Understand more. Argue less.

Good morning. As temperatures across the United States rise, we’re going to look at what the Texas storm means for the American energy sector moving forward. First, we want to take a moment to remember the lives lost in that catastrophically cold week.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Jenna Gibson

February in Texas usually doesn’t involve snow, much less a full-fledged blizzard. That wasn’t the case last week, as a record-breaking winter storm ravaged the state, causing millions to lose power.

How could something like that happen? In short, because the Lone Star State is effectively an island in the U.S. electrical system that is separate from the Eastern and Western electrical grids. For the last 50 years, the Texas grid has been operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). They wanted to be free of federal regulation, and argued that the state would be less vulnerable to blackouts if other states couldn’t tap into their electric supply. Under normal circumstances, Texas produces and stores enough energy to supply its 29 million residents. The problem is that when energy demand spikes unexpectedly (like it did last week), they’re unable to pull energy from other states. 

Here’s what else you need to know.

The Facts

• Magnitude. At its peak, over 4 million Texans were without power. The resulting lack of water pressure meant that more than 13 million residents were without clean drinking water. We won’t know the exact number for some time, but dozens have already been confirmed dead. (AP)
  
• Why the blackout? Texas government officials have placed a lot of blame on renewable energy sources—primarily wind turbines and solar panels that froze over during the storm. Wind turbines accounted for less than 13% of the power knocked out by the cold, according to the state’s grid operator. While the majority of the lapse in power came from gas, it was also the primary source of energy that remained operational. (Bloomberg)
  
• Did Texas know? After millions lost power in 2011, a federal report on the Texas energy grid found that while some winterization procedures were in place, their poor performance “suggests that these procedures were either inadequate or were not adequately followed.” (AP)
  
• Climate impact. From 2000 to 2019, a United Nations study found that natural disasters increased by 74% compared to the previous period. A 2019 study by Carbon Brief found that 69% of 355 extreme weather events examined were likely made more frequent or severe by human-caused climate change. (United Nations, Carbon Brief)
  
• Electric delivery. In 1930, fewer than 10% of farms in the US had access to electricity. In 1935, the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was created. Over the next five years, the REA provided $3.6 billion in subsidised loans to utility companies, who constructed more rural distribution lines than private companies built in the previous 50 years combined. By the mid-1950’s, almost all of rural America had electricity. (VoxEU)

NARRATIVES

Katherine Chuang

Here are the narratives from both sides, along with supporting headlines and article snippets. These are not necessarily factual, but instead illustrate the news coverage that solidifies the narrative from each side. The bias ratings refer to news outlets as a whole, not a specific article.

BOTTOM LINE

What Does It All Mean?

Depending on where you get your news, the energy story might sound a something like this… 

• If your news outlets lean Right, you view the Texas outages as preventable and expect an investigation into what happened. However, this historical storm was just that, historical. Overhauling the entire system because of a freak weather event is ridiculous, expensive, and inefficient. Idealistic, ill-advised policies like the Green New Deal aren’t the pressing solutions we need.

• If your news outlets lean Left, you feel what’s happening in Texas is a tragedy: the result of a lack of oversight and regulation. Texans are dying from a lack of basic resources and are receiving electric bills in the thousands. The State of Texas needs to answer for their mistakes and accept climate change as a major driver of these kinds of events.

Whether renewable energy is the answer or problem, the situation in Texas is indicative of a bigger challenge: how will the United States redesign energy solutions for natural disasters in the future? 

Extreme weather has expensive consequences. In the aftermath of the California 2000-2001 Eron energy crisis, residents faced utility bill surcharges for the next 20 years. Texans find themselves in a similar situation. Last week, Texas’ estimated energy cost was approximately $50.6 billion, compared to $4.2 billion the previous week. It’s not just Texas, either: from 2003-2012, the Energy Department estimated that the weather-related outages cost the U.S. an annual average of between $18-$33 billion. 

President Biden campaigned on a plan to derive all U.S. electricity from carbon-free sources by 2035. However, it’s much more complicated than simply producing more renewable energy. Implementing those systems requires extensive, costly infrastructure improvements: a 2019 study estimated that electrical transmission grid upgrades could cost as much as $90 billion by 2030, with an additional $200-600 billion needed by 2050. On the other hand, an NRDC study estimates that the cost of climate change will rise to almost $1.9 trillion annually by 2100.

As of this writing, 12,000 homes are still without power. We hope everyone regains power soon, and that we can put policy in place to avoid this happening again.

IN OTHER NEWS

What Else We're Following

• Capitol blame. Top Capitol law enforcement officials Tuesday described cascading intelligence breakdowns before the deadly Jan. 6 riots, including failure to adequately distribute an ominous bulletin provided by the FBI the night before, warning that protesters were "preparing for war." (USA Today)

• Trump part 2? Republican Mitt Romney said Donald Trump likely would win the GOP presidential nomination if he decided to run again in 2024. (Bloomberg)

• Vaccine bump. COVID-19 vaccine makers told Congress on Tuesday to expect a significant increase in the delivery of doses over the coming month. Those companies insist that they will be able to provide enough vaccines for most Americans to get inoculated by the summer. (AP News)

Finally, Some Good News

• 7 Years Ahead of Schedule, Maersk to Deploy World’s First Carbon-Neutral Shipping Liner in 2023 (Good News Network)

• With a Natural Disaster in Texas, This Furniture Store Owner Heroically Offers His Store as Shelter — Again (Good News Network)

• D-Day Hero’s Lost Postcard Finally Delivered to his Family 77 Years After Being Sent (Good News Network)

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Have a great week. See you next Wednesday!