The failure of the Texas power grid has left 4.4 million homes without electricity as of Tuesday evening (far more than all the recent hurricanes combined). The state’s ERCOT system indicates that at least 85-90% of these homes will be without power through the night. State troopers are trying to get people into one of the 135 “local warming centers.” The prolonged power outages have disrupted water treatment plants, and have caused municipalities to send out “boil water” notices in Fort Worth, Pflugerville, Manville, Taylor, eastern Hays County, and sections of Elgin. Abilene, with a population of 124,000, has lost all water; the city shut off all water service Monday evening, after power outages at all three of its water treatment plants.
There are rolling blackouts in other states, including Kansas and Missouri.
Texas is the national leader in windmill energy, in part due to financier T. Boone Pickens. Windmills, being what they are, always require a duplicate energy source, such as coal or nuclear. WInds are known to be flighty. But now, about 50% of the windmills have simply frozen. To make matters worse, the Port Arthur oil refinery, the largest one in the world, is also shut down. The blast of Arctic weather has water pipes bursting all over Austin. President Biden declared a state of emergency for Texas.
