The polar vortex hitting the U.S. froze natural gas pipelines, sent electricity prices skyrocketing and forced Texas’s grid operator to plunge more than 2 million homes into darkness.

The climate vulnerabilities the U.S. faces can now longer be ignored https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-15/how-extreme-cold-turned-into-a-u-s-energy-crisis-quicktake?sref=aGTrSb9U

Hundreds of places across the central U.S. set daily temperature records.

Prices for different types of heating fuels began to surge higher, including oil and natural gas. Demand for propane climbed to a 17-year high

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As temperatures continued to fall, gas pipelines began to seize up, wind turbines started to freeze, and oil wells shut in — just as homes and businesses raised demand for heating to record levels

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The strength of gas demand across the central U.S., especially in Oklahoma, caught some traders by surprise.

Physical delivery of the fuel at one hub in Oklahoma traded at an astonishing $600 per million British thermal units

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Texas’s grid operator says widespread shortages of natural gas supplies to power plants and a decline in wind generation helped create the shortfall.

Several other plants tripped offline amid the cold for reasons that aren’t yet known

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Rolling electricity outages are now happening throughout Texas.

These are controlled blackouts—designed to last anywhere from 15 mins to an hour (but in reality last longer)—that force electricity demand offline to protect the grids from total collapse

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The cold is wreaking havoc on the region’s entire energy complex, crippling fossil-fuel and renewable resources alike.

Some are pointing fingers at more systemic, long-standing issues with how Texas manages its power system

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The crisis reinforces the need for policy makers and regulators to think carefully about what a world wholly dependent on electricity for lighting, cooling, heating, cooking and transportation would look like under extreme circumstances

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