Hurricane Beryl Crossed Texas This week, the eastern half of the most intense storms have hit Houston, the state's largest population and industrial center, with a metropolitan area of ​​some 6 million residents.

That was on Monday and Tuesday, and as we neared the end of the work week, people in the media were wondering why as of Friday, as many as 1 million residents still didn't have electric service.

Climate mongers like to blame everything on an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful climate change demon. And this time, they're at least partly right. Guess what?

Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Elcot), but that's really a misconception.

At least this time, we don't see anyone (yet) trying to blame everything on the natural gas system or making the laughably absurd claim that wind, solar, and the state's tiny handful of stationary battery plants have somehow “saved the day.” Thank goodness for small blessings.

In reality, Prolonged power outage Houston's population growth is due to three main factors: rapid population growth, simple geography, and the greening of the planet as the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases in recent decades.

First, population growth. When asked why CenterPoint Energy, the company that maintains the region's power grid infrastructure, had failed to meet the reliability goals it outlined to Texas policymakers in 2019, a company spokesperson said: This region is Since then, the city has added more than 300,000 new residents, which means the company is being forced to spend less on strengthening the system that existed five years ago and allocate more capital to expanding the infrastructure system equivalent to a new mid-sized city.

Second, there's the geography: Much of the Houston area is on reclaimed swampland, a narrow geographic area crossed by a series of bayous and rivers. In the past, some have advocated for putting the power lines underground rather than leaving them installed on tall poles, but the nature of the land and soil makes that impractical, if not impossible.

lastly, Greening the Earth In recent decades, climate alarmists have made a valid point: carbon dioxide, their favorite fake “pollutant,” is, after all, a plant nutrient, and rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have led to a correspondingly rapid growth of trees and all other plants.

Combine that with Houston's climate being similar to Bangkok, Thailand's and generally more plant-friendly, and the region's high humidity, warm temperatures and long growing season means it should come as no surprise to anyone that CenterPoint is having an increasing struggle to prevent falling trees from damaging nearby power lines.

This is nothing new for longtime Houstonians. My wife and I lived in Houston from 2003 to 2016. When Hurricane Ike hit in 2008, hundreds of trees were uprooted by high winds in our Heights neighborhood. Power lines were downed throughout the neighborhood, and a 120 year old home behind ours was destroyed when a 300 year old oak tree fell and blew the house off its post and beam foundation. We were among the very lucky ones and only lost power for a day. Many in the Houston area lost power for weeks, some even months. This is what happens during and after a hurricane.

Everyone in the media should take a deep breath and try to understand the scale and complexity of the task facing staff at CenterPoint and other grid infrastructure companies across the country after a storm like Beryl. When CenterPoint says its employees are working around the clock to restore power, that's exactly what's happening.

It is certainly appropriate to ask tough questions at a time when work is underway and many people are suffering, but it is entirely inappropriate to blame myths and demons when the truth is far more complicated and far less exciting.

David Blackmon is a Texas-based energy writer and consultant who worked in the oil and gas industry for 40 years and specializes in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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