This past week millions of Texans experienced freezing temperatures with no power. This tragedy has left dozens dead, and the main issue that many are focusing on is the state's unpreparedness for a storm of this measure. However, many Republicans have turned to blame Democrat's push for green, renewable energy for this devastating emergency.
During the Uri storm, many windmills in Texas became frozen and consequently were unable to produce energy. Texas governor, Greg Abbott then used this crisis to demonize the Democratic party, saying, "This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America." The Green New Deal is a proposal for policy changes to prevent more climate change that is supported by many Democratic government officials. However, Texas's windmills are not to blame, as only 7% of the whole state's energy derives from renewable energy sources.
However, the main reason for the Texas power outage is who is in leadership and managing the other 93% of the state's power. A huge number of fossil fuel-powered plants froze and went offline during this crisis, and the main reason for this is because of how deregulated these plants are. To avoid being regulated by federal laws, the state's natural gas power plants went private, leading to a lack of funding, a lack of maintenance, and other factors. This storm was the final breaking point for these privatized power plants, and that showed when millions were stuck powerless in freezing temperatures.
Questions to consider:
1. What do you think about the Republican party using this very devastating week to push their political agenda?
2. What do you think Texas officials should do to be prepared for another possible circumstance like this?
source: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/texas-crisis-renewable-energy-1129045/
4 comments:
No surprise here that people blame only one side of such a serious problem like this. It seems that all energy projects were at fault--a “lack of maintenance” like you said. Along this trend of underpreparedness, I wonder if they could have averted this disaster if they stored more energy (just like solar panels store extra energy during the daytime for when the sun isn’t bright). Here, they should have had energy reserves. It’s obvious to be prepared for the worse: save food for a possible drought (this is a lesson even in the Bible), save money for a crisis, and save energy for a situation like this. What won’t fix it is blaming the whole of renewable energy and the Green New Deal on Texas’ special situation where a lack of preparedness costs lives. So often fatal events are used for political leverage and he-said-she-said arguments when the focus should be improving policy and using all available resources to fix the problem at hand. Perhaps these critics could use their valuable time not to criticize but to help their vulnerable populations.
Wow. It sure must be cold in Texas. They're probably not used to that. The cold in Texas has caused many problems as addressed in this blog post. It has been devastating, but the finger pointing is not unique to the Republicans. It seems like both sides have found ways to politicize this natural disaster to extract simple political wins from the complex problems. Its the same thing as with the California wildfires when democrats called it a result of global warming and republicans accused the rolling blackouts to be a result of renewable energy. To prepare for another circumstance like this, Texans should do the basic earthquake kit. Have some bottled water and food in the garage in case of an emergency. I don't think there is anything drastic texans need to do because another circumstance like this is unlikely. Weather as extreme as this only occurs around once in every 40 years. As of now it is safe to consider this an anomaly. If it were to happen again in the near future though, then it would be time to consider ways to prepare for these issues. Overall, it sounds like it is very cold in Texas, and I'm glad I am not there right now.
With all that is going on in Texas, it has been a little disheartening to see both parties use this situation as a way to further their political agenda. As Michael mentioned, finger pointing is not unique to the Republican party. As the Republican Party has used this catastrophe as a way to criticize the Democrat's proposed "Green New Deal" and push for more renewable energy, the Democrat party has also quickly emphasized Texas' deregulated economy, a Republican system, as the root of the energy failures in Texas. While I think that politicians should reference situations like these to point out the failures of their opponents or the successes of their own policies and I understand the importance of doing so, it feels like half of the news on Texas is focused on blaming others rather than covering the people.
While Michael said that he didn't think Texans need to do anything drastic to prepare for another situation like this labelling a repeat of this "unlikely," I have to disagree. Because of climate change, we have seen storms get progressively worse and summers get progressively hot and unbearable recently. Extreme weather has not been waiting "40 years," as Michael put it, to occur. Just look at the recent wildfires that have affected us. I do think that Texas will need to make a significant plan, especially regarding their energy plants and distribution, in order to prepare for the future unpredictable weather yet to come.
In any time of crisis, it has become almost "natural" to point fingers and try to find a single group/ person to place blame on. In reality, neither side of the political spectrum had any control over Texas' crazy weather, now unofficially called "Winter Storm Uri." Still, political groups find it easier to place blame for the overall power failure rather than put all efforts towards fixing or at least bettering the issue in the short term. As practically everyone saw and every news outlet covered, Senator Ted Cruz fled Texas during the height of the winter storm. While his actions do not reflect the entire Republican party or Texas politics, this very public action goes to show how sometimes politics can take the forefront in a humanitarian disaster. That should never be the case. As to address the second question on whether Texans are prepared for another winter storm/ similar crisis, I would be leaning towards no, at least for now. While there are now open investigations in the power failures, such as in Travis and Harris counties (Texas Tribune); these investigations do not necessarily mean Texas will be better prepared in the future. Hopefully these investigations will uncover the issues that led to such unprecedented black outs, and then actions will be made to fix them, but the investigation could again just place blame- thus not solving the issue. All in all, hopefully politicians can put their differences aside, not blame green energy and help the million Texans still struggling to recover from the Storm Uri.
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