38 Time March 15/March 22, 2021
For mosT Texans, The lighTs are back on and The
water pressure has returned. But if the most acute effects of
February’s weather crisis are fading into the rearview mirror,
the battle to address the reality it revealed—America’s crum-
bling infrastructure and deficient electric grid—is just be-
ginning. For years, engineers, policy makers and politicians
have wrangled over how to fix deteriorating roads, bridges
and buildings as well as an ailing U.S. electric grid. The most
catastrophic winter storm to hit Texas in decades accelerated
the conversation, helping make the case for a multitrillion-
dollar federal infrastructure package and shutting down past
political talking points. “Texas laid bare for everybody how
fragile the system is,” says Jeff Navin, a former chief of staff
at the U.S. Energy Department who is now a partner at lob-
bying firm Boundary Stone Partners. “Reform has been sort
of bubbling very much below the surface; this is going to ex-
pedite those discussions.”
In recent years, the debate about the future of the electric
grid has often pitted Democrats promoting renewable energy
against Republicans pushing fossil fuels. The Texas power
outage delivered a dose of reality as all fuel types failed to
some degree. Wind turbines froze and instruments at nuclear
and coal-fired power plants iced over, shutting them down.
Most significantly, the state’s natural gas infrastructure
couldn’t stand the extreme cold as wells froze in the heart of
the state’s gas-producing region. In other words, the problem
was not with any one energy source but with a system-level
failure of the grid. “We need to recognize this as an energy-
systems challenge that goes beyond any one component,”
says Daniel Cohan, an associate professor of civil and
environmental engineering at Rice
University in Houston.
Texas is not the only place where
decades- old infrastructure is unpre-
pared for the realities of a climate-
changed world. From California’s elec-
tric grid, which has sparked catastrophic
wildfires in recent years, to water front
communities across the country, experts
say the U.S. needs to adapt.SyStemic iSSueS with the grid require
more than a quick fix. To start, Texas’
energy infrastructure would obviously
have benefited from measures to protect
it from extreme winter weather. But ex-
perts say that’s just a small piece of the
puzzle. Local electricity generation—
like small power plants near the places
they serve—could keep bad weather in
one place from causing outages else-
where. Long- distance transmission
lines could bring electricity from other
regions, providing a different type of
backup. Digital technology could bet-
ter target where to shut off the lights,
saving electricity for those who need it
most. (Many in Houston were upset to
see lights on in empty office buildings
while homes lost power.)
All of these proposals cost money,
billions upon billions. The Biden Ad-
ministration has signaled that once
its COVID-19 relief legislation passes
Congress, it plans to push for a massive
stimulus package that would put people
to work rebuilding U.S. infrastructure
with climate change front of mind. The
details are still in the works, but the
Texas catastrophe looms large. Observ-
ers expect Biden’s infrastructure plan to
include many of the measures he recom-
mended on the campaign trail when he
proposed spending $2 trillion largely on
infrastructure designed to address cli-
mate change, including upgrading the
grid with new transmission lines and
expanding energy storage.
A number of hurdles remain to pass
such a package. But, backers say, the di-
saster in Texas helps their case. “If there
is a silver lining to the tragic events in
Texas,” says Heather Zichal, CEO of the
American Clean Power Association, “it’s
that it helps underscore and build politi-
cal momentum on both sides of the aisle
to advance the kind of grid improve-
ments that we believe we need.” □Rebuilding the U.S. for
a climate-changed world
By Justin Worland
‘Texas laid
bare for
everybody
how fragile
the system is.’
JEFF NAVIN,
former U.S. Energy
Department
chief of staffTheView Environment
Power lines in Texas, where millions lost power during a winter storm, on Feb. 18