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18 Feb, 2021 Author Tom DiChristopher
Natural gas utilities were able to deliver record volumes during a historic cold snap in parts of the U.S., even as vulnerabilities in parts of the broader gas complex and electric grid posed ongoing risk to local distribution companies and their customers.
Several days into an energy crisis afflicting the southern and central U.S., missed opportunities to harden thermal power plants following past cold weather events emerged as a contributing factor. The freeze has also led to natural gas production and transmission disruptions, though serious problems do not appear to have materialized in the downstream gas utility sector.
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This is the Feb. 18, 2021, edition of Boiling Point, a weekly newsletter about climate change and the environment in California and the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
As a deadly winter storm plunged millions of Texans into darkness this week, politicians skeptical of climate change and loyal to the oil and gas industry did what they do best: They blamed renewable energy.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the power grid emergency “shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.” Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert tweeted that the Green New Deal “was just proven unsustainable as renewables are clearly unreliable.”
A new study by the American Gas Foundation unpacks natural gas’ growing role in providing resilience to America’s energy and heating grids. The fuel has helped the grids perform under recent catastrophic events, and with increasing reliance on.