Welcome to Texas sign Image: Tim Patterson/Flickr

The catastrophic cold snap that paralyzed the electrical grid in Texas has opened up a new front in the age-old battle between green-energy champions and their fossil-fuel rivals.

One side sees the chance to build a new, fortified and more sustainable power grid. The other calls it proof positive that it’s too soon to abandon oil, gas and coal.

We all agree that America deserves a cleaner future, but pursuing a path towards that future while ignoring energy reliability is the wrong approach.”

As soon as the Texas crisis began generating national headlines, conservative lawmakers and commentators seized their chance to sing the praises of fossil fuels.

It didn’t seem to matter that natural-gas production in Texas, which provides the bulk of the state’s power, was brought to a standstill by the cold. Frozen wind turbines and solar panels – together only worth 10 per cent of the state’s power supply – offered a powerful image.

Source: Deep freeze, power crisis enveloping Texas sparks fresh climate change falsehoods – JWN Energy