Joe Biden and Democrats did not run in 2020 on a platform of completely changing our mode of travel from cheap, reliable, plentiful fossil fuels to all-electric vehicles that are costly to purchase and maintain, not to mention potentially dangerous.
But while his party is pushing this disastrous energy transition, it comes at a time when the U.S. power grid has become far less dependable and even at risk of collapsing in parts of the country, and the "problem is likely to get worse before it gets better," The Wall Street Journal reports.
Over the past two decades, widespread, sustained power outages have been occurring with alarming frequency around the country, according to a WSJ analysis of federal information. For instance, in 2000, there were less than 24 major outages, but that figure increased to more than 180 in 2020.
"Utility customers, on average, experienced just over eight hours of power interruptions in 2020, more than double the amount in 2013, when the government began tracking outage lengths," the outlet continued.
"The data doesn’t include 2021, but those numbers are certain to follow the trend after a freak freeze in Texas, a major hurricane in New Orleans, wildfires in California and a heat wave in the Pacific Northwest left millions in the dark for days," the paper added.
And again, the U.S. power grid is approaching collapse at the precise moment when politically motivated energy policies -- not those based on reality -- are becoming the norm, leaving more Americans to rely on a system that is rapidly declining. In addition to powering homes, Americans are increasingly reliant on the grid to charge phones, cook, and of course, plug in a growing number of all-electric vehicles.
The WSJ adds:
At the same time, the grid is undergoing the largest transformation in its history. In many parts of the U.S., utilities are no longer the dominant producers of electricity following the creation of a patchwork of regional wholesale markets in which suppliers compete to build power plants and sell their output at the lowest price. Within the past decade, natural gas-fired plants began displacing pricier coal-fired and nuclear generators as fracking unlocked cheap gas supplies. Since then, wind and solar technologies have become increasingly cost-competitive and now rival coal, nuclear and, in some places, gas-fired plants.
But as we saw in Texas a year ago, an unseasonal winter storm -- weather can be so unpredictable -- caused hundreds of wind turbines not set up for such cold temperatures to freeze, thereby cutting power to tens of millions of customers. And in terms of solar panels, you need sunshine to make those work; days of cloudy weather make solar panels far less productive. So the more we are forced to depend on them, the less reliable our grid will become.
Higher demand combined with less reliable forms of energy and you're looking at the perfect recipe for disaster.
Nevertheless, the left continues driving our country in that direction though Americans were never asked for our opinion on the matter or, more importantly, our approval:
Regulators in many parts of the country are attempting to further speed the build-out of renewable energy in response to concerns about climate change. A number of states have enacted mandates to eliminate carbon emissions from the grid in the coming decades, and the Biden administration has set a goal to do so by 2035.
The pace of change, hastened by market forces and long-term efforts to reduce carbon emissions, has raised concerns that power plants will retire more quickly than they can be replaced, creating new strain on the grid at a time when other factors are converging to weaken it.
The biggest problem with the existing infrastructure is that it is old. A great deal of the transmission system carrying high-voltage power tens of thousands of miles was constructed in the wake of World War II; some lines were built years before the war.
"The distribution system, the network of smaller wires that takes electricity to homes and businesses, is also decades old, and accounts for the majority of outages," the paper reported.
We are heading for a power grid disaster and once again, insanely bad policy by the left will be responsible for the catastrophe.
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