Texas's power disaster is a warning sign for the US

Texas's power disaster is a warning sign for the US

America’s power grid is not ready.

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In February, extreme cold and an unusual winter storm left millions of Texans in the dark. Many went without power or water, in subzero temperatures, for nearly five days. It was a disaster; dozens died. But even though that storm hit much of the country, the power outages were mostly limited to Texas. That’s because Texas is on its own electrical grid, separate from the rest of the country, which means 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 last 30 years. But they 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.

Read more about what happened in Texas and about the US electrical grid: https://www.vox.com/22289517/texas-storm-uri-weather-power-outage-snow

And check out more coverage of the Texas power crisis from the Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/22/texas-power-grid-extreme-weather/

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50 Comments

  1. CallmeEpik on March 22, 2022 at 9:26 am

    i live in texas and the blizzard was a HUGE disaster our roads were frozen over so cars had to drive slower and the toilets did not work because we had no water so we had to melt snow and when we were done using the restroom we had to dump the water inside of the toilet making it flush at some point our power went back on for i think 30 minutes or 2 hours but then after that we had no power again then a day later i woke up to see my internet router working and our power was back pretty amazing experience gonna tell my kids about that lol

  2. jking on March 22, 2022 at 9:27 am

    Climate changes is not real

  3. Paul Mezei on March 22, 2022 at 9:27 am

    liberal

  4. Rose Phoenix on March 22, 2022 at 9:28 am

    Oh one more thing for everyone. You forgot something about it that I forgot something about it to tell you about it it’s like a ticking time-bomb at that it’s going to get it ready to explode from different seasons that will come because the damage is already done

  5. All Glory To YHWH on March 22, 2022 at 9:28 am

    So, if somewhere as warm as Texas can experience sub zero temps, can this explain seasonal freezes in other place that recieve the sun in equal amount.

    Could winter just be an increase in cold winds, and we are still recieving the same amount of sun.

    Or is it just another man made problem

  6. Meztizo_Americano on March 22, 2022 at 9:29 am

    Texas has enough money to be its own country but yet it couldn’t spend 20 million dollars to fix and update its power grid. its gdp was over 1.5 trillion in 2020

  7. Eavy Eavy on March 22, 2022 at 9:34 am

    Texas power outage because Right companies want money. As excuse according to conservatives, government regulation is socialism.
    Yet they question why richer left doesnt have power outage

  8. Chris on March 22, 2022 at 9:34 am

    I experienced this and I thought it wasn’t that until I saw this.

  9. Galfin SP on March 22, 2022 at 9:35 am

    In the smallest suprise, if you look at the loss grid shown at the beginning, it seems to correlate with the grid systems.

  10. Night Wing on March 22, 2022 at 9:37 am

    Remember this in Texas 2022 Governor Race

  11. Ramen Guy(Teuchi) on March 22, 2022 at 9:39 am

    Since my dad is mexican we ofc found a way to get power through a generator we had. Literally had wires and 3 laptops in the kitchen everywhere.

  12. Angel of Justice on March 22, 2022 at 9:43 am

    Texas has a worst power grids in the US, seem like living in third world countries. I bet that the rich people and oil moguls they must have their own generators, they don’t even care

  13. Steven C Merriam on March 22, 2022 at 9:44 am

    Texas brought this on themselves.

  14. Vox on March 22, 2022 at 9:44 am

    One proposal for fixing the US grid: weave the divided power systems into a single national power grid. One study suggests it could save consumers as much as $47.2 billion a year through increased efficiency and cheaper renewable energy. Read more on Vox: http://bit.ly/30duu7d

  15. Phoenix bock on March 22, 2022 at 9:45 am

    As a Canadian hearing about -15c sounds like a great day for skiing

  16. David Anthony on March 22, 2022 at 9:47 am

    Who cares

  17. YouKrazyDirt GT on March 22, 2022 at 9:47 am

    5 Days no power? Ow, but for me, a victim of Typhoon Rai, yeah 1 month no power

  18. Chase Haberichter on March 22, 2022 at 9:48 am

    It’s because wind turbines and solar panels couldn’t keep up.nuclear>anyother power source

  19. Isochest on March 22, 2022 at 9:49 am

    If I lived in Texas I would have bought a solar array and back up battery. I am sure when the outage was about to happen prices would have been astronomical

  20. darexinfinity on March 22, 2022 at 9:50 am

    "But taxes!"

  21. Lee1234 on March 22, 2022 at 9:50 am

    Was the billion dollar disaster cost adjusted with inflation?

  22. detergent dave20 on March 22, 2022 at 9:51 am

    Texas should of learn from its last year winter but this year they have stuff to prepare for us Texas s god bless the people in texas

  23. Dan the man on March 22, 2022 at 9:54 am

    My entire town in Mississippi went out we are ran by the Texas grid like a few towns in Louisiana and Mississippi we are "unincorporated" which means we don’t really exist and Texas was kind enough to share their grid with us

  24. David Moore on March 22, 2022 at 9:55 am

    Well done Vox

  25. Jolyon Welsh on March 22, 2022 at 9:57 am

    This is what I want.

  26. RcMaggie on March 22, 2022 at 9:59 am

    We China had power disaster in North Eastern China too, and our grids are national-owned, still got bad

  27. Van Frank on March 22, 2022 at 10:02 am

    why does youtube delete comments?

