The Texas Grid Failure
Energy Gang24 Feb 2021

The Texas Grid Failure

Even for energy veterans, the depth of failures in Texas last week were breathtaking.

As arctic air froze power plants, gas lines, and mechanical instruments, the grid was shut down -- leaving 4 million people without electricity, unknown millions without heat, and three times that many without water.

Texas has been through freezes like this before in 2011, 2014 and 2018. Regulators were warned. So who is to blame for this historic catastrophe?

This week, we’ll talk about what happened in Texas -- reflecting on the responses and projecting the consequences for how we engineer the grid.

Then: did the shale boom fail to create all those promised jobs?

New research shows that the natural gas boom did not bring a massive employment wave to counties in the Marcellus and Utica shales. Wealth yes, but not so many jobs.

  • Wall Street Journal: In Frigid Texas, Desperate Families Take Risks to Stay Warm
  • Associated Press: Texas governor’s biggest donors: Energy industry that failed
  • NBC: The GOP is rapidly becoming the blue-collar party. Here's what that means.
  • Inside Climate News: A Decade Into the Fracking Boom, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia Haven’t Gained Much, a Study Says


Thanks to our sponsors:

The Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy. Wärtsilä is leading the energy transition with the Atlas of 100% Renewable Energy. Stick with us at the end of the show to hear how this tool is helping us understand how to best spend stimulus dollars on the clean-energy transition.

This podcast is brought to you by Sungrow, a leading provider of PV inverter solutions around the world. Sungrow has delivered more than 10 gigawatts of inverters to the Americas alone — and 120 gigawatts in total across the globe. Learn more about Sungrow’s cutting-edge solar projects.

This podcast is also brought to you by CPower. CPower’s latest book, Demand-Side Energy Management in the Time of COVID, takes a peek into eight of the biggest commercial industries in North America and reveals key energy management strategies that successful organizations executed during the wildest year of the young century. Download it here.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episoder(566)

How a Texas electric co-op rebuilt for reliability | Sponsored content from Rayburn Electric

How a Texas electric co-op rebuilt for reliability | Sponsored content from Rayburn Electric

As Texas battles another bout of bitterly cold weather, Energy Gang looks at the lessons that one generation and transmission electric co-operative learned from Winter Storm Uri in 2021. The freeze an...

27 Jan 45min

Venezuela and what to expect from energy in 2026

Venezuela and what to expect from energy in 2026

The new year has only just begun, and already we have seen an event with massive significance for the world of energy. The US operation to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro opens a new era fo...

8 Jan 51min

Electric vehicles create problems for the grid. Could they also help solve them? The plan to turn EVs into reliable grid infrastructure

Electric vehicles create problems for the grid. Could they also help solve them? The plan to turn EVs into reliable grid infrastructure

As we head into 2026, electricity grids aren’t just under strain; they are facing transformational change because of the shifts in the ways that we work, entertain ourselves, and get around. EVs are o...

6 Jan 54min

Energy Gang’s year in review: the highs, the lows, the people and the technologies of 2025

Energy Gang’s year in review: the highs, the lows, the people and the technologies of 2025

It’s the final Energy Gang of the year, and host Ed Crooks is joined by regulars Amy Myers Jaffe, Director of NYU’s Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab, Shanu Mathew, a portfolio investor a...

18 Des 20251h 1min

California’s grid under pressure: affordability, AI, and the future of electricity markets

California’s grid under pressure: affordability, AI, and the future of electricity markets

California is often described as the state where you can see the future of the US, and of the world. That has certainly been true in terms of some of the problems faced by the electricity grid. Califo...

9 Des 202544min

What happened at COP30? The key points on cutting emissions, adapting to a warming world, and raising the finance to pay for it

What happened at COP30? The key points on cutting emissions, adapting to a warming world, and raising the finance to pay for it

The COP30 climate talks in Belem wrapped up over the weekend, and reactions to the outcome were sharply divided. Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, said “climate cooperation is still ali...

25 Nov 202556min

What happened in COP30’s first week? Support for energy efficiency and a status report on methane show which climate initiatives are still making progress

What happened in COP30’s first week? Support for energy efficiency and a status report on methane show which climate initiatives are still making progress

Negotiations in the COP 30 climate talks are continuing in Belem, Brazil. The headlines are focusing on the divisions between countries that are shaping this year’s climate talks. But despite the doom...

19 Nov 202552min

The COP30 climate talks are under way In Brazil. What is the point of the conference?

The COP30 climate talks are under way In Brazil. What is the point of the conference?

COP30, which began this week in Belém, Brazil, marks a decade since the Paris Agreement was adopted at COP21 in 2015. It’s being billed as the “implementation COP”: instead of grand new announcements ...

13 Nov 202548min

Populært innen Business og økonomi

stopp-verden
dine-penger-pengeradet
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
e24-podden
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
rss-borsmorgen-okonominyhetene
pengepodden-2
finansredaksjonen
tid-er-penger-en-podcast-med-peter-warren
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
morgenkaffen-med-finansavisen
rss-markedspuls-2
pengesnakk
utbytte
lederpodden
rss-pa-konto
liberal-halvtime
rss-fa-makro
rss-investering-gjort-enkelt
rss-impressions-2