America’s power grid is not ready.
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In February, extreme cold and an unusual winter storm left millions of Texans in the dark. Many went without power or water, in subzero temperatures, for nearly five days. It was a disaster; dozens died. But even though that storm hit much of the country, the power outages were mostly limited to Texas. That’s because Texas is on its own electrical grid, separate from the rest of the country, which means it can’t easily get power from other states in an emergency.
But Texas’s grid itself is not what failed. Power went out across Texas in the first place because energy sources across the state were unprepared for severe weather. And that didn’t have to happen; Texas had been warned about this exact scenario, and had actually experienced versions of it twice in the last 30 years. But they didn’t prepare.
Now the rest of the US faces the same issue. Climate change is making severe weather disasters more and more frequent. And the American energy system is not ready for it.
Read more about what happened in Texas and about the US electrical grid: https://www.vox.com/22289517/texas-storm-uri-weather-power-outage-snow
And check out more coverage of the Texas power crisis from the Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/22/texas-power-grid-extreme-weather/
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39 comments
One proposal for fixing the US grid: weave the divided power systems into a single national power grid. One study suggests it could save consumers as much as $47.2 billion a year through increased efficiency and cheaper renewable energy. Read more on Vox: http://bit.ly/30duu7d
i live in texas and the blizzard was a HUGE disaster our roads were frozen over so cars had to drive slower and the toilets did not work because we had no water so we had to melt snow and when we were done using the restroom we had to dump the water inside of the toilet making it flush at some point our power went back on for i think 30 minutes or 2 hours but then after that we had no power again then a day later i woke up to see my internet router working and our power was back pretty amazing experience gonna tell my kids about that lol
I live in San Antonio but I’m originally from Washington DC. I remember getting 27” of snow from one single storm on December 20, 2009 back in DC. It was the worst winter storm I had ever experienced. After all, the largest amount of snow I had seen before that was about 8”, because that’s all climatology would support during the winter months for my region. I’ve lived in Texas for nine years now and even though we received two snow storms within five days, totaling about 11” of snow, this was by far the worst week of my life and the worst winter storm I have ever experienced, greatly surpassing the storm in 2009. One might have a hard time understanding because surely 27 inches is a lot more than two 6” snowstorms. But it was the fact that I witnessed my city and basically my whole state crumble around me. the way people were reacting, how we were so unprepared, how cold it got, the lengths we had to go to to survive, etc. this was CRIPPLING.
Texas: panik, no power, 10 degrees
North Dakota: -45 degrees wind chill, kalm
My entire town in Mississippi went out we are ran by the Texas grid like a few towns in Louisiana and Mississippi we are "unincorporated" which means we don't really exist and Texas was kind enough to share their grid with us
"But taxes!"
Texas has a worst power grids in the US, seem like living in third world countries. I bet that the rich people and oil moguls they must have their own generators, they don’t even care
Texas has a worst power grids in the US, seem like living in third world countries. I bet that the rich people and oil moguls they must have their own generators, they don’t even care
Climate changes is not real
As a Canadian hearing about -15c sounds like a great day for skiing
Texas brought this on themselves.
liberal
Texas did not want to share the grid with other states to share the electricity that's why they put a lot of their residents in that state in danger when the snow storm hit because they assumed nothing like that would ever happen to their state because it's known as a hot state that's why they were never prepared for anything like this
If I lived in Texas I would have bought a solar array and back up battery. I am sure when the outage was about to happen prices would have been astronomical
In Corpus Christi, AEP notified us of "rolling blackouts" then they shut off power to all the lower middle income and poor neighborhoods and left them off for the duration. I drove around town and saw lights and power in all the commercial and upper class neighborhoods and complete darkness in almost every single poor neighborhood. The only lower end neighborhoods that still had power were the houses that were on the same grid as the hospitals.
Instead of everyone sharing the burden, AEP stood up like the senate in Mel Brooks History of the World and yelled "F*** the poor!"
In the smallest suprise, if you look at the loss grid shown at the beginning, it seems to correlate with the grid systems.
We’re supposed to get snow tonight. Wish us luck.
Texas should of learn from its last year winter but this year they have stuff to prepare for us Texas s god bless the people in texas
Remember this in Texas 2022 Governor Race
5 Days no power? Ow, but for me, a victim of Typhoon Rai, yeah 1 month no power
But only Texas, Is not connected to the grid, East or west
So, if somewhere as warm as Texas can experience sub zero temps, can this explain seasonal freezes in other place that recieve the sun in equal amount.
Could winter just be an increase in cold winds, and we are still recieving the same amount of sun.
Or is it just another man made problem
Meanwhile Ted Cruz :
Cancun goes brrrrrrr
It's like the DC-10 cargo door fiasco. A warning was issued before disaster struck but nothing was done to stop it.
-16 is dangerously low??? Well SO Ontario got sumn to say😂😂😂
Texas is not connected to the US electrical grid,,, They got what they want… do your homework, their choice to be off the grid doesn't affect anyone but themselves
Remembering watching this for the first time and boom now it’s almost an year to this 🤯
Always private sector's fault, never new energies or others. How not Vox,how not
The fact that this happened again in 2022 says something
Wait until the Dem. make us all go green for our cars. The power grid will shut down!!
Ah yes even if Texas did become a country
We would even have our powered grid or
We are allowed to split into five states on one grid
what a wonderful analogy of the bemusing weakness of individualism
its almost insulting figuring their reasoning for why WE do things. as a texans
Heyyyy…. I thought Texas was better than California?
You guys readyfor the grid shutdown in the whole United state's? They keep warning us but people too distracted by will smith
Here are some climate stats on Texas: According to NOAA, the 2020-2021 (Dec-Feb) winter in Texas averaged 46.6°F for a lean temperature. That is only -0.7°F below normal and the 42nd coolest winter out of 127 winters. Winters in Texas have warmed by +0.6°F per decade since 1970. The warmest winter was 2016-2017 in Texas averaging 52.9°F and +5.6°F warmer than normal. In Texas, February 2021 averaged a mean temperature of 44°F which was -5.4°F cooler than normal. It was the 9th coldest February in TX History. It was coldest February in Texas since 2010 and before that 1978. The warmest February ever in Texas was 2017 averaging at 58.4°F being +9°F above normal. Februarys have warmed by +0.4°F per decade since 1970. In the continental United States, the 2020-2021 winter was 33.6°F or +1.4°F above normal. It was the 31st warmest winter ever in the USA. The warmest winter ever in the USA was 2015-2016 being 36.8°F being +4.6°F warmer than normal. Winters are warming at a rate of +0.6°F per decade since 1970. February 2021 in the USA was 30.6°F or -3.2°F below normal and the 19th coolest February on record. 2021 was America’s coldest February since 1989. The warmest February for America was 1954 (although 2017 is a close second) being 41.4°F or +7.6°F above norm. Februarys have warmed +0.2°F since 1970 across America. So while 2021 winter was cold for Texas, winters overall are warming up. Unfortunately Texas refused to become part of the fight against climate change and make their energy providers climate resilient.
OUR WEATHER IS MADE AND CONTROLLED BY THE MASS MURDERERS IN OUR GOVERNMENT!
WAKE UP DUMMIES!!
0:12 New York part of New Jersey
They to make all new power grids all weather resistant to climate change.
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