Letters: Natural gas, coal - Longmont Times-Call

Letters: Natural gas, coal - Longmont Times-Call

Reliable power backups are a requirement

Last December the U.S. narrowly escaped a disaster that could have decimated New York City and killed thousands. It is documented in an October 2023 report by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and summarized by energy analyst Robert Bryce on his website.

A winter storm caused the gas pipeline network in New York City to almost fail. The lack of gas, as well as a few other issues, resulted in an unprecedented loss of electric generation capacity of 90,000 megawatts, almost five times the capacity of the entire state of Colorado.

The lack of electricity was dangerous and would have been far worse had there been extensive electrification of building heating and vehicles pushed by many. But the collapse of the gas grid while temperatures stayed below freezing would have caused a calamity unlike any other in U.S. history. The cold could have resulted in thousands, or even tens of thousands, of deaths. The damage from burst water pipes would have rendered untold numbers of residential and office buildings in New York City unusable.

NERC has warned that the electric grid has become too dependent on natural gas. Its access is contested by multiple priority users, including home heating and industrial processes. Adding to the problem, is the headlong rush by climate activists to shutter coal-fired power plants. Coal plants store back-up fuel on site while gas plants rely on continuous pipeline delivery.

We’ve been warned repeatedly by both FERC and NERC that our natural gas infrastructure must be strengthened, including the addition of many more pipelines, yet our political leaders do little about it. Instead, money continues to be wasted on weather-dependent wind and solar which have proven to be worthless in extreme weather such as this winter storm.

Carl Brady, Frederick