Alone Star State: Global Heating Plunges Texas into a Deadly Deep Freeze

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Weekly Column Thursday, February 18, 2021


** Alone Star State: Global Heating Plunges Texas into a Deadly Deep Freeze
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By Amy Goodman and Denis M oynihan

The nation is reliving the violent January 6th attack in the U.S. Capitol, as Democratic Congressmembers deliver a devastating case against Donald Trump in the ex-President’s historic second Senate impeachment trial. These nine House Texas, the proud, independent Lone Star State, is suffering a humanitarian catastrophe caused by its shortsighted denial of the climate crisis and lack of federal regulation. Warming air over the Arctic is the likely reason that the polar vortex, a huge mass of cold air over the North Pole, moved south, plunging Texas and surrounding states into an unprecedented deep freeze. Millions have been left for days without power, water and heat, and nearly 40 people have died. A second winter storm, dubbed Viola, hit the state as it reeled from the vortex. Republican Governor Greg Abbott falsely blamed the state’s electrical grid failure on renewable energy: “This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” he told Fox News.
Even Abbot’s own energy department refuted his claims.

The freezing air blanketing the region did shut down about half of Texas’ wind turbines, but still, that only accounted for 13% of the overall power loss. The larger cause of the catastrophe was frozen fossil fuel infrastructure, disabling coal, oil, fracked gas facilities and even nuclear power generation. Governor Abbott’s lies may warm the hearts of his corporate fossil fuel donors, but they won’t help the millions of Texans struggling to survive in the freezing cold, and they won’t protect Texas from future extreme weather events that are sure to follow.

Texas has itself largely to blame for the severity...Read More→ ([link removed])
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Failed State: Texas Power Grid Collapse Impacts Millions. Black & Brown Communities Are Worst Hit ([link removed])
Millions of people in Texas were plunged into freezing cold and darkness as a major winter storm...Read More → ([link removed])

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