America's power grid is not ready.
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In February, extreme cold and an unusual winter storm left millions of Texans in the dark. Many went without power or water, in subzero temperatures, for nearly five days. It was a disaster; dozens died. But even though that storm hit much of the country, the power outages were mostly limited to Texas. That’s because Texas is on its own electrical grid, separate from the rest of the country, which means it can’t easily get power from other states in an emergency.
But Texas's grid itself is not what failed. Power went out across Texas in the first place because energy sources across the state were unprepared for severe weather. And that didn’t have to happen; Texas had been warned about this exact scenario, and had actually experienced versions of it twice in the last 30 years. But they didn’t prepare.
Now the rest of the US faces the same issue. Climate change is making severe weather disasters more and more frequent. And the American energy system is not ready for it.
Read more about what happened in Texas and about the US electrical grid: www.vox.com/22289517/texas-storm-uri-weather-power-outage-snow
And check out more coverage of the Texas power crisis from the Texas Tribune: www.texastribune.org/2021/02/22/texas-power-grid-extreme-weather/
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One proposal for fixing the US grid: weave the divided power systems into a single national power grid. One study suggests it could save consumers as much as $47.2 billion a year through increased efficiency and cheaper renewable energy. Read more on Vox: bit.ly/30duu7d
Yeah and in California they shut off your power in the summer on purpose.
@Soaring Wings Second Stage The storm and failures to plan were an attempt to prevent an illegal and traitorous secession effort? Sure, makes sense - Texas is great.
I live 2 miles from a nuclear power plant south of Fort Worth so I had power
This wouldn't work. Need to de-centralize. 100 grids would be better. Solar and wind failed.
Good plan but we should note that a good load of politicians focus on their allies needs, so it’s extremely unlikely this’ll occur unfortunatly
I life in Texas
Send this to every right and centrist person who thinks Bidens infrastructure bill is too much or just right - it isn't even close to being enough.
I was in Texas during the winter storm I nearly lost power for 5 days it was like bad so I went to my aunt home because she had power so yea it was bad for me winter storm
As a Scandinavian, it blows my mind how a state in the US cant handle cold weathers, as this country is so powerful and stuff. Even the best can make big mistakes.
If Donald Trump was president the Power wouldn't have been limited by the green deal.
the government commission shut it down due to the new green deal that biden signed as an executive order his first day. Texas can produce enough energy for the Entire World easily but the government shut it down.
@pierocks45 you're probably a devil worshiper
@pierocks45 Yes, Do you have a brain? You're the government, How do you fix it so that there will never be a power outage again? go. You won't answer cause you know that it's political and all the grids are under Federal Regulation.
do you have a brain?
Schlüsselindustrien enteignen!
Good thing we had the better idea because we had food and water
Texans was killed by Texans because they wanted to save money for their power grid and enrich the already rich. Don't whitewash it. You had 50 years of warnings. again and again now people died. if you're reading this congratulations you were either lucky or rich enough to avoid dying.
But when you think about it Texas maybe the safest state in terms of energy. It may suffer occasionally like this but if something was to hit those huge power grids in the east and west, it possible all major cities would be affected except in Texas.
Business needs to stop putting profit over life. Never forget how valuable YOU are. If you do something right from the start there wouldn’t be problems.
In the map they show in the beginning, New York and New Jersey are merged
The experiment in privatization has failed.
interesting how vox decided to not include that texas submitted a request to the EPA to increase power output for this storm before the fact but it was denied by the federal government
Wow it looks like the climate is changing🧐 It’s not gonna matter when half the world is under water and everybody has to find a new place to live or worse. Hopefully not
there has been a literal power outage in California and I am scared.
Am I the only one that noticed that Vox spelled the video wrong? Feel like it should be Texas' instead of Texas's.
Texas: *Im so not used to this i think i need more Help, we arent used to Winter* Russia, Canada, and Nordic countries: *AMATUERS*
The evil people left there most helpful state astray. They do not gaf about us.
i feel like the planned parenthood building is atracting catastrophes upon texas, dont see a bright future to the land.
And yall want electric cars💀
Let's start our own country and have no problems at all 🙂
But how are we going to pay for it if we need the money to bomb Syria.
Texas: makes it impossible for the federal government to help Them Also Texas when the federal government doesnt help Them: suprised Pikachu face
I’m from Dallas and this winter storm was 100x worse than covid ever was here
The Mighty Morphin Texas Ranger should do something about it
As someone who lives in the Caribbean, it's so interesting that you guys called 5 C warm 😂
Preparing for unpredictable and infrequent events? What do you wanna be Germans now!
The U.S Government is not obligated to save you. Become a Prepper Today!
can you make a documentary about whats being done to fix this or is nothing being done?
