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How does it work?
In one of the largest oil and gas-producing countries in the world, the electricity fails.
Not for a few hours, but for days.
We are not talking about Venezuela, but about Texas.
In the middle of an exceptionally harsh winter, almost five million people are affected, their furniture burned or their cars sitting with the engine running so as not to freeze to death.
Guilty parties are identified based on attitudes and interests.
Climate researchers point to the heating of the Arctic, which has the paradoxical effect of directing cold air towards the south.
That's right, but in Germany, which was also affected, trains are canceled, but the electricity is still flowing.
Critics of alternative energies point out that Texas has been increasingly relying on wind power since 1999.
That's right, some wind turbines have frozen, but gas pipelines and gas-fired power plants also failed.
Even a nuclear reactor had to be taken off the grid because of the cold.
Left blame capitalism.
Texas has a completely deregulated electricity market, which means that Texans only pay half as much for electricity as Californians.
In return, the electricity providers have saved on reserve capacities.
The consumers will now receive the bill.
However, even in California, where the electricity market is more strictly regulated, the lights go out again and again when forest fires, heat waves and storms become more frequent.
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The most important reason for the catastrophe is likely to be that Texas has its own, autonomous power grid and could not meet the additional demand due to the cold through imports.
Fortunately, in Europe there is the European interconnection system: an electricity network that connects all EU members except the Scandinavian countries and Cyprus, as well as Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
The system, while not perfect, is more reliable than any other.
"Why nuclear power?
With us the electricity comes from the can! ”That was a slogan hatched by the nuclear lobby against the widespread“ Nuclear power?
No thanks! ”- badge.
Today one could say against the new nationalists: “Why Europe?
With us, the electricity comes from the can. ”Anyone who speaks the word nationally alone should look to Texas.
If there is soon to be smart and super grids to bring wind power from the North Sea and solar energy from Algeria to Munich, Stuttgart, Prague or Budapest, then supranationalism is even more in demand.
The river knows no boundaries - or shouldn't know them.
Neither does climate change.