02/20/2021 – Department of Energy, USA
The internet is abuzz with claims that the United States Department of Energy (DOE) issued an order for the state of Texas to not increase the output of coal and gas-fired electric power plants. The controversial publisher Alex Jones (Infowars) even referred to an order from the DOE as the “Smoking Gun! of Joe Biden’s Dept. of Energy Blocked Texas from Increasing Power Ahead of Killer Storm.”
The Texit Times has reviewed DOE Order No. 202-21-1. Our (non-legal) analysis of the text language is that the order did not prohibit or interfere with ERCOT’s ability to seek new sources of power generation.
In actuality, the order lifts federal environmental regulations that enabled Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to acquire the energy sources needed for the limited duration of the emergency. ERCOT is the non-profit agency tasked with the management of the Texas power grid.
Part of the order also sets a minimum price for the acquisition of the resources which is more than 6000 times greater than the normal cost of the energy per kilowatt-hour. By the time that cost reached consumers, the cost ballooned to over 9000 times.
However, the order draws attention to the fact that electrical generation when obtained through the use of fossil fuels is not limited by technology, but by federal environmental law which limits “pollutants”. These laws are capricious and arbitrary and are based on standards cooked up by politicians with assistance of the environmental lobby.
So while DOE Order 202-21-1 did not restrict the ability of ERCOT’s ability to delivery electricity during the emergency, in the broader scheme the power generation from coal & gas was artificially restricted before the switch was ever thrown.
Nonetheless, the fault of the Great Texas Blackout was entirely the fault of mismanagement from ERCOT, who should have better-managed state resources and not allow the use of wind to represent 25% of the electrical generation for the state.