Texas Standard is broadcasting the reporting of our partners at KUT Austin for their podcast The Disconnect. It’s an in-depth look at the creation of the Texas electrical grid and how it was minutes away from complete collapse during last February’s deadly power outages.
Today – unravelling what happened after the lights came back on.
The devastating blackout that hit Texas in February exposed weaknesses in every part of the state’s energy system. Physical breakdowns from natural gas wells to power plants slashed the amount of electricity available just when people needed it most. That scarcity helped drive the price of power to historic highs, leaving a financial cost that will take decades to settle.
In the months following, state lawmakers vowed to fix the system that had failed so dramatically. But what, really, did they accomplish?
That question is explored in the final episode of KUT’s The Disconnect, Power Politics and the Texas Blackout.
In The Fallout, you’ll hear from Texans struggling to pay their bills, regulators struggling to explain their actions and an energy industry struggling to cover its ass.
This episode brings you from the freezing days of the blackout, through the finger pointing of last spring’s legislative session right up to today, when new laws meant to improve the state grid are slowly being put into effect.
Is the Texas grid any better off than it was before the blackout?
