Kolkhorst Wrong
To the Editor:
I would like to call out state Sen. Kolkhorst’s absolutely false and debunked comments printed in last Friday’s paper. While her words were window-dressed in accountability, they were nothing more than ‘political speak’.. absent any factual base. In short, it was nothing more than a classic example of a ‘red-herring’ argument.
Ms. Kolkhorst specifically blamed green energy (explicitly wind and solar) as the culprit for the disaster that hit Texans last week. While freezing generators and solar producing declines did contribute to the issues, there were reasons these areas failed. Before we begin, let’s understand that contrary to what Ms. Kolkorst said, the wind did NOT stop blowing. This further illustrates her disregard for details and facts and further illustrates her politicalization of the situation.
Foremost in this disaster is the disregard for the implementation/ use of ‘cold-weather’ upgrades on Texas’ wind, solar, and natural gas infrastructure. Yeah, because we didn’t get these “upgrades” and there has ALWAYS been a risk that such a storm could spell doom for the TX power grid.
Let’s liken this to buying a car but telling the dealership we don’t want shock absorbs and we’re going to pay $200 less because of this. Well, we just saved $200 but at the expense of the shock absorbers. We get to driving down 71 and we’re feeling pretty good about this, but once we have to drive down one of these country roads around here, things get quite bumpy. Well, TX didn’t buy the shocks and when we hit a bumpy road, we wanted to blame the dealer for not putting shocks on the car. Yeah, it’s exactly like that.
Nothing Ms. Kolkhorst had to say included that freezing natural gas, a fossil fuel, led to a much larger part of this issue or that 56% of our power plants require natural gas as a source. In an ERCOT press release from 9AM Wednesday, officials stated that 46,000MW of generation was forced offline with about ~61% being natural gas related... again, a fossil fuel.
What’s missing in all of this is that ERCOT, the managing council for the state’s electric grid, had not put in place any (or very limited number of) cold-weather safeguards for the wind, solar, or natural gas operations in our state. We didn’t buy the shocks yet expected a bump-limited ride.
What’s even more telling on the falsities being peddled by politicians trying to skirt responsibility is that there are wind/solar farms in Alaska, Canada, and all throughout areas which get this type of weather on a regular basis and they don’t have these problems. There are natural gas power plants throughout the north & northeast who don’t have their fuel supply freeze. The difference is that ERCOT didn’t take the precautions to safeguard our power infrastructure against this type of weather, but instead opted to save a dime. They made a bet, and we paid the price.
So, Ms. Kolkhorst, if you really want to be accountable and do what your mother suggests, I’d recommend to start by removing yourself from the political minutia, stop using talking points, start looking at actual root causes, and start holding ERCOT accountable for their utter failures in this matter.
Ms. Kolkhorst didn’t make this mess, but did contribute to it. Regardless, as our state senator, it’s still her mess to clean up and it starts by taking actual accountability not some window-dressed version.
Eric Green
La Grange