Winter Storm Uri has wreaked havoc over large swathes of the “Lower 48” states of contiguous America between 13 and 17 February 2021, only to be followed by Winter Storm Viola from 17 February onwards. The combination of freezing air, ice and snow has had a particularly devastating impact on the southern states of the US, especially Texas. Within Texas, up to four million people at one time were forced to cope without heating, lighting, and running water, during one of the coldest winters on record. Most homes in the state are unfortunately not insulated against the cold and people had to resort to unorthodox and unsafe means of keeping warm indoors, leading to a spate of cases of carbon monoxide poisoning. Water pipes froze and burst, causing flooding and creating water shortages. Food supplies dwindled, and long queues formed at grocery stores. The roads became potential death traps, and there were many collisions and pileups, while many cars were left stranded. All this came at a time of an ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, disrupting the power supply to vaccine storage facilities and further delaying the mass vaccination programme.
Much attention has focused on the particularly dire situation in Texas, the so-called “energy capital of North America”. Texas is uniquely served by its own power transmission grid, while the remaining 47 contiguous states share the Eastern and Western Interconnections. The Texas Interconnection provides about 90 per cent of the state’s power supply, apart from parts of west Texas (El Paso area), the northern Panhandle, and a section east of Houston. The Texas grid is regulated by ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas), which is described as an independent non-profit agency which dates back to 1970.
The Texas power grid failure can be linked to the state’s desire for energy independence, backed up by its rich coal, natural gas and oil reserves, and “secessionist” trends, which are nothing but an exaggerated version of prioritising states’ rights over perceived threats from the expansion of federal regulation and oversight. Thus, when President Roosevelt signed the Federal Power Act 1935 into law, Texas, which was at the time a Democratic stronghold, chose to stay free of the tentacles of the Federal Power Commission (now the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). Confining the grid within the borders of Texas, thereby not having to cross interstate lines, made it possible to bypass federal regulation. This distaste for regulation grew stronger under Republican leadership, leading to the passage of Senate Bill 7 on January 1 2002. This bill deregulated the electricity industry, introducing a competitive pricing market and creating Texas Electric Choice. This gave consumers the power to choose their own retail electric provider and, in doing so, to shop around to lower their electricity costs.
Storm Uri struck a major blow to this deregulated state of affairs. To understand what went wrong, we must go back to the very basics. In an interview with ABC News on 17 February, Bill Magness, the beleaguered President and CEO of ERCOT, repeatedly referred to a mismatch between supply and demand. The winter storm had created unprecedented surge in demand for power, which had then rapidly overcome all available sources of energy. The immediate response was to spread out the pain by rolling out blackouts between different regions, in an attempt to curb demand while supply struggled to catch up.
Energy in Texas is supplied by both renewable and non-renewable sources. Non-renewable sources predominate, with around 47 per cent of power being provided by natural gas, and 31 per cent by coal and nuclear energy. Wind turbines and solar power only account for around 21 per cent, despite allegations by some conservatives that failures in renewable energy sources were largely to blame. To complicate matters, the dominant natural gas industry depends on electrically powered compression, pumping, and processing equipment to enable the delivery of gas to consumers. A lack of electricity thus further compromises the supply of natural gas.
Infrastructure failures contributed to the failure to step up power supplies, and were foreseeable, as power generation facilities, pipelines and wind turbines froze and were rendered ineffective. Following the Southwest Cold Weather Event of 1-5 February 2011, a federal report (FERC/NERC Report of August 2011) recommended better “winterization” of power generating and transmitting facilities. Increased reserve margins of stored power supply to increase resilience, and the fine-tuning of supply and demand through a smarter grid, are also among the solutions to be considered in the future. The suspicion is, however. that hitherto privatised energy utilities, driven by a desire to increase profits and maximize shareholder returns, may have chosen not to invest in infrastructure improvements for which they saw little need.
President Biden has declared a federal emergency in the state of Texas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has mobilised its resources, delivering generators, fuel, prepared meals, bottled water, blankets and other essentials. This immediate response is vital, but longer-term responses aimed at cleaning up energy sources cannot be ignored or actively rejected in favour of short-term commercial considerations. There is no escaping the reality that extreme cold weather events are an inevitable, although less intuitive, part of global warming and are a likely consequence of rapid warming in the Arctic.
It seems more than likely that the energy utilities and regulator in the state of Texas were caught unprepared when the winter storms arrived. The citizens of Texas have taken a direct hit as a result of their lack of contingency planning and have been subjected to the most unimaginable tribulations. All our sympathies must go to the victims in these dark times. In the background, however, the unpleasant reality is that, instead of analysing and then addressing the underlying issues, conservatives and liberals will use the events to engage in more pointless partisan point-scoring. Whether the 254 counties of Texas will be more prepared for the next event, whenever it may happen, remains a matter for conjecture.
Ashis Banerjee