The Oklahoman

• Clearing up misinforma­tion about power grid,

- By Ali Swenson and Arijeta Lajka

With millions of Texas residents still without power amid frigid temperatur­es, conservati­ve commentato­rs have falsely claimed that wind turbines and solar energy were primarily to blame.

“We should never build another wind turbine in Texas,” read a Tuesday Facebook post from Texas Agricultur­e Commission­er Sid Miller. “The experiment failed big time.”

“This is a perfect example of the need for reliable energy sources like natural gas & coal,” tweeted U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana, on Tuesday.

In reality, failure sin natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems were responsibl­e for nearly twice as many outages as frozen wind turbines and solar panels, the Electric Reliabilit­y Council of Texas, which operates the state's power grid, said in a press conference Tuesday.

Still a variety of misleading claims spread on social media around renewable energy, with wind turbine sand the Green New Deal getting much of the attention.

A viral photo of a helicopter de-icing a wind turbine was shared with claims it showed a “chemical” solution being applied to one of the massive wind generators in Texas. The only problem? The photo was taken in Sweden years ago, not in the U.S. in 2021. The helicopter sprayed hot water onto the wind turbine, not chemicals.

Other social media users, including Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, puzzlingly labeled t he Green New Deal as the culprit. Boebert tweeted on Monday that the proposal was “proven unsustaina­ble as renewables are clearly unreliable.”

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