But Wright casts cheap, clean power as mere empty calories that steal market share from coal, gas, and nuclear power. Energy supplied only when \u200b\u201cthe weather is mild, when the sun shines or the wind blows, doesn\u2019t add anything to the capacity of our electricity grid,\u201d he said. \u200b\u201cIt just means we send subsidy checks to those generators, and we tell the other generators, \u200b\u2018Turn\u00a0down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Here, Wright mischaracterizes how utilities and grid operators dispatch power plants. Wind and solar often \u200b\u201cturn down\u201d when they\u2019re generating more power than the grid needs<\/a>. But fossil-fueled power plants stop generating when their power is too expensive to compete with what wind and solar generators are offering \u2014 market forces in action.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth mentioning, too, that utilities and grid operators are well aware that wind and solar are weather-dependent and don\u2019t produce all the time. These experts constantly assess<\/a> the availability of all resources \u2014 not just renewables \u2014 and plan accordingly.<\/p>\n Wright also neglected to say that fossil fuels themselves can fail during winter storms<\/a> \u2014 and often in less predictable and more harmful ways than when the sun sets or the wind dies\u00a0down.<\/p>\n During Winter Storm Fern, it was a\u00a0different story: Generator failures did not force utilities and grid operators to shut off power. One likely reason is that, in the years since Uri, regulators have imposed winterization requirements on owners of gas power plants in Texas and other parts of the country, though just how effective those interventions were is not yet clear<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another probable factor contributing to the grid\u2019s resilience this time around was having a\u00a0better overall mix of resources. Energy experts agree that portfolios of mutually reinforcing resources<\/a> are the key to grid reliability. In the Lone Star State, solar and battery storage have surged<\/a> in recent years. Texas\u2019 grid weathered this January\u2019s cold snap, experts say<\/a>, because it had an array of fuel sources on\u00a0hand.<\/p>\n But of course, Wright didn\u2019t acknowledge any of that. He simply railed against renewables, painting them as leeches on the power system.<\/p>\n Fossil-fueled power plants remain vital to the U.S. grid, whether they\u2019re designed to run around the clock or only during emergencies, as is the case for New England\u2019s oil-burning generators<\/a> \u2014 one of the grid\u2019s costliest resources, precisely because they run so infrequently. But renewables are vital, too. In New England, the gigawatts of offshore wind being built from Connecticut to Maine that have been under attack since the first day<\/a> of the second Trump administration are also one of the most valuable winter resources<\/a> for the region.<\/p>\n The DOE\u2019s job is not to take a\u00a0snapshot of the worst 15\u00a0minutes of the year and use it to justify policies that freeze in place that exact mix of grid resources. Instead, it\u2019s to assess and manage the grid\u2019s evolving technical, economic, environmental, and climatic realities, and to foster newer, better resources to replace those that aren\u2019t keeping up.<\/p>\n The more Wright pretends otherwise, and uses half-truths to force fossil fuels onto a\u00a0system that would be better served by cheaper and cleaner alternatives, the worse off we\u2019ll all\u00a0be.<\/p>\n {
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