Unprepared for Unexpected Cold
Massive Power Outage Causes Gas Poisoning and Fires
Power Outage in Oil Field Area
Republican Governor Blames Renewable Energy
Actually, Independent Power Grid Prevents Support
Nuclear Plants Halted Due to Lack of Cold Weather Design
NBC "Warning Signal to Biden on Preparing Future with Renewable Energy"
[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] Although the cold wave that struck most of the United States has temporarily eased, controversy over the country's energy policy is spreading amid a situation where the death toll from the cold and power outages has reached 31.
Meanwhile, concerns are growing that the situation will worsen as a new snowstorm expands to the Southeast. The massive power outage that hit Texas could spread to other states.
This Texas cold wave and massive power outage have been evaluated as revealing how vulnerable humanity's energy supply is to unexpected abnormal weather.
◇Deaths surge as electricity is cut off= According to CNN on the 17th (local time), the number of deaths due to the record cold wave increased to at least 31 in eight states including Texas.
As power supply was cut off to millions of households due to the winter storm, residents shivering from the cold died one after another while trying to heat their homes. Carbon monoxide poisoning and fire accidents occurred repeatedly as people tried to heat using cars, propane gas, fireplaces, etc.
In Houston, two people died from carbon monoxide poisoning after leaving their vehicles running for a long time inside a garage. Also, unable to heat due to the power outage, a grandmother and three children died in a fire caused by lighting a fireplace. Homeless people froze to death on the streets, and falls on icy roads or car accidents on frozen roads also caused deaths.
The improvement of the power outage situation in Texas is not progressing quickly. According to CNN, the number of households affected by the Texas power outage, which reached 4.3 million the day before, decreased to 2.3 million as of 7 p.m. that day. Although the scale of the damage has decreased, many households still have no electricity supply, unable to heat and relying on blankets. Following electricity, disruptions in water and gas supply have also occurred, increasing residents' suffering.
◇Power grid falters...debate over causes of power outage= Criticism continues regarding the causes of the power outage caused by the cold wave. In Texas, following a power outage during the Super Bowl game in February 2013, various opinions have been presented about the cause of the recent power outage.
Greg Abbott, the Republican Governor of Texas, in an interview with conservative media Fox News, pointed to renewable energy as the cause of the power outage and criticized the Biden administration's Green New Deal policy. He criticized the Biden administration's climate change response policy based on the suspension of solar and wind power generation, which account for about 20% of Texas's power production.
On the other hand, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the Texas power grid, stated at a press conference that the main causes of the power outage were failures in natural gas, coal, and nuclear power plants. Governor Abbott's remarks rather put the Republican policies that have led Texas politics under scrutiny.
According to U.S. media such as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Texas is like an "island" in the U.S. power grid, so it cannot avoid responsibility for this incident. Texas's power grid is not interconnected with other states. Texas is a representative oil-producing region in the U.S. The deep-rooted Texas independence movement also encouraged the establishment of an independent power grid. As a result, even during the massive power outage, Texas could not interconnect power with other states, which is evaluated to have caused the power outage to spiral out of control.
Another reason cited for the power outage is the characteristic of being an oil-producing area. Texas supplies natural gas to major thermal power plants immediately according to demand rather than stockpiling it. According to fact-checks by ABC and others, the freezing of natural gas supply pipes during this cold wave was the reason thermal power generation could not resume.
One of the four nuclear power plants located in Texas also stopped operating due to the severe cold, which was a major cause of the power shortage.
However, the fact that solar and wind power generation, which account for 20% of power production, became useless due to this cold wave and snowfall warns of potential flaws in the renewable energy expansion policy. Texas boasts the largest wind power capacity in the U.S. at 16 GW. However, during this cold wave, it is reported that only about 6 GW of power was produced. Wind power plants also failed to operate properly during this cold wave.
U.S. NBC News diagnosed this power outage as a warning signal to the Biden administration preparing for a future where power supply is almost entirely from renewable energy.
President Biden signed an executive order in his second week in office to completely eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector by 2035.
NBC News argued that "wind and solar energy are 'intermittent' energy sources, heavily affected by weather changes and unable to produce power throughout the day," emphasizing the need to introduce strategic storage technologies such as batteries.
◇Another cold wave in Texas...expected to expand to the East= The snowstorm, which had temporarily subsided, has revived, raising concerns that cold wave damage could expand to the East.
On this day, the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) issued storm warnings for Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee for the next two days. The population of these areas reaches 100 million. The snowstorm is forecast to expand its strength to the East, including New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia on the 18th, raising concerns about nationwide cold wave damage.
WSJ warned that the new snowstorm poses another threat to those already suffering from the previous cold wave and snowfall, and that the currently vulnerable power situation could worsen again.
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