Climate disaster: our next steps after Texas
DARIA FARMAN-FARMAIAN: Last week, my grandma was evacuated from her building in downtown Dallas and sent to live in a nearby hotel for the foreseeable future. Despite a recent hip surgery, she climbed nine flights to her room (which has sporadic electricity) because the elevator was not working. She had to leave her cat behind in her freezing, dark apartment.
The storm that uprooted my grandma’s life left millions of other Texans without electricity, power, heat and water. There have been hundreds of reported cases of carbon monoxide poisoning as people use generators for heat. People have lost their lives and their homes. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a political leader Texans should be able to turn towards in times of crisis, abandoned his constituents and sought shelter in Cancun.
Ironically, global warming may have caused these extremely cold temperatures. Though there is some dispute around the accuracy of climate models, a warming Arctic alongside unique Sudden Stratospheric Warming from the start of this year likely caused the cold jet stream winds which surround the polar vortex—a spinning mass of cold air—to weaken. As a result, the extremely cold polar vortex air drifted south to places like Texas where it has devastated vulnerable and unprepared U.S. communities.
Texas had no defense as it left electric infrastructure vulnerable despite warnings from scientists of future extreme temperature events. For decades, scientists have cautioned about the dangers of a warming planet which would cause unusual weather conditions. Ten years ago, energy regulators warned the state about its ill-prepared electric grid in the event of an unprecedented winter storm.
Still, the state was unprepared. The combination of low temperatures and Texas’ independent power grid alongside its lack of proper infrastructure has had devastating outcomes. Republicans, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott, blamed the frozen wind and solar energy sources. Despite these claims, clean energy only contributes a small amount to Texas’ energy supply. In fact, scientists argue that wind and solar energy were the best functioning sources of power throughout the cold period.
According to Daniel Cohan, associate professor of engineering at Rice University, while Texas’ clean energy was only a couple gigawatts behind expectations for a peak cold day, “The state had 25 gigawatts of outages at natural gas plants – more than double what grid operators thought possible.” Clean energy, though faulty, was significantly more reliable than fossil fuel energy.
Climate change is only going to make these events more likely and hazardous. White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall noted that this storm is a reminder of the dangers of climate change, which the U.S. is wildly unprepared to confront. Still, Republicans deny the effects of global warming in order to protect the economy, prioritizing low electricity prices over any measures to safeguard against predictable extreme weather events.
Renewable energy was clearly not to blame in this case. As evidenced by this recent devastation in Texas, we need a Green New Deal now more than ever to improve electric infrastructure, move away from fossil fuels, and transition to renewable energy. In the case of Texas, this would involve centralizing the state’s power grid in order to impose protective regulatory requirements on generating companies to prevent incidents like these from leaving millions without power and heat in dangerously cold temperatures
These actions extend far beyond Texas. Strengthening the electric grid across the entire U.S. by moving towards clean energy and localized energy production is critical to saving American lives and money. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in 2020 alone, the U.S. experienced 22 climate events that each cost more than $1 billion. In order to prevent more expensive climate disasters from occurring in the future, we need government action on climate and infrastructure now. Governor Greg Abbott is wrong when he claims that “Fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas.” With a humanitarian crisis unraveling before our eyes, business as usual will no longer stand. It is time to move forward boldly with a much-needed Green New Deal.
Daria Farman-Farmaian is a sophomore in Georgetown's School of Foreign Service from New York City. She is interested in global issues surrounding gender, climate change, human development and democracy.