We Need Answers
As a Texan who’s been living without power for days, I am outraged.
As a human being who understands that disasters like this exacerbate the great inequalities in our society, I am worried.
And as a reporter who has covered my share of big news stories (of which this is certainly one), I have a helluva lot of questions to which I want answers.
We cannot just treat what is happening in Texas as a natural disaster that swells with the news cycle and then disappears from view. The combination of our climate crisis, the decision-making of our elected officials, and the overall state of our society have contributed to wreak havoc on people’s lives. These potent forces are not unique to this storm, or to the Lone Star State. If we can learn lessons from what happened and make better decisions going forward, we can turn this tragedy into the beginnings of hope. But that has to start with a reckoning of failure, and the who, what, when, where, and how that made it happen.
The path to the truth must be clear-eyed and focused. I fear those who are responsible for this mess are going to spill gallons of bullshine and not a teaspoon of candor. We, as citizens, voters, and especially those in the press, cannot be distracted until we have answers and the culpable are held responsible.
With this in mind, these are some of the questions to ask at this point:
Let’s start with why did the power fail? It’s a straightforward query that undoubtedly has more tendrils than a banyan tree. We need to know about the history of the power grid, the corporate and political interests who shaped it, the dealmaking, and the warning signs that were missed. Secondary questions:
Why was the grid not weatherized?
Why was it not prepared for a spike in demand?
Why was ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) carved out from the national grids?
What role did climate denialism play in the decision making?
Who made the decision to keep which places lit?
Who got hit the hardest? This is one of those events that struck broadly across social, political, economic, and racial strata. But as always, those who were struggling the most, with food and housing insecurity, medical conditions, and lack of community support are going to end up suffering disproportionately. This needs to be documented, accounted for, and remedied as best as it can.
Why did back-up and contingency plans fail? Once the power went out, all sorts of impacts were inevitable: freezing conditions, bursting water pipes, a run on food and provisions. This was a storm that we knew was coming. Why was there so little planning for its aftermath?
What was the decision-making process once the crisis hit? What did elected officials, those in charge of the energy grid, and others in a position of “leadership,” do to mitigate the damage once the system went down?
Why all the confusion? The communication system to let the populace know what was going on was as effective as whispering during a hurricane. We need accountability on this front as well.
How do we ensure this never happens again? There’s going to be a major effort to diminish and downplay what happened by those responsible —the equivalent of band aids when we need open-heart surgery. A true post-mortem is going to get technical, complicated, and wide-ranging. We can’t be deterred. We need to learn more than we ever thought we would about our power grids in a changing world.
What would resilience look like? It is obvious to have power generation in cold climates (Minnesota, Norway, are you in the house?). Obviously Texas didn’t feel this type of cold could hit here. We know how bad an assumption that was. But how do we recognize new realities and make power more reliable, while also recognizing the environmental and economic costs?
A note of thanks to my Steady team of Elliot Kirschner and Alex Van Amson who have been my conduits to the internet and all of you as I try to conserve cell phone battery life and warmth as we enter day 4 without power. These are extraordinary circumstances, but the news doesn’t wait. Also a big thanks to my wife Jean who is my companion here, and as always a rock.
I’ve been trying to follow the news as best I can, and if you scroll down I have tried to share some great reporting that my team and I have collected. This is undoubtedly but a small sample of the intrepid and insightful journalistic work being done on this story. Please share other reports in the comments section of this newsletter.
Thank you. Steady.
Articles for further reading:
Texas Tribune: No, frozen wind turbines aren’t the main culprit for Texas’ power outages
Houston Chronicle: Texas grid fails to weatherize, repeats mistake feds cited 10 years ago
New York Times: A Glimpse of America’s Future: Climate Change Means Trouble for Power Grids
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This is a "follow the money" story. Good reporting will demonstrate the weatherizing questions were discounted as cost saving measures. What is clear right now, however, instead of a sober, candid discussion with Texans, Governor Abbott has immediately politicized this situation by blaming green energy. Is he trying to deflect attention by blaming and shaming?This is grossly irresponsible on multiple levels, and wholly inaccurate. Today Abbott ordered natural gas producers to not sell their energy out of state. This announcement has the impact of demonizing the producers, but likely does not matter. The generating plants aren't fed with this energy (contracted for years at a time and piped to specific locations out of state). This situation is more simple than raw energy feed stock. Texas natural gas electricity generators likely cannot transmit electricity because the power lines are frozen. There are three players in this game: (1) ERCOT, the grid operator (the entity responsible for moving electricity from the plants that generate electricity), (2) power plant operators (where the electricity is generated), and (3) energy producers (those who actually refine the natural gas or manage the wind turbines). Disaster modeling appears to have been done in a vacuum where power plants, energy producers and grid operators were not well coordinated. The cold weather was foreseen. While unusually frigid weather is the trigger, the current situation points out the failure points in Texas' energy and grid management. There wasn't a Plan B. While I applaud accountability as a path to improvement, I dislike how it often devolves into blame. This will prove to have been the proverbial comedy of errors. No one party will be responsible, but all the parties will have to work together to ensure this doesn't happen again. Abbott's initial comments are a harbinger of what we can expect from him. Texans need to demand more from Governor Abbott. Tired political tropes aren't going to cut it. Thanks Dan for going above and beyond to post during this crisis.
thanks for sharing the relevant news articles as well