{"id":57069,"date":"2021-03-12T07:57:07","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T12:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57069"},"modified":"2021-03-12T07:57:07","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T12:57:07","slug":"why-every-state-is-vulnerable-to-a-texas-style-power-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57069","title":{"rendered":"Why every state is vulnerable to a Texas-style power crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

Why every state is vulnerable to a Texas-style power crisis<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe infrastructure we have built right now really isn\u2019t ready.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"Workers<\/picture><\/span><\/span>
Power outages in Texas after Winter Storm Uri left millions in the dark. Such outages are a growing threat throughout the country.<\/figcaption>\u00a0Thomas Ryan Allison\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/cite><\/span><\/figure>\n
\n

The\u00a0blackouts that gripped parts of Texas<\/a>\u00a0for days as temperatures dipped to record lows last month were stunning for a state that prides itself on its diverse and abundant energy supplies. Texas is the country\u2019s largest\u00a0oil producer<\/a>, largest lignite coal producer, largest\u00a0natural gas<\/a>\u00a0producer, and\u00a0largest wind energy producer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet despite its bountiful resources, every electricity source \u2014 natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar \u2014 fell short just as Texans needed to warm up the most.<\/p>\n

Now that Texas has thawed out after an icy freeze left more than 4 million people in the cold and dark, heads are rolling.<\/p>\n

This week,\u00a0Texas Public Utility Commissioner Shelly Botkin resigned<\/a>, leaving just one commissioner of the three-member group remaining. This follows a wave of resignations at the\u00a0Electric Reliability Council of Texas<\/a>\u00a0(ERCOT), the group that oversees the state\u2019s power grid.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet clear how many\u00a0Texans died amid the cold<\/a>, but several people died after they lost power, including an\u00a011-year-old boy<\/a>. Others\u00a0died from carbon monoxide poisoning<\/a>\u00a0as they burned fuel indoors or ran their cars in desperate attempts to stay warm. Millions\u00a0lost drinking water<\/a>\u00a0for days.<\/p>\n

The blackouts cost the state economy upward of\u00a0$130 billion in damages and losses<\/a>, and some people who did have power saw their bills\u00a0spike by thousands of dollars<\/a>. Grid operators say that the situation could actually have been a lot worse, with the system\u00a0minutes away from a months-long blackout<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas politicians have not earned much sympathy from the ordeal. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz derided California\u2019s \u201cfailed energy policies<\/a>\u201d when the Golden State suffered blackouts last year. Gov. Greg Abbott went on television to erroneously link the\u00a0power outages to the Green New Deal<\/a>. Other Texas politicos blamed iced-up wind turbines for the electricity shortfall when the majority of the power losses were from natural gas.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why every state is vulnerable to a Texas-style power crisis \u201cThe infrastructure we have built right now really isn\u2019t ready.\u201d Power outages in Texas after Winter Storm Uri left millions in the dark. Such outages are a growing threat throughout the country.\u00a0Thomas Ryan Allison\/Bloomberg via Getty Images The\u00a0blackouts that gripped parts of Texas\u00a0for days as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5222,1103,328,1574,674,2063,31025,19375],"class_list":["post-57069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-electrical-grid","tag-electricity","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-power-grid","tag-renewable-energy","tag-texas","tag-umair-irfan","tag-vox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}