Texas’ power woes were caused by deregulation

Dear Editor: 

I’m disappointed that The Blue Ridge Leader would publish the blatant falsehoods presented by Joe LaFiandra in the March 2021 edition. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and call him horribly misinformed – probably due to a strict diet of rightwing propaganda outlets. 

He claims that the main reason for the loss of power to the Texas grid was the freezing of wind turbines and low generation of power from solar panels. Considering that Texas power generation (2019) consists of only 17 percent wind power and 0.9 percent solar, his claim is laughably incorrect.

The real cause of Texas’ power woes is deregulation. Texas opted out of the east and west national power grids to form one of their own. This allowed them to avoid federal regulations, such as winterizing requirements, resulting in frozen gas pipelines, along with frozen turbines. Wind turbines, gas pipelines, and solar panels all continued to work great in other parts of the USA, and substantially colder climates like Canada, Germany, Denmark, and Norway.

But his rants against global warming really shine a light on his cluelessness. Claiming that current global climate changes are part of a natural cycle is just pure nonsense.  The rate of current changes far exceeds anything ever seen in the fossil record – and that’s according to thousands of actual climate scientists, not random small-paper opinion-piece writers. He even argues that because the ice core record shows that for 80 percent of the last 500,000 years it’s been colder than it is now, we should do something about global cooling. Say what? Does he even understand how to support an argument?

Yes, the Earth has been both colder and warmer during periods of the past. Since that time, civilization has grown and adapted to a climate which is now rapidly changing. Is he ready for the mass migrations that will result from rising sea levels, extended droughts, and loss of arable land? Denying the facts and spreading falsehoods only exacerbate the problem.

Gary Kowalski

Leesburg