstorm,” theguardian.com, 2-17-21)
“Bottom line: thank God for baseload energy made up of fossil fuels,” Representative Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican with a growing national profile, tweeted on Wednesday [Feb. 17].
(Tom McCarthy, Erum Salam, Joan E Greve, “Republican leaders in Texas face growing backlash as power crisis deepens,” theguardian.com, 2-18-21)
(c) 2021 JMN
EthicalDative 
Hmm interesting. We have a real problem in Australia with a federal government that is reluctant to stop supporting fossil fuels and face the fact that we need to be seriously investing in renewables now. In the meantime the population and business and state governments are all getting on with solar and wind electricity, but we need to set a Federal target for a takeup of EVs too.
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I’m somewhat familiar with the situation in Australia, the prominence of the coal industry in particular, I think, and the government’s reluctance to get behind alternatives. Our respective lands have more in common than we would wish! I hope the momentum behind renewables grows, and quickly. It’s hard not to shriek one’s frustration over the lack of foresight here, but it serves little purpose, I’m afraid.
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