In the midst of our country’s current state of political controversy, COVID-19 raging on, and an unpredictable future ahead, Texas was bombarded with yet another crippling challenge. On February 14, 2021, Winter Storm Uri moved in on Texas and temperatures quickly dropped to the single digits. Although the Lone Star state is known for its dry heat and long summers, history proves that mother nature has a mind of its own at times and sends catastrophic winter storms to torment the inhabitants of Texas. According to Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior director of system operations, this storm was very different when late in the evening, multiple generating units began tripping off-line in rapid progression due to the severe cold weather.

The outages stretching across Texas left nearly 4.4 million people without electricity, ranking it among the largest weather-related blackouts in a single state in the history of the United States. At the current count, the death toll is at least 111 people, with the majority of the deaths being tied to hypothermia. Additionally, desperate attempts to get warm resulted in hospitalization or even death from various incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning. The state of Texas was in such peril, that President Biden approved a major disaster declaration, to allow immediate assistance for the individuals stranded in Texas.

Given that Texas has experienced frigid winter storms in the past, the question arose as to why there was a lack of preparation for Winter Storm Uri. Some have turned to blame Texas’ power system as a whole. The United States has a total of three power grids: one for the eastern States, one for the western States, and then one for the state of Texas. Of the entire state, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”) is responsible for approximately 90% of the state’s power. Since Texas runs on its own power grid without any presence of federal oversight, some have pointed out the lack of requirement for winterization of power equipment as the culprit. Considering the fact that winter storms such as Uri only hit about once a decade, the cost is what holds companies like ERCOT back from making their systems bulletproof. To fortify their power systems, would call for millions of dollars. Hence why those who do the cost-benefit analysis hang between pulling the trigger on spending the money or relying on insurance to cover the losses (and the deaths). Regardless, there is a serious need for reform of the Texas power system and Winter Storm Uri may have been just the catastrophe to bring real attention to the need. I pose one final question to Texas in its journey to a solution: Does the benefit of saving money and making a profit really outweigh the cost of innocent lives lost? I guess only time will reveal their answer.