"State officials’ repeated failure to act on deeply researched advice for averting grid catastrophes paralleled Texas’ years-long non-response to experts’ warnings about the dangers of climate change."
"Evidence of disaster lay across much of a state in shock: snow, ice, and single-digit cold. But the real proof huddled behind closed doors: millions without electricity and therefore without heat, some in grave danger, some desperately seeking warmth in their running cars only to die from carbon monoxide poisoning.
At the worst, about 4 million households, businesses, and institutions, most in the biggest metro areas, were in the cold and dark. Water failed, too, as pipes and mains burst, and treatment and pumping stations lost power. Whole cities were under boil-water orders. Some places, such as data centers, could not get diesel for backup generators.
In the language of law, what happened was a force majeure, an unpredictable, unavoidable “act of God.”
But it wasn’t. The collapse of Texas was more a result of habitual neglect, the predictable – predicted – consequence of a catastrophic failure to heed a plain warning a decade ago."
Randy Lee Loftis reports for Texas Climate News February 20, 2021.
SEE ALSO:
"Texas Grid Crisis Exposes Environmental Justice Rifts" (E&E News)
"Living With Yesterday’s Tech, Built for Last Century’s Climate" (Bloomberg Green)
"After Texas Crisis, Biden’s Climate Plan Hangs on Fragile Power Grid" (Bloomberg Green)
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