Texas' biggest fix to February's deadly winter blackout that left more than 4 million people without power puts new attention on projections by the state's climatologist but does not dwell on climate change after a deep freeze buckled the state's unprepared electric grid.
A far-reaching bill sent Sunday night to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott would require some power generators to winterize against extreme cold following one of the most massive blackouts in U.S. history. Experts praised some reforms as significant but say concessions to Texas' powerful oil and gas industry still leaves the grid vulnerable.
U.S. President Joe Biden's national climate adviser called the winter storm a "wake-up call" for the United States to build energy systems and other infrastructure that are more reliable and resilient in the face of extreme-weather events. But in the Texas Capitol, Republican lawmakers sidelined discussion of climate change while trying to get to the root of the blackout and come up with ways to prevent it from happening again.
"The cold wasn't unprecedented, but the combination of extreme cold and widespread snow was extremely unusual," Nielsen-Gammon said in an email. " Also, I volunteered the information that climate change was probably making such events less likely rather than more likely."
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