The Texas Grid Failure

<p>Even for energy veterans, the depth of failures in Texas last week were breathtaking.&nbsp;</p><p>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.&nbsp;</p><p>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?</p><p>This week, we’ll talk about what happened in Texas -- reflecting on the responses and projecting the consequences for how we engineer the grid.&nbsp;</p><p>Then: did the shale boom fail to create all those promised jobs?&nbsp;</p><p>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.&nbsp;</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-frigid-texas-desperate-families-take-risks-to-stay-warm-11613599101?mod=e2tw" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a>: In Frigid Texas, Desperate Families Take Risks to Stay Warm</li><li><a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-greg-abbott-energy-industry-weather-austin-e2fe851121e86c7399c6a01e051a8079" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Associated Press</a>: Texas governor’s biggest donors: Energy industry that failed</li><li><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/gop-rapidly-becoming-blue-collar-party-here-s-what-means-n1258468" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NBC</a>: The GOP is rapidly becoming the blue-collar party. Here's what that means.</li><li><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11022021/fracking-boom-natural-gas-report/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Inside Climate News:</a> A Decade Into the Fracking Boom, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia Haven’t Gained Much, a Study Says</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Thanks to our sponsors:</p><p>The Energy Gang<em> is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy. Wärt