  28. Angel of Justice on March 22, 2022 at 10:03 am

    Texas has a worst power grids in the US, seem like living in third world countries. I bet that the rich people and oil moguls they must have their own generators, they don’t even care

  29. Brad Pitts on March 22, 2022 at 10:04 am

    I think big tec had alot to do with it..arm stronging

  30. Hydro Aegis on March 22, 2022 at 10:07 am

    Wake up calls are inevitable because successful preemption isn’t publicly visible. It just continues the "same old" further.

  31. Ellen Chavez on March 22, 2022 at 10:08 am

    Texans had exactly what they voted for:
    – No federal regs on preparation for extremes in climate, which means
    – Minimum standards for equipment, and
    – Charging based on utilization, with higher rates for overuse (a nod to conservation).
    – Add to that minimum housing codes which don’t require much insulation ( why insulate against extreme heat or cold), and there you are.

    Texans living the dream and didn’t even know it.

  32. FacepalmDaily on March 22, 2022 at 10:08 am

    In Corpus Christi, AEP notified us of "rolling blackouts" then they shut off power to all the lower middle income and poor neighborhoods and left them off for the duration. I drove around town and saw lights and power in all the commercial and upper class neighborhoods and complete darkness in almost every single poor neighborhood. The only lower end neighborhoods that still had power were the houses that were on the same grid as the hospitals.

    Instead of everyone sharing the burden, AEP stood up like the senate in Mel Brooks History of the World and yelled "F*** the poor!"

  33. Crossman blue V on March 22, 2022 at 10:10 am

    No it doesn’t, weather can’t be predictable, you just can create a new plan after something bad happen .🤨👎🏾
    Thanks for nothing

  34. Randy Allan on March 22, 2022 at 10:13 am

    But only Texas, Is not connected to the grid, East or west

  35. Rose A on March 22, 2022 at 10:13 am

    No power and no fireplace. I really was afraid we weren’t going to make it through the night.

  36. MoonApple on March 22, 2022 at 10:14 am

    Texas: panik, no power, 10 degrees
    North Dakota: -45 degrees wind chill, kalm

  37. Meztizo_Americano on March 22, 2022 at 10:15 am

    I would have got all my blankets and huddled up with everyone in the house and kept my winter clothes on until the power was fixed. I have buckets in my shed and I would have used one for waste and another one for water. I would have used my charcoal grill as a fire pit in my back yard.
    Sometimes you have to let your survivor mode kick in.

  38. William Thomson on March 22, 2022 at 10:15 am

    Things weren’t that good this February either Greg Abbott didn’t fix anything Almost 80,000 Texans lost power in 2022 How about we like the guy who’s going to do something about that

  39. Carmencita Davis on March 22, 2022 at 10:16 am

    Texas did not want to share the grid with other states to share the electricity that’s why they put a lot of their residents in that state in danger when the snow storm hit because they assumed nothing like that would ever happen to their state because it’s known as a hot state that’s why they were never prepared for anything like this

  40. Conor O Brien on March 22, 2022 at 10:20 am

    Maybe in the near future with the advances in technology every home will become self sufficient in providing their own power. For instance heat pumps have completely cut the link between needing fossil fuels to heat your home. They are very popular in Europe.

  41. Mark Greiser on March 22, 2022 at 10:20 am

    It was a warning not to trust the dependability , of "Renewable" Energy. It wasn’t sustainable. It also showed that we need to make sure there is oversight , on the Utility Boards.

  42. Leland Ranger on March 22, 2022 at 10:20 am

    -16 is dangerously low??? Well SO Ontario got sumn to say😂😂😂

  43. Surjan Rai on March 22, 2022 at 10:20 am

    Remembering watching this for the first time and boom now it’s almost an year to this 🤯

  44. Deadbeat Gamers on March 22, 2022 at 10:21 am

    👎

  45. Adam J. on March 22, 2022 at 10:23 am

    I live in San Antonio but I’m originally from Washington DC. I remember getting 27” of snow from one single storm on December 20, 2009 back in DC. It was the worst winter storm I had ever experienced. After all, the largest amount of snow I had seen before that was about 8”, because that’s all climatology would support during the winter months for my region. I’ve lived in Texas for nine years now and even though we received two snow storms within five days, totaling about 11” of snow, this was by far the worst week of my life and the worst winter storm I have ever experienced, greatly surpassing the storm in 2009. One might have a hard time understanding because surely 27 inches is a lot more than two 6” snowstorms. But it was the fact that I witnessed my city and basically my whole state crumble around me. the way people were reacting, how we were so unprepared, how cold it got, the lengths we had to go to to survive, etc. this was CRIPPLING.

  46. Al Fazri on March 22, 2022 at 10:23 am

    Meanwhile Ted Cruz :
    Cancun goes brrrrrrr

  47. tom roberson on March 22, 2022 at 10:24 am

    Texas is not connected to the US electrical grid,,, They got what they want… do your homework, their choice to be off the grid doesn’t affect anyone but themselves

  48. 3 on March 22, 2022 at 10:25 am

    It’s like the DC-10 cargo door fiasco. A warning was issued before disaster struck but nothing was done to stop it.

  49. Saturnusplanetkraft on March 22, 2022 at 10:25 am

    Learn from us in the north about how to be prepared. During that same time here was -40 and life carried on as normal.

  50. The Melon Man on March 22, 2022 at 10:26 am

    We’re supposed to get snow tonight. Wish us luck.

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