The winter storm that swept through Texas this week produced one of the coldest temperature snaps in a generation. By Thursday statewide power outages had left 4 million people stranded in Arctic conditions, with rolling blackouts to share what little electricity remained. Although scheduled to last less than an hour, the blackouts frequently lasted for more than a day. When power returned other problems arose. Frozen wells and fractured water mains produced an acute shortage of drinkable water which left the state’s already overwhelmed hospitals in crisis. As the weekend neared, some 13 million Texans were still being advised to boil their water.
Six out of ten Texans heat their houses with electricity, so the grid’s failure produced an immediate political squabble. Debate raged over whether the blame should fall on renewable energy sources — windmills and solar panels – or on systemic problems caused by aggressive deregulation. While the proximate cause of the failures was a shortfall in all power sources – even one of the state’s nuclear power reactors went offline – the larger problem seems to be the state’s market-driven policy which relies too heavily on “just in time” supply for its needs. By prioritizing private profits over a reliable grid, Texas had no viable backup plan when it faced a predictable, climate-related winter storm.
In Jacobin magazine, Fred Stafford analyses the overcomplicated system that deregulation produced: “Instead of state agencies regulating the business of monopoly utilities in a centralized manner, deregulated grids create a series of perpetual auctions running across the country.” Confronted with temporary chaos, the regional transmission organizations (RTOs) which endlessly arbitrage these markets could not function adequately. In other words, as New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie argues, the disaster in Texas is “the fruit of policy, of specific choices made by lawmakers in Texas” even though the issue has been subsumed by a culture war in which Democrats blame heartless Republicans who, in turn, denounce a potential Green New Deal.
One of the less lamented victims of the political fallout has been Senator Ted Cruz. His decampment to Cancún, ostensibly for a holiday, has been widely mocked with the hashtags #FlyingTed and #FledCruz. According to the New York Times, Cruz told reporters at Cancún airport that “What’s happening in Texas is unacceptable,” He made this observation, the Times wryly notes: “wearing a Texas state flag mask and a short-sleeved polo shirt tucked into his jeans; the temperature in Cancún was above 80 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday, and in the 30s in Houston.”
However satisfying Cruz’s comeuppance may be, his hypocrisy is beside the point. The underlying causes of the current disaster – which has caused 30 deaths and 80 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, as Texans desperately used cars to provide warmth – cannot be attributed to a few men. As Stafford points out the current crisis is likely to be repeated: “With wholesale electricity prices hovering at the $9000/MWh maximum price, about three hundred times the normal price, scarcity of life’s necessities means scarcity [of] price signals to encourage future investment … [with] average prices far lower due to increasing gas and wind, it’s not economical for private plant owners to weatherize their plants better.” In simpler terms, unless and until these incentives change, similar disasters are inevitable.
In an age of worsening climate crises, the failures that have embarrassed Texas are bound to recur elsewhere. In tropical countries they may happen when flood defences, roads, water mains or other critical infrastructure are poorly constructed, or managed, so that private contractors can make more money.
It has often happened and will continue to happen wherever the public interest is surrendered to the profit motive. So while other parts of the world may marvel at the sight of this mighty state temporarily humbled, they should immediately consider their own governments’ preparedness for the escalating climate-driven crises that will eventually confront us all.
