“Global warming is no longer a pressing concern here,” he said, speaking of this week’s frigid weather and invoking the discredited claim that cold weather disproves that the world is warming dangerously. Blades of some Texas wind turbines did freeze in place, but wind power is estimated to make up only 7 percent or so of the state’s total capacity this time of year in part because utilities lower their expectations for wind generation in the winter in general. The bulk of the power loss in Texas came from natural gas suppliers, according to regulators, as pipelines froze, making it difficult for plants to get the fuel they needed. “The anti-carbon movement has really placed no value on reliability,” said Alex Epstein, author of “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels,” who expressed his views in a long Twitter thread. This week’s crisis in Texas has provided a new rallying point for some of this political messaging.

Source: New York Times February 17, 2021 21:16 UTC