Energy Shortage Could Lead to Blackouts Across Middle America

December 2, 2022

Middle America needs to prepare for blackouts this winter. It is no secret that the U.S. is facing an energy shortage. The Biden administration’s policies and an over-reliance on renewable energy like wind and solar have put the country in a risky predicament this winter. 

The North Americans Energy Reliability Corporation (NERC) recently released its annual Winter Reliability Assessment. It stated, “a large portion of the North American bulk power system is at risk of having insufficient energy supplies during severe winter weather.”

South Dakota remembers February of 2021 and the deadly winter storm Uri which forced rolling blackouts throughout the central U.S. Chris Nelson, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission chairman, discussed the energy shortage with the Argus Leader: 

“The fact that our generator resources are changing dramatically, used to be in this country, over 50% of our electricity was generated from coal-powered plants and it is now less than 20%. Well, obviously, coal has gone out of fashion … and lot of that has been replaced with wind and solar and natural gas. Wind is an intermittent resource, and natural gas – going back to Winter Storm Uri – if it gets really cold, there might be some problems getting natural gas through the systems.”

The energy industry has been sounding the alarm on energy shortages for the past year. The Biden administration has chosen to ignore these warnings, and now Americans will feel the pain this winter with sky-high prices and potentially deadly situations.