Abbott wants power companies to winterize. Texas track record won t make that easy.
Abbott wants power companies to winterize. Texas track record won t make that easy.
Erin Douglas, The Texas Tribune
Feb. 20, 2021
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Winterize. That’s the directive Gov. Greg Abbott gave to power companies and lawmakers Thursday when he called for a law and funding to better prepare Texas’ essential power infrastructure for the kind of extreme winter weather that created multiple crises this week.
Energy experts said that in some cases, retrofitting plants to withstand cold could be extremely difficult and expensive in Texas. Many of those plants already skimped on such upgrades due to the infrequency of prolonged and widespread subfreezing temperatures in the state. That’s despite a 2011 winter storm that also caused power outages.
Texas disaster: Polar vortex plunges Lone Star state into wintry nightmare without power, water and answers Larry McShane
It was the winter weather nightmare nobody in Texas saw coming, a Lone Star catastrophe of unprecedented power outages and failed water systems and a still-rising death toll of at least two dozen.
At the nadir of the deep freeze that began last Sunday, 4 million Texans lost electricity as the statewide power grid teetered and nearly collapsed dodging by seconds a nightmare scenario of widespread blackouts lasting for months. The state’s water supply became compromised, with 7 million Texans still instructed Saturday to boil tap water before use.
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At the nadir of the deep freeze that began last Sunday, 4 million Texans lost electricity as the statewide power grid teetered and nearly collapsed dodging by seconds a nightmare scenario of widespread blackouts lasting for months.