In the wake of the blizzard in Texas in mid-February that left millions of residents without power, journalists were quick to point out the biggest cause of the state's loss of power was the face that its power grid operated independently from the rest of the United States.

Power grids are what give us electricity in our homes so we could turn on the light, operate the oven, or turn on the TV. Each of our homes in the US are connected to a power grid. Both the eastern and western sides operate on their own interconnected power grid. A home in the state of Maine gets electricity from a power grid that stretches all the way to Florida.

But Texas is the only state to operate on its own power grid. Why? Because Texas, when the power grids were constructed, they were uneasy about the idea that they would have to deal with federal regulation, and wanted to remain independent from the federal government. Their decision to operate on its own power gird meant they could impose their own rules on how a power grid could be managed, and even set their own costs.

While Texas may have saved money, that meant they could not draw power from their neighboring states to compensate for lost power. In the interconnected grid, Oklahoma, which was also hit by the same winter storm, was able to maintain power because it could get some from their neighboring states. In fact, the interconnected power grid in the east coast is so sufficient, that New York City can compensate any lost power from Canada with minimum effort.

In the long run, Texas also had to pay for its own methods to generate power for the power grid, rather than receiving power paid for by the federal government. So, even though Texas could set their own price to build a power grid, some of the money they saved ended up being needlessly spent to generate that power they could have gotten free of charge. And when the winter storm hit, the power generating the power gird could barely function for five days.

If a state wishes to operate their own power grid independently from the rest of the United States, then the least they need to do is prepare for disasters such as the winter storm that affected Texas. Granted, it is not usual to expect a winter storm of all places to hit Texas, but there are other disasters that could affect their power grid such as flooding.

But if Texas does not want to bother worrying about preparing for disasters, or problems with managing its own power grid, then it has no reason to operate independently. It should integrate their power grid with the rest of the east coast for the United States. Obviously, at this point it would not be simple since contracts Texas made with companies to build the power grids would need to figure out how to work in the federal government. But this would significantly help the US fight against climate change, because decreasing the use of natural gas, which is a frequent method to powering power grids that Texas uses, is vital if we want to deter the damage of climate change.

CITATION

Marshall, Madeline. “Texas’s Power Disaster Is a Warning Sign for the US.” YouTube, uploaded by Vox, 4 Mar. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcrsgdl_hP0.