Ignorance, unpreparedness and selfishness lead to some spending a week in the dark; cold, hungry and some even dead
Omar E. Zapata | THE RIDER
Going to bed on Valentine’s Day, my mind was going through all the work I would have to do the coming week, how cold it was/would be and the vulnerable homeless and undocumented population in the Rio Grande Valley. Little did I know that millions of Texans would go through the next week in complete darkness, facing some of the coldest temperatures the state had seen.
That night was very cold, with frost accumulating on everything, the winds increasingly slamming against my bedroom window. I thought, “Could the power go out due to powerful winds?”
I had experienced my electricity going out for several days a few months prior due to Hurricane Hanna, and I prepared by charging everything I could just in case.
I woke up with no light and no internet connection, I did not know during the night and early morning,
Texas was seconds and minutes away from a catastrophic failure of its power grid; one that could have led to months without power.
I began reading reports of why this was happening, how Texas’ power grid was not ready for this, the deflection of accountability and the selfish actions of elected officials.
Like many, this was the first time I have heard of the Electric Reliability Council Of Texas (ERCOT) and how the state has its own power grid.
I learned how most of Texas was on this independent, deregulated system of a power grid with plenty of private generators, transmission companies and energy retailers. You know, because it is The Republic of Texas, we have to be independent from big government with that “Don’t Mess with Texas” attitude.
That is when I saw Texas Gov. Greg Abbott go on Fox News on Feb. 17 and blame renewable energy for the state’s large power outage and how “the Green New Deal would be deadly to the United States of America.”
Almost immediately after, various articles, videos and tweets were published to fact check the governor’s big claims against the Green New Deal.
The Texas electrical grid, powered largely by gas, coal and nuclear plants, with wind energy accounting for about 25% of its total electricity, according to ERCOT data, failed to perform due to low temperatures.
The grid’s failure stems from years of a deregulated power system, which in turn does not regulate these sources of energy to be winterized for cold weather that is uncommon in much of the state.
ERCOT said on Feb 16. that of the 45,000 total megawatts of power that were offline statewide, about 30,000 consisted of thermal sources, gas, coal and nuclear plants, and 16,000 came from renewable sources.
Even with all these facts and information, Abbott still chose to go on live TV and give Texans lies about how frozen wind turbines were the cause of it and not about what really caused the massive failure in Texas, even deflecting the issue and calling for ERCOT officials to be held accountable.
It gets worse as former Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Feb. 17 said in a blog posted on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s website, “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business.”
How ignorant do you have to be to say this when at the time, around 4 million Texans were freezing in the dark without basic human necessities.
Did Cristian Pavon Pineda, an 11-year-old boy from Conroe, who died in his sleep from suspected hypothermia, care about keeping the federal government out of Texas’ electrical grid?
Across Texas, deaths related to the winter storm mounted and Perry had the audacity to say that. How delusional and so out of touch with the millions of constituents you used to govern. What makes you think that’s what working-class, everyday Texans wanted?
It gets even worse as the elected “leaders” of Texas like U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R) and Attorney General Ken Paxton took trips out of the state during a catastrophic week for Texas.
When they could have been helping Texans by organizing or assisting food drives, warming centers and shelters for the homeless, they chose to avoid the problem entirely and leave their constituents in the dark, literally.
When it seems like Cruz can not possibly top making himself look like a fool, he said hold my margarita during the few hours he was in Cancún. Most of the time, I do not care for the nonsense that comes from that man or many right-wing politicians but when he thinks he can just fly out to Cancún with millions freezing, it gives a big glimpse of who he truly is and how many of these politicians do not care for the people.
When the government does not care, we the people must help each other. From the Valley all the way to Austin, I saw people online organizing to feed, clothe, warm and house its people. This gave me a sense of hope in humanity in a way, seeing all the efforts people put into their community, but this cannot be a reoccurring thing that we let become the standard. We must hold elected officials accountable for their do’s and don’ts, and we must vote for officials who have the people’s interests and well-being in mind.
From years of neglecting the power grid, blatant lies, ignorance, misinformation and selfishness, this all put together gives you the backstage scenes of the inhumane week Texans had to endure due to the hands of our “leadership.” We the people have learned from this failure, but will our elected officials learn from it?