The rest of the United States maintained our grids, updating them as needed. They say not to mess with Texas. Turns out it's because they are about as tough as tissue paper down there.
😂
A once in a 30 year event happens and you blame the power grid for something that doesn't happen almost ever. The grid is built for peak summer time output not winter time and it 's not supposed to be winterized.
This was very interesting. The winter storm that affected Texas has affected the automotive industry as well. Since the factories can't run as normal, parts necessary to assemble vehicles can't be delivered. As a result the other companies have to reduce their production &/or workforce. It is basically a ripple effect.
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The lone wolf dies and only the pack survives.
So where the government is going to get this money to rebuild our power grid and infrastructure? Our debt now exceeds GDP. This shows how inept the government is in meeting the needs of the people. When the grid is eventually rebuilt, expect a lot of excess, inefficiencies, politicing, and corruption.
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When you wanna be in your own world, and suddenly your world is hit with a disaster - it’s your own problem son!
so why do we accept refugees? its not our problem like how you said. California tried to secede but they have tons of wildfires monthly. According to you its not our problem.
Republicans: dur dur dur it really cold for 7 days in texas so climate change a hoax, also it wind mill fault cause mill blow up when get cold
They are not used to the cold
The managers of the electric companies have all kinds of emergency equipment installed with their huge salaries. For them.. Not for you, suckers..
As a Canadian, when I first saw Texas I was like "Oh! How pretty!"
based
I didn't have power for three days, it was so shocking (but not surprising) to learn how much of Texas is behind just to make money for already wealthy people. I lost all my plants, my beloved dog... It was so depressing. I'm from a place where summers hit triple digits normally, I know
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Texas should just be it’s own country at this point 😒
_“Corona doesn't break the system; Corona exposed a broken system.”_ likewise... _“The snowstorm doesn't break the system; the snowstorm exposed a broken system.”_
What does likewise mean? I know i can ask google but her answers are different
Every time Biden picks up a pen he destroys more of the U.S haha. You get what you vote for
I lost power because I am in Texas
Ha we Canadians run better in the cold
To tell me why I don’t live in Texas but still lost power
If the us was smart they would start finding ways to keep up after this big lose
Excellent. But is anybody listening?
PRO TIP for future blizzards and freezes: Before the cold hits, shut off your home's water system. Map out your house's water pipelines and make sure you leave at least one or two water faucets trickling. When the freeze rolls over, slowly open your water main and pay attention to your walls and ceilings where the water pipes run. If you notice any leaks or dark spots appearing on your walls, shot off your water and fix it.
Good tips and always prudent steps but folks seem to be waiting for someone else to take those precautions.
God Bless Generac, Largest distributor is in Houston.
Texas well most of Texas is pretty dum no cap no cap
Even the electrical supply in the US is Just old and a Joke. In Germany a normal Winter night is - 10 °c ( dont know what that in Fahrenheit is, noone uses that exept the US ) and Not one country in Europe has These Problems. The US hat enough time to prepare . But they need to Pay there Money for some new Fighter plane
As a Canadian, when I first saw Texas I was like "Oh! How pretty!"
i wanna go hoooooooooome i wanna go hoome! -sandy cheeks
i live in texas and i lost power for a day! and i wont lie it was not fun at all, as soon as the heater in my house had stopped working it got cold with in a few hours it was way below freezing in my town!, my grandmothers pipes busted thankfully it wasn't bad me and my dad got it repaired fast, after that power had come back on and would go out again, and it would do that for 2 days before we deemed it safe to restore our computers!. I will say that it can get cold out here in texas at the normal for my area, it can get down to 32f!, and in the past its got down to 20f before and our grid stayed online, but this last freeze we had was different it hit so fast and hard the grid just couldn't take it!, sorry for the long comment i wanted to share my story of the lone star black out!
Shoutout to Nissan of McKinney lol
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texas.. home of Enron and the great 2021 power failure. The energy state!
Vox, is that graph at 5:30 taking inflation into account? Like is that all in current USD?
In America, as long as something isn't worth it for large companies, it won't happen.
Shouldn't have voted for Conservatives 😂 Bonk!
I'm a Texan. Was here in 1989 don't remember anyone we knew losing power like this. After surviving this I just want to know what's going to be done about it. Some died, some barely made it. Some are elderly or sick. Some of us can't afford another storm like this. They want to raise the electricity bills on people already stretched. Some of these people can't afford a decent generator. By the grace of God did my family only lose electricity. If we had lost water or had a pipe burst ....I don't even want to know. If you made it without both much love and respect to you. I pray I never forget this but I want to do something about it.
the government shut it down due to the new green deal that biden signed as an executive order his first day. Texas can produce enough energy for the Entire World easily but the government shut it down. If Trump was President that volatile weather wouldn't have happened first of all but if it had, the power wouldn't have shut off.