March 10, 2021 Michael Webber is the Josey Centennial Professor in Energy Resources, Author, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the Chief Science and Technology Officer at ENGIE, a global energy & infrastructure services company. This is like a replay of a movie we’ve watched before. And as everyone knows, the sequel is usually worse than the original. The most energy-abundant state in the nation suffered a catastrophic energy shortage. Again. Almost a decade ago to the day, Texas endured a statewide freeze in February 2011. That cold snap caused some large thermal plants to trip offline, which triggered a cascading series of power plant failures elsewhere, leading to rolling blackouts for millions of people across the state.