An essential reading list from a Texas ex
What we’re not gonna do is fault Texans for this disaster
Hi folks,
I wish I were writing this under better circumstances. It’s been a week full of historic, unprecedented, terrifying events in the state of Texas. Words that none of us want to hear anymore about anything other than an efficient vaccine rollout, but here we are.
All 254 counties felt the effects of the winter storm that hit the state this time last week. Some parts of North Texas got up to seven inches of snow, while an animal hospital in Galveston, an island city on the Gulf Coast of Texas, rescued over 50 sea turtles from the freeze, though thousands more were rescued all along the Texas coast.
In times of crisis, I know how to work (if only the same could be said for the state’s senator?). It helps me to help others make sense of things. I had a bunch of tabs of non-Texas related stories for this week’s newsletter. I didn’t read any of them, and it just feels really inappropriate to talk about anything else. I have a lot of family and friends in Texas and I lived there for a year in 2018 but honestly, you shouldn’t need a direct connection to the state to be mortified by the fact that people died due to cold weather conditions, lack of access to electricity and clean water, and a negligent government.
I’m by no means an expert on what’s been happening, so here are some stories that gave me context and perspective. I realize that they’re all from the major news outlets in Texas but local news outlets in rural communities are doing fantastic work, too:
If you found these stories helpful, too, I hope you’ll consider helping fund these news outlets because as we saw this week, Texans can’t trust their elected officials to keep them informed. You can subscribe or donate by clicking the links to the news outlets below, and/or you can donate here to a fund to help North and Central Texas journalists weather the financial impacts of the storms, as they’ve been living through these crises while covering them.
What I read this week (in no particular order)
Why does Texas have its own power grid? (from 2011) By Kate Galbraith in the Texas Tribune
Even today, ERCOT is also not completely isolated from other grids — as was evident when the state imported some power from Mexico during the rolling blackouts of 2011. ERCOT has three ties to Mexico and — as an outcome of the "Midnight Connection" battle — it also has two ties to the eastern U.S. grid, though they do not trigger federal regulation for ERCOT. All can move power commercially as well as be used in emergencies...Bottom line: Texas has its own grid to avoid dealing with the feds.
No, frozen wind turbines aren’t the main culprit for Texas’ power outages by Erin Douglas and Ross Ramsey in the Texas Tribune
While wind power skeptics claimed the week’s freeze means wind power can’t be relied upon, wind turbines — like natural gas plants — can be “winterized,” or modified to operate during very low temperatures. Experts say that many of Texas’ power generators have not made those investments necessary to prevent disruptions to equipment since the state does not regularly experience extreme winter storms.
Climate change will drive up energy use in Texas and beyond (from 2019) by Amal Ahmed in the Texas Observer
Reducing per-capita energy consumption is important, but to stave off the worst effects of climate change, larger systemic changes will be crucial. The irony is that increased demand for electricity likely results in more greenhouse gas emissions—only intensifying the heatwaves that will come in the future. While Texas leads the nation in wind power, most of the state’s demand is met by natural gas. “The intensity of our emissions—[carbon dioxide] that’s emitted for every megawatt hour of electricity—have been going down as we put more solar and wind on the system,” Rhodes said. “But in the end, the climate only cares about the total tons of CO2 that make it into the atmosphere.” And increasingly, that’s the thing all humans will have to care about too.
‘Scared she’d freeze to death’: How two women found refuge for their families on a Dallas bus by Cassandra Jaramillo in The Dallas Morning News
When the sun started to rise behind cloudy skies, their pet bird, Little Rainbow, did not sing its morning song.
“We usually in the mornings always have to yell, ‘Little Rainbow, Little Rainbow, be quiet!’” said Almendarez, 38.
They wrapped Little Rainbow in towels, compressing his chest. But their colorful parakeet appeared dead.
With the temperature below 40 degrees, the mother could not allow her children to sleep in the cold anymore.
I’m tired of living through extraordinary times in Texas by Caitlin Cruz in The New Republic
What happened this week was extraordinary. It was a catastrophe. How we were treated this week was unacceptable. How Texans were treated during Hurricane Harvey was unacceptable— was also a catastrophe. How Puerto Ricans were treated during Maria was unacceptable—another catastrophe. But our political system is built around forgetting, of powerful people who would like us to turn away from the things we’ve lived through—trapped in our homes, shivering—and turn away from each other. I keep hearing that I’m living through extraordinary times, and I guess that’s true. But we know this won’t stay extraordinary for long.
Bonus: 13 curses to mutter against Ted Cruz while you boil snow to drink by Lauren Larson in Texas Monthly
May you see on Twitter, as you shiver even though you are wearing every garment that you own, that your senator has left you for dead and fled to Mexico. May the rage warm you from within for only two minutes.
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You’re welcome to write me back and let me know what you think of the stories and the newsletter, or even better: send me a story you wrote that you think I’d like. If you’re looking for more ways to support Texans, check out this guide to helping out here.
Happy reading,
Hanaa’