The Legacy Media Is Still Totally Wrong About The Texas Power Grid

Throughout the summer of 2023, a period of time in which Texas power grid managers at ERCOT were repeatedly forced to issue requests to ratepayers to conserve during peak hours on hot days, the Texas and national legacy media parroted a narrative claiming that only solar and battery storage contributions stood between citizens and blackouts in the Lone Star State. This contention was absurd on its face, especially given that natural gas generation regularly pitched in well over half of all generation on the grid during those hot days.

But this is the kind of misreporting that has become expected as these legacy outlets strive to serve as megaphones reciting the narratives of the climate alarm lobby and Biden’s plans to force taxpayers to subsidize this energy transition, a suite of policies that have their roots in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal.

This coordinated media cheerleading for solar and batteries which tend to contribute near-zero generation during peak hours of the morning and evening continued last week in the wake of the significant winter freeze event that rolled into the state on January 14 and lasted for several days. The solar industry’s own spokespeople regularly admit that no one should expect solar to generate power when the sun isn’t shining, an obvious reality that no one disputes. But then they like to boast about how much solar generation contributes once the sun comes out, which is true and great, as far as it goes.

But this is precisely the problem ERCOT has on the Texas grid: It has a shortage of generation capacity during the peak demand hours of the early mornings and evenings when, as we all know, the sun isn’t shining, especially during winter days. Indeed, when ERCOT issued conservation requests to ratepayers on Monday and Tuesday, January 15 and 16, those early morning hours were the time of special concern when the grid managers were worried about not having adequate generation available to meet peak hour demands. (RELATED: DAVID BLACKMON: IMF Head Tells The Little People To Pipe Down And Get Behind Carbon Tax)