In February, extreme cold and an unusual winter storm left millions of Texans in the dark. But it didn’t have to.
Texas’s power disaster is a warning sign for the US
America’s power grid is not ready.
Many Texans went without power or water in subzero temperatures for nearly five days. Americans in neighboring states like Oklahoma had minor disruptions like rolling blackouts, but nothing like what Texans experienced. That’s because Texas is on its own electrical grid, separate from the rest of the country, so it can’t easily get power from other states in an emergency.
But Texas’s grid itself is not what failed. Power went out across Texas in the first place because energy sources across the state were unprepared for severe weather. And that didn’t have to happen; Texas had been warned about this exact scenario and had actually experienced versions of it twice in the past 30 years. But the state didn’t prepare.
Now the rest of the US faces the same issue. Climate change is making severe weather disasters more and more frequent. And the American energy system is not ready for it.
Watch the video above to learn more about what happened in Texas and why it should be a warning sign for the rest of the United States.
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