Lawfare Archive: Alex Klass on the Texas Energy Crisis
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 6 February 2022
⏱️ 39 minutes
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Summary
From February 23, 2021: For more than a week now, Texas has been struggling with a massive power outage caused by record low temperatures. Millions have been without power, heat and running water, and at least dozens have been confirmed to have died as a result. All states are confronting extreme weather, but Texas is unique in that its electricity is almost completely independent from the rest of the United States' grid. This has at times lowered costs and increased innovation in the Texas energy markets, but as the current crisis shows, Texas's energy exceptionalism comes at a cost. Alexandra Klass is the Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and a nationally recognized expert on energy law and policy who recently wrote about the Texas energy crisis for Lawfare. Alan Rozenshtein spoke with her about the current situation and the future of energy policy, both for Texas and for the United States.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:39.6 | I'm Katherine Pompilio with an episode from the LawFair Archive for February 6, 2022. |
| 0:45.8 | This week, over 2,000 people are without power as winter storms move across Midwestern and |
| 0:50.2 | southern states. Snow, sleep, and freezing rain have cost about 70,000 outages in Texas |
| 0:56.2 | and 115,000 in Tennessee. The power outages are reminiscent of Texas's deadly winter storm |
| 1:01.3 | last year, where hundreds died because of the failure of the power grid which trapped |
| 1:05.1 | millions in freezing darkness with no running water. |
| 1:08.2 | Following last year's storm, Texas updated its grid to meet higher standards. This year's |
| 1:12.7 | storm marks the first significant test of the grid. For today's archive episode, I |
| 1:17.2 | chose an episode from February 2021, in which Alexander Klass and Alan Rosenstein spoke |
| 1:22.4 | about last year's winter storm and power outages in Texas, as well as the future of energy |
| 1:26.8 | policy both for Texas and for the United States. |
| 1:36.5 | I'm Alan Rosenstein and this is the LawFair podcast, February 23, 2021. For more than a |
| 1:43.7 | week now, Texas has been struggling with a massive power outage caused by record low temperatures. |
| 1:49.8 | Millions have been without power, heat, and running water, and at least dozens have been |
| 1:54.2 | confirmed to have died as a result. |
| 1:57.0 | All states are confronting extreme weather, but Texas is unique in that its electricity |
| 2:01.6 | is almost completely independent from the rest of the United States' grid. This has at |
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