It would be folly to allow politicians to diagnose and treat our medical conditions, just as it is folly to permit them to diagnose and treat our energy woes.

Politicians are often responding to pressure from various stakeholders like self-serving industry groups and environmental organizations. Energy experts, engineers and grid operators should be setting our energy policy, not politicians. It is baffling how these politicians proclaim “follow the science” when they seemingly ignore the expertise and scientific assessment of energy experts.

Please note our current energy mandates to eliminate fossil fuels/gas and rely on battery storage to back up intermittent wind/solar are in stark contrast to the energy experts recommendations and warnings.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. said in its 2022 State of Reliability Report. “NERC expects 500 GW of solar and 400 GW of wind to come online over the next decade. “If we’re going to reliably integrate these resources over the next 10 years, we’ve really got to start now,” said Moura. That will mean additional investment in natural gas infrastructure, he said. “Gas is a bridge fuel to where I think policies ultimately want to take us,” Moura said. “Batteries aren’t going to do it, and we’re going to need a backup fuel for wind and solar. So this is important to invest in.”

“Solar resources, which are overwhelmingly the largest share of new resources connecting to the grid, do not provide output during many hours when winter electricity demand is at its highest,” NERC reported last month. “New battery resources can extend the output from solar PV [photovoltaics] for short durations, but winter’s longer hours of darkness, cloud cover, and precipitation will push the limits of today’s battery storage capabilities and installed energy capacity.” (Typical battery storage duration is two to four hours.)

“NERC has long stated that natural gas is essential to the reliability of the grid during the electricity industry’s unprecedented transformation. We welcome any effort to meet the gas/electric challenge with the sense of urgency that it deserves.”

Per NYSERDA: “It is a fossil fuel — natural gas — that is by far the state’s biggest source of electrical generation, providing ten times more power (35.8 percent) than wind and solar combined (3.6 percent), according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. That’s particularly important during the winter, which has already dumped several feet of snow upstate this year.”

NYISO (state grid operators) note: “At current trends, the New York Independent System Operator projects that peak demand for electricity will come in the winter rather than the summer in the 2030s. That poses a particular challenge for renewable energy, since wind turbines don’t turn when the winds blow too hard or not at all, solar farms provide no electricity when they’re covered with snow, and battery storage reaches its limits in extreme weather.”

Also of concern, regarding the highly anticipated Hydro-Quebec /CHPE: “The HydroQuébec Project does not guarantee delivery of Tier 4 RECs in the winter, despite the fact that [New York Independent System Operator] modelling predicts that New York’s peak electricity demand will shift to the winter as building electrification progresses.”

Fact — In 2023, the U.S. saw a significant drop in greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to the increased use of natural gas. We must not ban natural gas. It will likely prove a matter of life and death.

Joni Riggle is a Sinclairville resident.