Facing Reality

You cannot protect yourself from things that are real if you cannot acknowledge they are real. You cannot protect yourself from the consequences of false beliefs if you cannot acknowledge they are false.

People in Texas are freezing to death while politicians blame the disaster on wind turbines, as if this is some kind of newfangled technology that no one really understands. Here are a few facts. 

The first known wind turbine used to produce electricity was constructed in Scotland in 1887.

The first known wind turbine used to produce electricity in America was constructed in Ohio in 1888.

Wind turbines are currently used to produce electricity in 43 American states, including almost all the states on our border with Canada. Wind turbines are used in Canada, coast to coast. Wind turbines are used in Antarctica.

Wind turbines produce electricity in countries around the world in every kind of climate. By 2012, 100 countries were using wind turbines to produce electricity. 

In fact, there were 341,000 wind turbines in the world as of September, 2017. Among all countries, the United States has the second largest number of wind turbines as of 2019, generating 15% of its electricity. The country having the most wind turbines is China, with wind turbines generating 45% of its electricity. If you consider the European Union as a single country, then they would be number two and the US would drop to third place.

Yet Texas politicians claim the turbines don't work in winter. And it's not only politicians, it's all the True Believers on the right who would like us to believe that Texans installed over 10,700 wind turbines in their state before discovering they don't work in winter. But wait, it's not just wind turbines. Half of the power plants operating on oil, coal, and gas have also gone offline. And a nuclear power plant had to partially shut down. Have Texas politicians proven that all these technologies will not work in cold weather?

Or have we demonstrated that electric power plants in Texas, like power plants elsewhere around the world, must be properly winterized in order to operate in snow and frigid conditions? 

One more thing: if Texas operated its power grid like the other 47 contiguous states, they could have drawn electric power from the North American Power Grid, the same grid that provides power to 400 million Americans and Canadians.

The fiasco in Texas is human-made, the result of people refusing to face reality. Those who blame wind turbines are still not facing reality. I wonder how shivering people in Texas felt about one of their top politicians escaping to Cancún with his family as the disaster unfolded and people froze to death. Some heads should roll in Austin, but I bet they won't. If Texas wants to yank all their wind turbines out of the ground and sell them on the second-hand market, I bet there will be plenty of eager buyers looking for a good deal. And if and when this kind of disaster happens again, who or what will the politicos blame then?