Fossil Fuels Kept Lights On for Majority of Texas During Recent Ice Storm

Aside from the city of Austin's incompetence to clear downed trees, the lights stayed on for a majority of Texas during the recent ice storm.

Climate activists continue to hammer Gov. Abbott and state grid operators, but at the end of the day, measures taken after the 2021 freeze prevented Texas from plunging into darkness.

"Focusing particularly on not cutting off electricity at key times to natural gas transfer stations, so the gas kept running. Coal kept operating. Even as wind turbines shut down. Even as solar panels were covered with ice. We kept the energy on," says H. Sterling Burnett, managing editor of The Heartland Institute's Environment and Climate News.

"Had we not had coal. Had we not had natural gas. We would have had the same problems this year that we had two winters ago."

Burnett says northern states face the same challenges when it comes to ice.

"The trees knocking down power lines or power lines covered with ice. Poles toppling over due to the storm itself. That happens everywhere. That's not unique to Texas."

Compared to Austin, it took Deer Park and Pasadena crews only a matter of days to clear tornado debris to get the lights back on.