Texas power outages.Photo: Cooper Neill/Bloomberg via Getty
An unusually cold winter blast has caused power outages around many parts of the U.S., while it’s sparked debate among many lawmakers over what exact failure is causing the mid-February electricity crisis.
The Associated Pressreportedon Wednesday that across the country, more than 100 million people live in places under winter weather warnings.
In the Midwest, snow fall was expected from northern Minnesota down to Texas, where lawmakers' arguments about power outages have raged on throughout Wednesday morning.
Some prominent Republicans in Texas, like Rep. Dan Crenshaw, raised eyebrows when theyblamedthe widespread power outages across the Lone Star State on frozen wind turbines.
However, scientists and energy experts quickly moved to debunk those claims, which they say are false.
“Texas is a gas state,” Michael Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas at Austin,toldThe Texas Tribune. The newspaper reports that about 80% of the state’s power grid runs on “natural gas, coal and some nuclear power.”
Texas power outages.CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Shutterstock
CBS News alsoreportedthe Texas power grid is not as prepared for cold winter weather as it is for hot summer weather.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which said it provides electricity to about 90% of the state, largely operates on gas and coal energy, according to CBS News. Texas is also the only U.S. state with its own separate power grid, the outlet reported.
An ERCOT representative said during a press conference Wednesday that about 45,000 megawatts were out, according to theAP. Of that 45,000 megawatt outage, about 30,000 came from gas, coal and nuclear energy sources, while around 16,000 came from wind and solar energy, the energy supplier said, per the AP.
To sum it all up? “Gas is failing in the most spectacular fashion right now,” Webber told theTribune.
Icicles on a home in McKinney, Texas.Cooper Neill/Bloomberg via Getty
But that didn’t stop Republicans in the state from blaming clean energy for the ongoing crisis.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Millerwroteon Facebook that Texas “should never build another wind turbine” again.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who said ERCOT’s failure was “unacceptable” and that he waslaunching an investigationinto the energy supplier Wednesday,toldFox News the crisis “shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.”
Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who introduced the climate proposal to Congress in February 2019, responded to Abbott’s claim Wednesday: “The infrastructure failures in Texas are quite literally what happens when you don’t pursue a Green New Deal,” the New York representativetweeted.
About 2.6 million homes in Texas are still without power, according topoweroutage.us, which tracks the outages.
“It’s really natural gas and coal and nuclear that are providing the bulk of the electricity and that’s the bulk of the cause of the blackouts,” Mark Jacobson, the director of Stanford University’s Atmosphere/Energy program,toldthe AP.
“We know millions of people are suffering,” ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness said in astatement. “We have no other priority than getting them electricity. No other priority.”
PresidentJoe Bidensigned anemergency disaster declarationon Sunday in response to the winter storm, ordering “federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts.”
Vice PresidentKamala Harrisalso acknowledged the emergency during a Wednesday morning appearance on theTodayshow,sending a messagedirectly to the impacted Texas residents.
“I know they can’t see us right now because they’re without electricity,” Harris, 56, said, “but the president and I are thinking of them and really hope that we can do everything that is possible through the signing of the emergency orders to get federal relief to support them.”
source: people.com
