Chris Tomlinson: Fact-checking the GOP's false claims about wind power as Texans worry about broken grid

The Texas electric grid is broken and undoubtedly needs more generation, but in a bid to boost the fossil fuel industry over renewable sources, Republican officials are employing lies, damned lies and statistics. The dirty tricks are expected in an election year and when billions of dollars are at stake. Texans are reminded of the 2021 blackouts every time the Electric Reliability Council of Texas calls for conservation or asks businesses to shut down operations. People are angry that hundreds of people died due to a faulty grid. No one wants to spend a 105-degree afternoon without air conditioning. The current forecast suggests the worst is yet to come for the grid, as temps remain high, and generation struggles to keep up. Savvy politicians want to focus the popular anger on their opponents. GOP elected officials appear determined to make wind energy the bugaboo, while promoting natural gas as a savior. In fact, the opposite is true.

Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian, State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst and State Rep. Jared Patterson have been declaring wind energy a failure based on how much power they produce on a hot afternoon compared to the nameplate capacity. For example, last week between the hours of 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., wind was only expected to produce 12 percent of its installed capacity, compared to thermal sources producing 84 percent of installed capacity. The fossil fuel industry shills say this demonstrates wind energy’s failure. But this is tantamount to expecting solar power plants to produce electricity at 2 a.m. People living in West Texas have known for millennia that the air is often still on sunny summer afternoons. No one ever suggested wind would meet peak demand in the summer, but it blows like the dickens at night and the rest of the year. From January to June, wind provided 30 percent of the state’s power, compared to 38 percent for conventional and combined-cycled natural gas facilities, according to ERCOT data. Coal provided 17 percent, nuclear 10 percent and solar 6 percent.