From that, this is most likely the sentence that is confusing people:
"To minimize adverse environmental impacts, this Order limits operation of dispatched units to the times and within the parameters determined by ERCOT for reliability purposes."
The key is to understand what "for reliability purposes" means. In essence, Biden is saying "do whatever it takes to keep the grid up and running, but no more than that". This includes authorization to use power generation methods that are harsher on the environment than the preferred wind/solar, but don't keep them going once the crisis is over. And that is exactly what ERCOT should have done, but was unable to do. They couldn't fire up the NatGas peaker plants because the NatGas either wasn't available, or was frozen in the pipes. None of the coal plants could come online fast enough. They hand't planned for this so they didn't buy enough NatGas nor did they install weatherproofed infrastructure that could withstand cold temps like this.
The way I read it they were limited to a certain amount of co2 which was not enough to maintain power!? It was linked on here earlier.
Here's the link to the EO itself:
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2021/02/f82/DOE%20202%28c%29%20Emergency%20Order%20-%20ERCOT%2002.14.2021.pdf
From that, this is most likely the sentence that is confusing people:
"To minimize adverse environmental impacts, this Order limits operation of dispatched units to the times and within the parameters determined by ERCOT for reliability purposes."
The key is to understand what "for reliability purposes" means. In essence, Biden is saying "do whatever it takes to keep the grid up and running, but no more than that". This includes authorization to use power generation methods that are harsher on the environment than the preferred wind/solar, but don't keep them going once the crisis is over. And that is exactly what ERCOT should have done, but was unable to do. They couldn't fire up the NatGas peaker plants because the NatGas either wasn't available, or was frozen in the pipes. None of the coal plants could come online fast enough. They hand't planned for this so they didn't buy enough NatGas nor did they install weatherproofed infrastructure that could withstand cold temps like this.
Ah, thank you for the clarification!