Greg Abbott blames Texas power cuts for green energy, but the state depends on gas

Texas Governor Greg Abbott blamed the recent widespread power outages in his state for green energy and criticized the Green Deal proposal favored by progressive Democrats.

Abbott, a Republican, spoke with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday and emphasized wind turbines in Texas that failed due to cold weather. More than 4 million people were left without power or heating in freezing temperatures.

“This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly business for the United States of America,” said Abbott, saying that wind and solar energy “collectively make up more than 10 percent of our power grid”.

“It just shows that fossil fuel is needed by the state of Texas, as well as other states, to ensure that we can heat our homes in the winter and cool our homes in the summer,” he said.

However, the Texas Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT), which oversees most of the state’s electrical grid, blamed the interruptions on Texas’s dependence on natural gas.

Dan Woodfin, a senior director at ERCOT, said The Texas Tribune on Tuesday that more than half of its winter generation capacity is turned off and that much of it is powered by natural gas.

“It appears that much of the generation that went offline today was mainly due to problems with the natural gas system,” said Woodfin.

Natural gas production is declining across the state and across the country this year, according to S&P Global Platts, while it is estimated that 80 percent of Texas’s grid capacity can be generated by natural gas, coal and nuclear power . Only 7 percent of its winter capacity would come from the wind.

The graph below, provided by Statista, shows the impact of power outages in the United States

The state is experimenting with frozen natural gas wells, frozen wind turbines and at least one nuclear power plant has also been shut down in cold weather, but gas is the biggest factor.

Gas supply for electricity generation in the state is already under pressure in winter, according to a Houston Chronicle report on Tuesday. The Texas Railroad Commission, the body that regulates oil and gas, has reported freezing conditions among some producers, including in the Permian Basin and the Panhandle.

These conditions affected production and the commission issued an emergency order for the gas to be delivered first to homes, hospitals, schools and churches amid shortages. The gas would then be delivered to power plants and industrial sites.

“Texas is a gaseous state,” said Michael Webber, professor of energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin The Texas Tribune. “The gas is failing in the most spectacular way right now,” he said.

ERCOT said it cannot say when the power will be fully restored in Texas, but the state is expected to suffer from the even more severe winter, as millions of people remain without power or heating in their homes.