On February 13, 2021, Texas was struck by a winter storm, informally known as Winter Storm Uri. The extremely cold temperatures crippled Texas’s power system, causing blackouts across the state, which left most of its 29 million residents scrambling for heat, food, and water.
What set the stage for this crisis? Ultimately, the blackouts resulted from the sustained deregulation of Texas’s independently owned and operated power grid. In 1999, Texas Senate Bill 7 was passed, laying out the plans for an unregulated energy market, with the intention of lowering energy prices. Since the grid, operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), is concentrated in Texas and does not cross state lines, the state is able to steer clear of stringent government regulation. Most proponents of this sort of laissez-faire economic policy believe that government intervention distorts the market. However, Texas’s power grid failed because there was no regulation. This lack of regulation also facilitated the conditions for an imperfect and exploitative power market.
Through basics of supply and demand, energy suppliers in Texas can raise their prices as demand increases, especially during peak times, taking advantage of consumers during a crisis. Officials at ERCOT argued that “high peak prices provide the incentive for producers to keep operating in all weather.” Unfortunately, they failed to recognize that producers have no incentive to update their infrastructure to withstand emergency weather conditions, which ultimately led to the failure of Texas’s power grid.
As the winter storm descended on Texas, a massive jump in demand for electricity overwhelmed the power grid. Texas usually draws power from a combination of wind turbines, oil, and natural gas, but the freezing weather rendered these sources ineffective. Wind turbine failure was touted as the main source of failure in conservative media. Amidst the crisis, the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, made an appearance on Fox News denouncing the Green New Deal and renewable energy, and Tucker Carlson ran a segment focused solely on disparaging wind power.
However, the conservative media’s focus on the failure of wind power and renewable energy is misdirected. In a report by the comptroller of Texas, wind power only generates 20% of their electricity, while the majority of electricity is generated by coal and natural gas. So, really, the failures were mainly a result of the collapse of non-renewable energy sources and mismanagement of the power market. Furthermore, this cold snap was not unprecedented, as a similar, but less severe, winter storm blackout occurred in Texas in 2011. This underscores the fact that power suppliers failed to weather-proof their energy sources, despite having faced a similar situation before, exposing how unprepared Texas was in adapting to their changing climate.
The Green New Deal and renewable energy is always a point of contention in politics, divided along partisan lines. Conservatives like Tucker Carlson cast doubt on investing in renewable energy by myopically focusing on short-run monetary costs. They do not consider the true value of avoiding natural disasters and the benefits society would gain by divesting from fossil fuels. Instead, renewable energy policy gets used as a political tool to paint climate change as a “liberal hoax.” Opponents should stop and ask themselves, why are natural disasters increasing in frequency and severity? The answer is climate change.
Texas was also hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, causing millions of dollars in damage. Beyond Texas, the United States has experienced numerous natural disasters, devastating various regions of the country in recent years. While climate change is not the only factor to consider, it does contribute to the severity of these disasters. As disasters become more severe, their economic toll increases, not only in monetary value, but also in the cost of human lives and wasted resources. How long can we continue to do damage control after the problem has occurred?
When looking at the impact of these natural disasters, a glaring commonality is evident: Texas, and the United States as a whole, is not prepared for the effects of climate change. We, as a nation, have failed to prepare for changes in our environment and if we do not change our behavior soon, we will have to get used to these crises. The devastation following Texas’s power grid failure as a result of extreme weather conditions is just one example of many that may come our way if we do not invest in preventative measures to mitigate the effects of climate change. It is time to drop the partisan politics and work towards creating a more sustainable environment.
Tiffany Fermin is a senior and Macaulay Honors scholar at Hunter College majoring in Economics and pursuing a certificate in Public Policy, with a double minor in Computer Science and Mathematics. In relation to public policy, she is interested in economic development, particularly in urban centers and developing nations, with the goal of advancing equity and efficiency. After graduation, Tiffany plans to pursue a Master’s in Economics in hopes of working in the field of economic development.
