These events are geographically diverse, occurring from Florida to Maine and California and including noncoastal states such as Indiana, Iowa, Illinois and Pennsylvania. According to new research, power failures in the US have grown by more than 60 percent since 2015. For the truth remains that power system failures are increasing every day in a world made hotter by climate change. That head-in-the-sand response cannot be our future. But help for customers? The Texas legislature refused to require any new backup power - no solar installations or battery storage or anything - to protect customers in the future. Indeed, the state’s main response has been to require modest weatherization of fossil fuel power plants, along with billions in new rate hikes to make the power companies solvent.
By minimizing the toll of the disaster, Texas state officials are failing to acknowledge the magnitude of the problem and its implications for future energy policy. It matters, because these deaths must count for something. Yet despite the Buzzfeed report, the Texas state government is sticking to its low death count. The Texas death toll hit a grim new milestone. While thousands died after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it is difficult to determine how many of those deaths resulted from power outages. mainland, power outages from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 led to 117 deaths, according to the Red Cross. Many of those fatalities were among the island’s sickest, poorest and most marginalized residents. Blackouts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria may have resulted in over 4,000 deaths - more than the Commonwealth government admits. Of course, this is not the first time power outages caused large-scale loss of life. That would qualify as the largest ever mass casualty event from power outages on the American mainland. The experts concluded that more than 700 people died as a result of the Texas power failure. The report, aptly titled “ The Graveyard Doesn't Lie,” used independent experts to analyze mortality patterns after the outages. State officials say the massive failure of fossil-fuel power plants in February caused 151 deaths. But a new Buzzfeed report found that the true number could be many times higher. Texas state officials are lowballing the death count - and their denial may have profound implications for the state’s future energy policy. How many Texans died as a result of catastrophic power outages earlier this year? It depends on who you ask.
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