Which system is unreliable?
Fossil-fuel interests argue that their products are necessary to maintain base load power  that is, the ability to generate large amounts of electricity regardless of whether the wind blows or the sky is clear. That argument is failing a severe test in Texas, where the states go-it-alone energy grid has failed to deal with soaring temperatures, just as it failed to deal with frigid weather in February. During that deep freeze, more than 700 Texans died. Though some Texas politicians immediately blamed the disaster on over-dependence on wind power, investigations showed that the problem primarily was the failure to prepare gas-fueled power plants to deal with frigid temperatures. That, in turn, was due to the state governments aversion to regulation, which also prevented the Texas grid from getting power from other grids, which is the standard everywhere else. Monday, the state grid reported that 12,000 megawatts of generation, enough to power 2.4 million homes in hot weather, were offline and that it could not provide an explanation as to why. Of that, 9,600 megawatts, about 80%, was attributable to gas-fueled generation. As temperatures hit 100 degrees in some Texas cities, the grid advised residents to set their thermostats at no lower than 78 degrees. Fortunately for Texans, the state is the nations largest generator of wind power, at more than 29,000 megawatts, which counters the wind generated by politicians who claim that renewable energy is too unreliable to replace dirtier fuels in power generation.