But when cold weather hit Texas, America’s famous independent southern state, early news of snow and ice quickly evaporated. With temperatures in the low teens, the state has seen this, despite the dominant energy sector reversals of rolled revolutions into a prolonged eclipse that left more than 4 million people in darkness and cold.
For many, it was shocking to see one of the richer American states experience such conditions. Nebraska Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, whose state she saw smaller volume energy problems, he said it was “unacceptable” to have less and less blackouts in this country. “I mean, this is the United States. We are not a developing country, ”Ricketts said he told KETV News in Omaha.
Some, however, have suggested that this is not a foreign problem but a symptom of markedly Texas weakness. “Occasionally, something will happen in Texas to remind people who live here that we live in a failed state,” Samantha Grasso wrote. for a discourse blog, adding that leaders felt that “it is more important to prioritize short-term profits than to invest in people for long-term profits.”
Broadcast around the world, the scenes in Texas are another blow to the American global picture, already tainted by the January 6 pandemic and uprising. But there may be lessons for everyone about what’s going on with Lone Star State – and a warning to anyone not ready for climate change.
At this stage, it is difficult to give a simple answer as to why the energy-producing state has so quickly turned into a blackout belt. Some Republicans in Texas have already pointed to the transition to renewable energy, saying wind turbines in the state have failed due to icy conditions.
“Texas’s biggest mistake was learning too many lessons from renewables in California,” said spokesman Den Crenshaw (R-Tex.) Tuesday. Experts, however, noted that Texas was only receiving 10 percent of your energy from wind turbines.
More importantly, wind turbines can operate in the cold. In Germany, where temperatures become very low and wind energy generates almost a third of all energy consumed during first half of last year, blackouts are rare. There are functional wind turbines in cold climates, including Alaska, Greenland and Siberia.
Within the Arctic Circle there are turbines that can be worked on temperatures down to -22 degrees Fahrenheit. Newer wind turbine models have carbon fiber attached to the wings, allowing them to heat automatically in cold weather.
Texas doesn’t use these models for an obvious reason: It’s usually not that cold. What happened this week is really unusual. On Monday, the temperature in Dallas was the highest 14 degrees, about 50 degrees lower than normal for February. Experts have attributed this time to a mass of cold air from the Arctic.
Texas, a state where many are proud of low taxes and a small government, did not plan a sudden cooling in the budget. But this was not only felt in renewable energy sources. Jinjoo Lee u remarked the Wall Street Journal that the supply of electricity to natural gas and coal has not fully overwintered, while the market-driven network approach, known as the Texas Electricity Reliability Council, offers little incentive for excess electricity generation.
In another useless hassle, the Texas power grid has only a minimal connection to the two major power grids of the United States. The move, designed to bypass federal surveillance, also makes it difficult to supply neighbors with electricity.
Some experts say that greater disinvestment has hit the American electricity generation sector. Edward Hirs, an energy associate at the University of Houston, he told the Washington Post this week that it reminded him of the last days of the Soviet Union or today’s Venezuelan oil sector. “They hate it when I say that,” he said.
Texas is not alone in facing these problems. Fourteen states in Southwest power pool, which includes small parts of Texas, disappeared this week due to cold weather. There were major concerns in Europe last month about electricity supply, including countries France asks consumers to limit their use during cold firing.
And problems do not arise only when mercury decreases. Last year, California suffered a rolling blackout over the summer as demand increased amid the heat. Even without a power outage, high temperatures can be extremely dangerous: nearly 1,500 died in France during the heat of 2019. according to some estimates.
We usually think of climate change in terms of warmer weather, not the winter storms seen this week. But science is more complex than that: as Tom Niziol wrote for the Capital Weather Gang, some research suggests that the melting of sea ice in the Arctic could be responsible for disturbed weather patterns in the northern hemisphere.
Scientists expect more cold weather to come. “We used to not worry too much about such extreme cold weather in places like Texas, but in the future we probably have to prepare for more,” said Le Xie, a professor of electrical engineering and computer engineering at Texas A&M University. Texas Tribune. “We will have more extreme weather conditions across the country.”
It is understandable that Texas is unable to maintain power during the winter storm. But many regions must now prepare for the unexpected. In Siberia, where strength remains in far more extreme cold strikes, record heat waves led to alarming forest fires in recent years and destabilized buildings built on the thawing of permafrost.
Preparing for this new age of climate unpredictability will not be fun. But the pandemic showed madness that it did not prepare for an unexpected crisis. Like Sam White, a professor of history at Ohio State University, recorded last year about the economic woes it caused coronavirus: “Historically, people have not had the luxury of dealing with their disasters at once.”
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