Lansing Sun

Though most reports now are backing away from freezing wind turbines as a major cause in last week's failure of Texas' power grid, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy is urging Michigan lawmakers to think twice about adding "reliably unreliable" wind power to the state's own power grid.

Doing so could expose Michigan, which is known for long and harsh winters, to similar failure from which Texas is only just beginning to recover since last week's series of winter storms left millions without electricity, according to the Mackinac Center.

"'Reliably unreliable' may work in mathematical models or when it’s sunny and 75 degrees, but it is potentially dangerous when the real world gives us cloudy and minus 20 degrees. It’s also a poor argument in favor of the drive to build more renewables," said Jason Hayes, the Mackinac Center's environmental policy director. "Spending billions to build energy sources that cannot be depended on when people need them most is irresponsible."

Jason Hayes | Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Hayes' comments were part of an update to an open letter sent to Michigan lawmakers last week containing recommendations about what Michigan can learn from the Lone Star State's difficulties.

"More complete information on the Texas electricity grid is coming out, and the failures and rolling blackouts seem to stem from three major issues," Hayes said in his update to the blog post, which was originally published Feb. 16.

Hayes' update took particular aim at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the state's electric grid and manages the deregulated market for about three-quarters of the state.

"First, there was poor planning and slow responses on the part of ERCOT, the operator of Texas’ electricity grid," Hayes wrote on the Mackinac Center's website. "Second, decisions were made against winterizing essential generation equipment, despite similar cold-related outages in 2011. Third, extreme and unusual cold weather impacted multiple generation sources: wind, solar, nuclear, coal and natural gas."

The update changed the way the energy crisis was reported but did not change the long-term effects of the decisions being made in Texas, Michigan and around the country, according to Hayes.

Early in the crisis, many politicians, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), blamed the power outages on the state's wind turbines and other forms of renewable energy. Those claims have since been debunked, including reports in The Texas Tribune, USA Today and the Houston Chronicle.

At the height of the storms, Fortune offered a more complex outage explanation, reporting that most of Texas' energy, in its very complicated and largely privatized grid, comes from natural gas, coal and nuclear plants, "which together make up more than two-thirds of power generation during winter."

Despite the change in reporting the causes of the power grid failure, Hayes maintained that the unfortunate situation in Texas has proven that renewable energy should not become the basis for any power grid going forward.

"For the good of Michigan residents, Michigan’s electricity utilities need to return their focus to safe, reliable generation options," Hayes concluded in his update.