Letters to the Editor — Readers discuss the energy situation in Texas

Working on real problems

While I was teaching my summer art camp at the Tom Muehlenbeck Recreation Center in Plano, the power went out at 10 a.m. on Monday. This is near Parker Road and the Dallas North Tollway. My class had to be canceled and I had to take a makeup class on Friday morning (assuming the power was on).

During the February frost, our electricity was off for three days. This is unacceptable! I know the Texas legislature is in a special session right now, but Republicans seem to care only about electoral law and teaching a revisionist whitewashed history. They don’t seem to care about Texans’ energy needs.

Texas, fix what’s broken! Stop creating solutions to non-problems and working on real problems.

Sandy Elkins, Plano

Call for Capitol Outage

We should pray for a power outage in the State Capitol Building during the special session of the Legislature. Could change the focus on maintaining the power grid.

JoAnn Williams, East Dallas

Fair is fair with fines

Re: “Reg. Oil & Gas works for industry, not Texans, ”by Dave Lieber, Metro & Business column, July 9th.

Lieber reported that Governor Greg Abbott wants to punish solar and wind generators when they cannot produce. And while he’s at it, Abbott can also punish the oil and gas generators for every dried-up well across the state. Fair is fair.

Sue Owens, Dallas

Eye-opening words

Not always a fan of Dave Lieber, especially when he refers to himself in third person, but this piece is worth framing in his trophy room which I suppose he has. Hoping to expose Governor Greg Abbott for who he is will, hopefully, open the eyes of some voters.

Jon J. Hasenohrl, Corinth

Check the news again

Dave Liebers column just wrecks Governor Greg Abbott, and that’s about it. He attributes the emergency to maintain the grid in June to a “suspicious” shutdown of a nuclear power plant. Didn’t he read the other Metro article that cited two coal-fired power plants and one natural gas power plant as the main cause of the emergency?

He also wants an “electricity reform” that he has not defined. I suspect he wants more wind turbines, which in another article in the Dallas Morning News states that during the conservation emergency only 179 megawatts of 25,121 megawatts of installed capacity were produced. Talk about unreliable power, sir. Perhaps you should consult others in your own newspaper before writing your columns.

Mark Nicholas Martelli, Dallas / Lake Highlands

Reliable power supply and sources required

Re: “Enlighten us – Governor Abbott, what’s the plan to keep the electricity going?” July 1st editorial.

The Dallas Morning News editorial team wants Governor Greg Abbott to create the electrical plan that will keep the lights on.

The leading article correctly points out that wind is not the answer because it is “uncontrollable and difficult to predict”.

The capacity factor is the percentage of time that a generation source has historically reached its nominal capacity. For coal, natural gas and nuclear power, the capacity factors are 90% or more. Wind and sun make up less than 30%. And renewables have been worst in times of extreme temperatures, when electricity is needed most. You are not reliable.

Wind and solar are supported by mandates, subsidies and tax breaks. Without these advantages, renewable energies would not be able to compete. These programs should only be temporary, but they just go on and on – tax dollars distort energy markets.

The difficulties faced by the Texas legislature and state electricity regulators are breaking free from the entanglements of mixing subsidized and unreliable renewable energy sources with reliable coal, natural gas and nuclear power.

How much is power worth if you can’t rely on it?

Robert P. Smith, Dallas / Preston Hollow

Praise for Abbott’s confusion

Subject: “A sensible roadmap – ERCOT says it will be more proactive in managing the network; Now we need a long term plan for reliability, ”said Tuesday Editorials.

Wait, you have scolded the governor for his recent moves to appeal to a political base, a scolding that many of us agree with; and now you praise him for giving ERCOT some vague instructions, apparently telling them that reliability comes before price. Well whoopie pillows. The devil is in the details.

I want to hear this vaguely user-level instructive evolve into something very different from the Berkshire Hathaway proposal. It will cost money. I suppose I will find your praise for the governor rather weak. We know what that does.

Richard Simpson, North Dallas

Wall money or reliable energy?

Given the uncertainty of the Texas power grid, the over $ 200 million Governor Greg Abbott plans to spend on a useless wall could certainly be of greater benefit to Texans when spent on improving electrical reliability.

Richard Cudlipp, Richardson

Don’t overlook renewable energies

Oil and gas will be the major players in the energy sector in the years to come, but the renewable sector is expanding rapidly and shouldn’t be overlooked just because there’s a Democrat in the White House. Texas generated around 29,400 megawatts of wind energy and installed 2,197 megawatts in 2020, making it the No. 1 producer of wind energy in the country. If Texas were a country, we would be number 5. The wind industry supports nearly 26,000 well-paying jobs.

In 2019, Texas took second place with around 6,750 megawatts of installed solar power. The solar industry supports over 10,200 well-paid jobs. Our leaders must do everything in their power to support the renewable energy sector to advance our future and create more well-paying jobs.

Robert Rinker, Grand Prairie

Generators tell the story

So if renewable energy is so reliable, why didn’t people rush out and buy solar panels and windmills during the big frost? Instead, they bought all the diesel generators available. Pretty good indicator of which is more reliable.

Frank Wagnon, Southlake

Mixed messages when switching on

Re: “New Kid On The Blockchain – Texas Prepares To Chase Wyoming Cryptocurrency Leader,” June 29 editorial and “Texas Needs More Power Now – Special Session Gives Us A Chance To Address This Critical Issue,” by Dan Patrick, Opinion of June 29th.

The Dallas Morning News editorial welcoming cryptocurrency mining in Texas puzzled me. In one paragraph it says: “[b]The itcoin miners alone consume a whopping 4.77 gigawatts per year … [and] We could see that the industry more than doubles that to 11.49 gigawatts annually. ”You make this use of power sound good, because an earlier paragraph trumpeted“ Texas has a lot of energy ”.

Just a few inches away in the same issue of the newspaper, an opinion article by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that Texas needs more electricity to meet our existing needs. To pay for that extra power, he notes that “[t]In order to expand our power generating capacity, there would be a small charge on any bills for the additional equipment that is to be built. ”Small is a relative term when you are paying your electricity bill.

The power grid failed during the storm in February and ERCOT is already urging its customers to reduce power consumption during peak times. We Texans, not the electricity suppliers, have to pay for new power plants. So why would we embrace cryptocurrency mining in Texas?

Randy Brack, garland

Check back in December

Subject: “ERCOT is hiding – Austin says it did ‘everything it took’ to fix the network – except hold its operator accountable,” June 25 editorials.

I cut that out of our newspaper and put it in my desk calendar for the beginning of December 2021. Somewhere I remember reading that those who would cast the ballot in the 2022 elections will have to decide by the end of December whether they are serious about being on the first ballot papers.

While I think this underhanded manipulation of the pre-election data, and with it the candidacy so far in advance, is bad for the state, Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson wanted it in the late 1950s and he got it!

This editorial was due to reappear in December, perhaps with some revision, to shake up anyone who may hesitate to challenge those who have been in the legislature or executive of the Texas government this year. Many incumbents have shown how little they really care about the average Texan citizen with the flimsy corrections from ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Likewise, the inadequate increase in teachers’ salaries, the failure to expand Medicaid coverage, and the deaf ears to our law enforcement agencies who opposed making it easier to own and carry weapons (civic safety be damned) are also wrong.

Marvin Noble, Dallas / Preston Hollow

Click here to send a letter to the editor. Make sure you include sources.

[ad_1]