On the Frontlines of the Climate/Capitalism Crisis
Ok, before I get fully rolling on this post, let me first specify/clarify/lay into context. Right now, the State of Texas generally (and the city of Austin, specifically) is in crisis. We were hit by back-to-back snow/ice storms on both Sunday/Monday Feb 14/15 and again last night, Tuesday Feb 16. Millions of Texans have been left without power for days on end. The folks I know who are reporting the longest outages on social media and my work Slack channel have been without heat, electricity, and in the worst cases ALSO water, since Monday at 2am, while it has been between -5 and 20 degrees outside.
I want to underscore again…we are very much IN THE MIDDLE of this situation, and I am simply going to note some of the things that I know to be true. That “truth” may evolve as we learn more and finally get through this in the upcomings days, and then switch into repair and recovery mode for many weeks thereafter. I am actively PROCESSING MY FEELINGS in this moment, and this is one space I’m doing that so, I ask for grace.
As I posted on my Facebook page this morning:"
I need a new word. There isn’t a term for the feelings of extreme guilt of having power through this Texas snow shit show (apparently being on a grid w/ a hospital or something 🤷♀️) and desperately wishing you could share it w/ those suffering, worrying about them while snowed in...while surviving month 11 of a pandemic and historic economic downturn w/ general political strife so high.
Never thought I’d need a term for this feeling, but here we are.
OH I nearly forgot, while simultaneously balancing the knowledge that the ice, snow, and cold temps DIDN’T cause this...deregulation, greed, capitalism, and Republicans did. Unconscionable.
So as you hear there, I am, personally, very, very lucky and grateful that I haven’t had to bear the brunt of the worst of what is happening. I wish I could share that burden with my suffering neighbors.
Overall, Ronald and I are safe, warm, and fed. I have had power this whole time and the worst things that have happened are a frozen sink pipe that I was able to get moving again, and the tree on my patio is being crushed to death under the weight of a ton of ice. We’ve invited some friends who haven’t had power over to warm up, etc., but we haven’t heard from them again yet today and it’s totally unclear if they could even get over to our place in any safe way after the additional ice that fell last night. (I’m praying they’re OK.)
What I want to share is some choralled info about what exactly has happened in Texas so far and why it matters. As I posted on Tumblr (yes, I am apparently going to keep referencing my own words on other platforms):
Let’s be clear: what is happening in Texas right now is NOT “a natural disaster.”
It is what happens when increasingly extreme weather conditions (climate change) clashes with systems and infrastructure where decisions were made based on profit motives and unchecked capitalism.
Yes, some of the current situation is specific to Texas’ power grid, but if you live anywhere in the US, you are NOT IMMUNE to that^^^^ convergence of factors causing loss of life near you as well. (Disproportionately felt by the poor, communities of color, etc.)
This situation is another harbinger of what will only become more and more common when we fail to prioritize our environment and allow greed to run the show.
There have been so many examples, worldwide, of extreme weather events that demonstrate the climate crisis, but the current situation in Texas is one that shows with extreme clarity how dangerous this situations is when combined with unchecked capitalism and simple greed.
I’ll dig in on more of that in a moment, but let me take several steps back so that we can walk through what has actually happened and why, from my personal experience.
Earlier this month, we started getting warnings of the upcoming polar vortex. There was chatter on news about the potential severity, especially the closer it got, but I can speak for my friends and network when I say that most of us had no adequate warning for what was going to happen, and we were thinking it would maybe last 2 days. All in, the impact will be a week or longer.
Come Monday, I woke up to a shocking amount of snow for Austin. As I checked in on my work Slack channel and general social media feeds, I heard that many people were out of power since 2am. News reports shared that “millions of Texans” were affected and that we should expect rolling blackouts so that we could manage the impact on the grid. Most businesses, workplaces, schools, etc. were closed.
This was the part of the crisis where the main chatter on social media was just about addressing the initial weather effects. Folks from the north on my personal feeds were mocking Texans…and those of us here tried to explain that Texans aren’t weather dummies. The truth is that there’s simply NO INFRASTRUCTURE for this stuff here, because why would there be? Historically, when you get snow one a decade, there isn’t a reason to keep plows or salt trucks at the ready. Or even shovels in stores. The pipes in homes are built w/ less insulation than in the north, as the norm, so they freeze easier when it does get freakishly cold. And the interstate flyovers and exchanges are built like 50 stories high, so they become undrivable in snow, etc. etc. So yeah, very little snow keeps us all in our homes.
But then…as the initial force of the storm was behind us, but the hours dragged on with no power for so many, we began to wonder, what the hell was actually going on? And so many Texans, including myself, learned for the first time about ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, a totally separate grid from the rest of the county.
