The stretch of cold weather we've experienced has kept many Minnesotans cozy indoors. We've been fortunate that our electric and gas infrastructure have performed well to heat our homes. Not so for our Texan friends down Interstate 35.
The situation in Texas has been heartbreaking, with 4 million households losing power. Multiple people have died and hundreds have been injured from carbon monoxide poisoning while running cars or generators indoors to keep warm.
Many have been quick to put a political lens on Texas's problem, blaming renewable energy and questioning the energy transition that is underway, driven by cheaper wind and solar prices. But the facts tell a different story.
It was historically cold across the entire center of the country in recent days. Louisiana and Oklahoma saw electricity outages too. But Texas's unique approach to energy led to by far the biggest consequences.
First, Texas has a deregulated energy market where it has underinvested in both energy capacity and its electric infrastructure for years. The common practice across the U.S. is to pay energy producers to hold reserves — a buffer of excess capacity for situations exactly like this. Texas has not sufficiently planned or invested, and it has not sufficiently weatherized its gas wells, pipelines and power generation for the winter. They have scrimped to keep rates low, but this tragedy shows that Texas lacks the energy infrastructure necessary in a crisis.
Minnesota, on the other hand, has done this planning and made smart investments in our infrastructure, resulting in a far more reliable grid.
Second, Texas is an energy island. It is the only state in the country to have its own grid. If it were connected to other states, this would lessen its reliability problems.
In an event like this, where cold weather strikes everywhere, the flexibility to import power might not have solved the problem entirely, but it would no doubt have helped.
