In February 2021, several severe storms swept across the United States, culminating in a storm that the Weather Channel unofficially named “Winter Storm Uri.” In Texas, Uri knocked out power to more than 4.5 million homes and 10 million people. Hundreds of Texans died, and the storm caused an estimated $130 billion in damage to the state.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, was quick to blame renewable energy for the crisis. Even as the storms and power outages continued, Abbott told Fox News' Sean Hannity, “This shows that the Green New Deal is going to be a deadly deal for the United States of America… Fossil fuels are going to be a killer deal for Texas and others.” It is required by the state.
A subsequent investigation into the cause of the blackouts in Texas concluded that Governor Abbott was wrong. While wind power doesn't perform well in cold temperatures, neither do natural gas and coal power plants. But incidents like this raise a question: Will clean energy and climate policies make communities more vulnerable to dangerous blackouts?
As other countries have proven, the answer is no—with enough planning and preparation.
What caused Texas' deadly power outages?
No one energy source should be blamed for the tragic blackouts in Texas. All types of power generation facilities experienced failures, according to an analysis of the incident by the University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute.
“Natural gas, coal and nuclear were expected to be reliable baseload power sources,” the report concluded. “However, this has proven not to be the case, particularly for gas-fired power, although all fuel sources face some challenges from winter weather. “
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) similarly concluded that natural gas power plants were responsible for most of the blackouts in Texas.
Another major takeaway from the FERC report? Many power generation facilities in Texas are not following recommendations to prepare for severe winter storms through equipment winterization programs.
All types of equipment have temperature limits above or below which they cannot operate efficiently, or at all. Wind farms can operate in cold temperatures if equipped with de-icing equipment. Natural gas infrastructure can be enclosed or installed with heating cables to prevent cold weather outages.
As climate change continues to lead to more extreme weather—heat waves, hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and possibly even winter storms associated with the polar vortex—facility operators need to be prepared to keep the lights on. This is a challenge that another state, California, has been grappling with.
california's opposite
During two record-breakingly hot days in August 2020, hundreds of thousands of Californians experienced hours of power outages. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz was quick to blame California's clean energy and climate policies for these rolling blackouts, which briefly affected 1-2% of the state's population.
An analysis of the August 2020 blackouts by California's grid operator concluded that these outages were primarily caused by two factors. First, the heat wave was unexpectedly extreme, sweeping much of the western United States, including neighboring countries. Therefore, these states have no additional powers to share with California.
Second, at the time, 2020 was the hottest August ever recorded in California (in degrees Fahrenheit). As the sun sets in the evening, California's reliable power supply is low, but temperatures remain high.
But over the next four summers, California experienced no major blackouts. In fact, July 2024 was the hottest July on record in California, with temperatures rising nearly two degrees Fahrenheit, and the daily high temperature for the month averaging nearly 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Since 2020, however, the state's grid has become cleaner, not only avoiding blackouts but actually delivering energy to neighboring states during record-breaking heat waves.
How is this possible given the myth that solar energy only works when the sun is shining? That's where complementary solutions come in, such as adding batteries to store extra solar energy during the day and building more long-distance transmission lines to strengthen the grid.
As the state’s grid operator reported, “California’s grid is able to withstand a prolonged period of record temperatures thanks to new clean energy sources, additional battery storage and increased coordination with the state.”
California can also exchange power with neighboring states when needed—a solution Texas lacks.
Texas’ power grid is an island
Unlike all other states in the continental United States, Texas' power grid is relatively isolated from the rest of the country and therefore does not fall under FERC's jurisdiction.
This grid-independent approach has advantages and disadvantages. Thanks to looser regulations, Texas has been able to build energy infrastructure such as transmission lines, wind turbines and, most recently, solar farms at a faster pace than the rest of the country.
But with few power transmission connections to neighboring countries, the state has nowhere to turn when an extreme weather event knocks out much of its power generation. This ability to import power from neighboring regions outside of extreme weather events is a useful tool in avoiding major blackouts.
For example, a recent MIT study evaluated a proposed bill that would mandate increased regional transmission interconnections. The study reviews how the bill's requirements will impact the number of homes in the eastern United States that will lose power due to Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022. The number of households will be reduced from 4.7 million to 2.1 million, and the number of power outages will be reduced by 58%.
Simply put, Texas’ power grid is isolated from its neighbors, making the state more vulnerable to blackouts during extreme weather events.
Climate policy is part of the solution power failure
The blackouts in Texas are not caused by clean energy or climate policies, but are largely caused by a lack of preparation for the increasingly extreme weather brought by climate change. As noted climate scientist Lonnie Thompson wrote in 2010: “Sooner or later, we will all deal with global warming. The only question is how far we will mitigate, adapt and suffer.
This feature also applies to grid stability. We can address this problem by implementing clean energy and climate policies to reduce climate pollution and minimize future extreme weather events. We can try to adapt by winterizing infrastructure and deploying grid stabilization solutions such as battery storage and inter-regional transmission connections.
But if we fail to adequately mitigate and adapt to this problem by maintaining the status quo, many more U.S. residents will suffer from these dangerous power outages.
Tom Toro is a cartoonist and writer who has published more than 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010.
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