We began to wonder, “Hey what the fuck?” and this article from the Texas Tribune from 2011 which explains the what-the-fuckery in detail made the rounds. Our eyes were opened in a new way.
So why a separate grid? Sadly, Texan’s anti-Federal sentiment, years of Republican leaders, and their propensity for deregulation is the answer.
This was also the part in my personal journey where people in other states experiencing this same polar vortex storm started being like, “HEY WHAT ABOUT US? It’s not just Texas!” to which THIS graphic from Monday arose as a response and an important visual of the moment.
Sure, everyone got a storm, but not everyone is experiencing its impact the same. This map? What a frustrating thing to see and learn! It’s clear that most other states are surviving the polar vortex without mass outages, right? So something more fishy is going on. Ah, were that the only frustrating discovery in this process…
5. That helpful article originally from 2011 I mentioned holds another key to a deeper layer of more WTFery in Texas. You see, 2011 was the last time that the grid was this taxed and rolling blackouts were put into place. (I remember it quite well, but I didn’t understand what was happening back then.) Again, this situation was a known problem 10 years ago. Logically, if ERCOT learned this lesson the hard way before, why are we back in an even worse version of this stuff 10 years later??
6. BECAUSE PROFITS OF COURSE!!!! From the Washington Post:
What has sent Texas reeling is not an engineering problem, nor is it the frozen wind turbines blamed by prominent Republicans. It is a financial structure for power generation that offers no incentives to power plant operators to prepare for winter. In the name of deregulation and free markets, critics say, Texas has created an electric grid that puts an emphasis on cheap prices over reliable service.
It’s a “Wild West market design based only on short-run prices…”
And then by Tuesday (yesterday, but I feel like it’s already been a month) there’s there’s this news of what occurred related to natural gas on Monday:
7. So now let’s take a look at what our state leadership has been upto in the middle of this crisis. (When their people need them most.) Interestingly, there has been no question…Texans of all types agree that there was been a “massive failure” of our grid. Early on, Governor Abbott said the legislature will launch a special investigation into ERCOT. But of course, as the real picture of the failure of his own and other state leadership became more clear, Abbott and his buddies had very little to say…
It’s obvious that Abbott, Texan Republicans widely, and their propensity to pursue profits and greed over the good of humanity that CAUSED this crisis. They failed to pursue proper winterizing of our system.
8. But as Republicans like Abbott love to do, the lies and lack of accountability began flowing as freely as the broken water pipes all across the state. It wasn’t long until Abbott was on Fox News blatantly LYING about the actual cause of the situation, blaming the Green New Deal and wind energy.
Let me reiterate WIND TURBINES ARE NOT THE CAUSE.
So there you have it, the state of affairs as I understand them on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 17th, 2021 in Austin, Texas. Our literal salvation and end to this crisis at this point will be the weather returning to normal. We are predicted to be above freezing this weekend and THAT ALONE is what will allow us to transition into recovery and try to get life back to (pandemic) normal.
I want to add, a lot of secondary issues statewide also started popping up related to this crisis:
We’re still in a pandemic, so there are concerns of the spread that may occur at temporary warming centers. I also can’t help but think of the suffering of people all over this state who are sick right now AND without heat or water. Critical vaccination efforts have had to halt entirely for now.
Carbon monoxide poisoning is spiking as people are trying desperately to stay warm in their cars.
Hotels were blatantly price gouging (until the Travis County Judge shut it down.)
And of course, there is a chorus of “let them die” liberals all over social media who are actively mocking the situation and coming in with hottakes of “you voted for this leadership.” < Insert proper explanation of the voter suppression and gerrymandering that this state and so many others in the South suffering from that I don’t have the energy for at the moment >
Water is also limited and at huge risk: I just listened into this afternoon’s emergency management update from the city and are nowhere near through this. We are now being asked to take all possible action to limit water use, as the number of pipe breaks (due partially to lack of electricity keeping homes warm) in the region has put our supply critically low and we may all need to start boiling water. (If you have no electricity, how the hell do you do that??)
I really, really hope that someone organizes a strong class action lawsuit for those affected to try to hold our corrupt leaders accountable in some way.
As I conclude this loooooooooooooong round up of information that’s available to me, I want to emphasize again…YES while some of this is Texas specific:
Everything I’ve described here will only get worse and be coming to a neighborhood near you, as long as we are led by people who don’t take climate change seriously and prioritize profits over people.
Thankfully, as always, mutual aid networks are stepping in to help in critical ways that our failed state is not. If you are a financially stable adult with money to spare, consider:
