Texas' energy grid, 5 years after Winter Storm Uri
Marketplace Morning Report
Marketplace
4.5 • 927 Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Five years ago, Winter Storm Uri took out the lights across the Lone Star State. Hundreds of people died, millions of Texans were left without heat, and it cost the state billions. What’s changed since then? Plus, new payroll numbers are higher than expected, and unemployment is slightly down, but revisions to last year’s totals complicate the story. And later, we check out what one of the country’s most environmentally friendly homes looks like 18 years later.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This Marketplace podcast is supported by Fay Grie Drinker, one of the largest law firms in Minnesota, |
| 0:06.4 | with nearly 300 Minneapolis attorneys helping clients solve complex legal issues in meeting their goals, |
| 0:12.9 | in the Twin Cities and Beyond, Faygriddrinker.com. |
| 0:18.2 | What does one of the country's most environmentally friendly homes look like 18 years later? |
| 0:24.3 | I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. First, there's news. 13,000 more people were on America's |
| 0:30.1 | payrolls last month. That's more than twice what was expected. Also, the separate survey of |
| 0:34.4 | households finds the unemployment rate ticking down, a sliver 4.3% now. But this is also the separate survey of households finds the unemployment rate ticking down, a sliver, 4.3% now. |
| 0:39.7 | But this is also the moment each year when the government does revisions for previous months, |
| 0:44.5 | and that shows a year that might earn a B minus or C plus for hiring. |
| 0:49.7 | Economist Julia Coronado is founder of macro policy perspectives. |
| 0:53.1 | Morning, Julia. |
| 0:56.1 | Good morning. So first of all, |
| 1:02.6 | that's nice. More people getting on payrolls? Yes, a very strong number for January. We have to look at it with some caution. They warned us that winter weather reduced the response rate to the survey, |
| 1:08.7 | and we have sort of a wild jump in healthcare hiring, more than |
| 1:13.4 | 130,000 jobs, that seems a little suspect, but the unemployment rate tells us that it is still |
| 1:21.1 | a decent job market. We were due for the big yearly revision today, and it looks like all those other months were revised downward. I get by 862,000 people we thought had jobs didn't. |
| 1:35.1 | It's not a huge surprise, but it's a confirmation that the hiring rate in the U.S. has really stepped down pretty dramatically. |
| 1:43.3 | So how would the Fed process this, do you think, |
| 1:46.1 | in trying to determine, is it time to lower interest rates? Well, the Fed is going to take its |
| 1:50.6 | queue from the unemployment rate. The lower hiring rate reflects the immigration policy that has |
| 1:57.3 | really restricted the growth of the labor market, which really had driven strong gains over the prior years. |
| 2:04.2 | The unemployment rate at 4.3 percent, that's a decent unemployment rate. That tells the Fed that, you know, |
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