‘They were not prepared’: After winter crisis, Texas will have to confront its energy, politics and culture
The historic storm and cascading disasters power and water shortages are forcing the state to take a hard look at its ideals and principles.
With temperatures already falling into the single digits homeless person sleeps in the doorway of the Majestic Theater as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
Like so many Texans, LaShonda McGrew spent most of Sunday dazzled by the rare blanket of snow that covered her suburban Fort Worth home. It was beautiful, she told her husband, as they spent the day listening to sermons, sitting next to the fire and preparing for the workweek.
Actual rotating outages could begin, full power restoration still not known, ERCOT says
Rotating outages across neighborhoods is the best-case scenario, ERCOT leaders say.
Power crews work in a darkened apartment complex after a second winter storm brought more snow and continued freezing temperatures, and continuing power outages, to North Texas on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021, in Richardson.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
The state’s power grid operators hoped rotating outages would actually begin by the end of Wednesday, calling it the “best case” so thousands of Texans aren’t shouldering entire outages.
That means some folks who held onto their power so far during the winter storm might have their electricity knocked out for short periods of time, while others might get stints of power, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Wednesday.
Abbott’s mixed messages on who’s to blame for Texas power woes ‘not useful’, communications experts say
Depending on the audience, the GOP governor cites frozen natural gas pipelines – or iced-up wind turbines.
Gov. Greg Abbott, shown at a press conference Wednesday, has been defending fossil fuel use. But his statements on Fox News Tuesday night that appeared to affix blame for Texas electricity outages on wind and solar have drawn fire as inaccurate, part of not useful messaging on the current weather crisis, communications experts said Wednesday.(screenshot NBC5)
AUSTIN One minute, Gov. Greg Abbott is blaming the woes of millions of power-deprived Texans on managers of the state’s electricity grid and the freezing of natural gas supplies and generators.
Texas’ electrical system was “seconds or minutes” from collapsing and plunging the state into the dark for months, the power grid’s operators said Thursday.