Lessons from the Texas big freeze - China Dialogue chinadialogue.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chinadialogue.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is widening his investigation of price spikes during a deadly winter storm last month to include a signature piece of the state's energy industry: natural gas.
Texas freeze – Rich get richer, workers suffer
By Mirinda Crissman posted on February 23, 2021
Houston
An unprecedented winter storm hit Texas Feb. 15, bringing subfreezing temperatures. One week later, huge sections of the population are still without power, heat and/or water.
Houston skyline glows, while millions suffer subfreezing temperatures without heat or water amidst preventable power outages, Feb. 15
Across major cities such as Houston, Austin and San Antonio empty corporate skyscrapers remained lit, while millions were in the dark with no power or running water. It took public outcry to make officials power down buildings not in use and divert energy to hospitals and firefighters.
The natural gas storage report from the EIA for the week ending February 12th indicated that the amount of natural gas held in underground storage in the US fell by 237 billion cubic feet to 2,281 billion cubic feet by the end of the week, which left our gas supplies 105 billion cubic feet, or 4.4% below the 2,386 billion cubic feet that were in storage on February 12th of last year, but 57 billion cubic feet, or 2.6% above the five-year average of 2,224 billion cubic feet of natural gas that have been in storage as of the 12th of February in recent years..the 237 billion cubic feet that were drawn out of US natural gas storage this week was less than the average forecast of a 251 billion cubic foot withdrawal from an S&P Global Platts survey of analysts, but much more than the 141 billion cubic foot withdrawal from natural gas storage seen during the corresponding week of a year earlier, as well as the average withdrawal of 142 billion cubic feet of natural gas that have typically b
Half of Texas without clean water as state and federal governments look the other way
More than 14.6 million Texans, about half of the population of the state, remained under a boil-water advisory Friday, according to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokeswoman Tiffany Young. This encompasses more than 1,225 water supply systems and 63 percent of Texas counties following the record winter storm which hit the state last weekend.
People wait in line to fill propane tanks Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
In a press conference Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros stated that “we know that there are tens of thousands of leaks,” and that the Austin Fire Department responded to “thousands upon thousands of burst pipes.” In Houston, the fire department received almost 5,000 reports of burst pipes.