Mesquite and Moapa dodged the green bullet a few years ago when they voted down the so called Energy Choice Constitutional Initiative. I think most of us remember the deal, we could sign up to buy energy from any seller we wanted. Normally we bought from the energy company that served our area. The promise was you would have a choice between many different suppliers all with different price plans. This was the way Texas has done it we were told. They have about 100 different suppliers and you can read their plans and pick the one that fits your energy use pattern and you were supposed to save money.
In Texas there was also a big push to go green so about 25% of energy was supplied by wind-turbans and solar. This is way below the Nevada legislators push for Nevada to go green, with a requirement to be 50% green energy by 2030. Texas established a Reliability Council to control the power grid. The pressure was on them by the Green lobby to use more green energy. As most know, a very strong winter storm hit, which froze the wind-turbines and covered the solar panels with snow cutting their output to near zero. Many said we will always have battery backup, unfortunately, batteries do not work well at low temperatures. The batteries output dropped to about 10% of their rated output. The Reliability Council, which was not made up of people not from the power industry but representatives of all kinds of utilities and backgrounds. They decided to cut power to many areas.
After the disaster, many of the members resigned and, in those resignations, it was revealed that many of the people on the Council did not even live in Texas. Sally Talberg, the chairwoman and a former state utility regulator in Michigan, still lives in Michigan; Peter Cramton, the vice chairman and an economics professor at the University of Cologne in Germany and the University of Maryland; Terry Bulger, a retired banking executive who lives in Illinois; a former official with the agency overseeing the power grid in New England; and Vanessa Anesetti-Parra, who oversees regulatory affairs for a company headquartered in Canada, all resigned.
Power bills skyrocketed for those consumers who got some power. They got bills over $10,000 from those private energy sellers. Luckily here in the valleys, the utilities are governed by people who live and work here. We do not have a Reliability Council; the reliability is controlled by the people that would be affected. That is why Overton Power District #5 has embarked on a multi-million dollar program to bring two power lines into the valleys. They are able to do this because they are not yet required to install wind and solar, their so they can invest in thing that we need. Their only costs are for buying power and running the utility, no profit for outsiders.
No forced reliance on green energy, which without government subsidies would only be a small player in the energy market. It is bad thing to let some government bureaucrats decide how to run a power system. That is not to say that renewables will not be used or have little value. Where they can supply power at a fair cost and where other options are not available, they are great. People who think that green energy is the way to go, can do just that, but forcing all others into green energy can and did lead to disaster.
The dark side of this story is the profiteers who told us we could get a better deal from them, almost won in Nevada. They don’t care what you pay only that they get their money off the top. They do not care even if you get power or not, “that is someone else’s problem”.
One last thought, Wind-turbines, solar cells and batteries only have a life span of about 20 to 25 years. What are we going to do with all the old stuff? Maybe we could send it all back in the empty ships to where ever in the world they mined the stuff and use it to fill up the holes. Good idea.
JAMES W. BRABON says
Great points Mike and thanks for the timely article. This Green Energy push is costly, inefficient, and takes a large footprint for the power delivered, and still needs backup from fossil fuels.
Pamela Gillick says
Thanks much, Mike. I asked you to write a column about this in the comments last week. My kids in TX got to experience living in the 1800s just to see how much fun it was!! Absolutely, NO power for 3 days with temps down to 0 with -10 wind chill, no power meant of course
no water as pumps would obviously not work w/o power, At least their water company was smart enough to blow out all the water lines when they shut off the water so no frozen pipes, just a lot of dirt from sediment in the lines. Fortunately, they had natural gas and could use their fireplace, but no blower so had to sit close and lots of blankets at night. They have a generator, BUT didn’t have 50 gallons of gas to keep it running and getting more was not possible as gas pumps don’t work either w/o power. Yes, “unreliables” as they call wind/solar is worthless w/o back up gas/coal plants that also aren’t frozen. Guess the silver lining is no huge bill w/no power. Yes, the “choice” plans are a nightmare to figure out what’s best for your needs. Yes, we did dodge the Green Bullet.
Lee Harper says
How true it is Mr. Biden.
KURT CHENCHICK says
Is there a good reason why Overton can’t have both? Wind may not be constant enough in Mesquite, but solar is. If there is affordable land available, it might be worth it. As solar becomes readily available to homeowners, and prices for panels drop, Overton will have fewer customers and will have a need to increase prices.
In Texas, they did not maintain the green machines. Other states having wind had no problems when they reached the same temperatures because they had routine maintenance and upkeep.
Lee Harper says
In Texas they didn’t purchase heating elements for the turbines because they haven’t had that cold of weather for a 100 years. That’s what my friend that lives in Texas told me.
Greg Ferra says
They have ice storms every year, just not this wide spread.
mike young says
Kurt – Solar is a good source of energy in places where the sun shines a lot. Nevada has some wonderful sites and it can be use to supplement other power sources. Two problems; you must maintain a back up for clouds, dust storms and nights. So now you have to fund two sources of power, one being use the other just waiting. That works fine on houses connected to the grid where the utility company provides the backup. Problem two is the mining and manufacture of the equipment. Since they are not mined or manufactures here, there are no environmental controls or labor laws to protect both. In many cases people are almost slave labor in mining and the refining process just dumps waste anywhere. Same with batteries dig it, refine it and dump the rest. in 20 years do it all again. Bigger holes, more waste and more money goes overseas.
Make it here, can’t be done because of labor laws, environmental laws. So the current system works until we run out of money. Keep the presses rolling, just add more zeros. Dam the torpedoes, (facts), full speed ahead.
Pamela Gillick says
I heard that in cold weather states the blades are heated and/or they use drones to de-ice the blades. TX rarely even gets down to 32F, so did not have this set up and the officials were definitely not prepared “for worst case scenario” and had nothing like this set up. Not sure if they could have gotten the drones in if they had thought of it.