Texas Snowstorm

The fallout of the extreme weather resulting from the polar vortex that dealt a deadly blow to Texas about two weeks ago has been a sight to behold. The veil of both capitalism and climate change denial has perhaps never been ripped off so blatantly from in front of our nation’s eyes. I say that while acknowledging that many still refuse to see what’s so plainly in front of us. The Texas snowstorm is a warning to us all.

I’ve wanted to write about my response to everything that happened in Texas for a little while now, but I only just got the time this past week or so. But it also works out to look at everything with more knowledge and hindsight about the whole thing.

I felt I needed to break down my response into four main parts; what happened; the disappointing response by people across both sides of the aisle; the factors impacting the situation; followed by what I feel should be done moving forward. 

The entire situation is an alarming wake-up call for several different interconnected issues that plague our nation. If we don’t act on this swiftly, this kind of situation will happen again; likely more frequently and more devastatingly.

What We Saw Happen in Texas 

We saw several major aspects of this climate catastrophe, with several of those issues relating just to utility regulation alone. 

Utility Issues

Loss of Power

4.4 million people lost power in Texas, some for days, even over a week.

People froze in their homes unprepared. With many having electric stoves, there was no heat to stay warm and no way to cook food. This, while some municipalities issued a boil notice for many Texans, with no means to boil water. Many people had their pipes burst, which means no running water and an expensive fix awaiting them after this passes. 

Outrageous Electric Bills

For others who still had power, they started seeing electricity bills of several thousand dollars, up to nearly $20,000. So far, the response to this hasn’t been logical; there’s no plan to cancel these unnecessarily obscene utility bills. Instead, the utility companies say they will spread the payments over several years. If not addressed appropriately, people’s entire lives could be turned upsidedown. To pay the price of a new car for the use of only a few days worth of electricity, all because the electricity companies jacked up the prices, is absurd. 

In Texas, before the winter storm hit, utility companies like Griddy passed on wholesale rates for electricity to their customers. This allowed them to provide people with reduced utility costs. Except they put customers under the impression that Griddy themselves owned the electricity, not a third-party.

That fact changed the situation when energy prices went up, and wholesale electricity prices also increased. 

When prices started sky-rocketing, Griddy told people to cancel their account and go to a different company. Except the other companies couldn’t take on new clients. This left people the decision to go without electricity entirely or accept the wholesale price increases. Not very much of a choice. I wouldn’t say Griddy is extorting their customers, but their lack of regard for the situation concerns me nonetheless.

Even so, Griddy assured their customers that something like this wasn’t likely to happen when they originally signed up. Now they’re stuck with outrageous bills, while Griddy and other companies see lawsuits. 

Gross Negligence

Those who lost power entirely, especially those with young children, people with disabilities, and the elderly, saw other issues. Medical devices relying on electricity led to the death of some people. An 11-year-old boy died of hypothermia after his family’s power went out. He wasn’t able to return to a normal body temperature after being outside in the snow.

The family is now joining others in a class-action lawsuit against the entities responsible for the situation. Their suit argues that they chose profits over people’s welfare and resulted in the deaths of at least 40 deaths and counting.

Left in the Cold and the Dark

On top of that, people without a home to stay out of the elements fended for themselves. Who knows how many homeless people froze to death in Texas with nowhere to go. 

Megachurch pastors in Texas like Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen didn’t even open their doors to their communities who suffered. They seem only capable of taking money from those communities rather than providing to those in need. 

A blatant display of both classism and the end-stage capitalist hellscape we live in was seen in major Texas cities. As low-income neighborhoods sat in the dark and cold, they bordered the downtown areas littered with skyscrapers and the homes of the wealthy were kept warm and lit. It gives a grim picture of what’s to come if we continue to reject responses to climate change; those without will always be forsaken for the needs of those who hold all the money and power. 

Poor people and communities of color will always be the first to be sacrificed to extreme weather, and we’ve seen this over and over again in the last two decades. From the devastating hurricanes like Katrina in 2005 and Maria in 2017 to California’s recent fires and the heatwaves and polar vortexes we’ve seen in recent years – climate change is here and will get exponentially worse. More destruction will be wrought, and more people will die or be displaced as climate refugees. 

The Response, or Lack Thereof

It took days for even Biden to act and send the National Guard to help people. He doesn’t appear to plan on fixing anything about the electricity companies’ gross negligence or the outrageous utility bills people received. 

If we can’t even respond to this kind of crisis, what will we do when it progresses? We don’t want to spend billions on renewable energy or climate response. Still, we’ll spend trillions of dollars on fixing the damage it causes while subsidizing fossil fuels that makes it worse? This isn’t sustainable. 

This isn’t even a comprehensive account of the fallout of the storm itself. We’re still learning just how bad this situation was for the people of Texas. As the weather warms back up, the rebuilding and reckoning begin.