Last Monday, as frigid weather battered Texas, I called friends in Houston: the call never went through. Along with thousands of other basic parts of everyday life, the cell phone system failed.
What happened?
Texas, the nation’s leading energy producing state, seemed like the last place on Earth that could run out of energy.
Then it did…
One example of how Texas has gone it alone is its refusal to enforce a “reserve margin” of extra power available above expected demand, unlike all other power systems around North America.
— New York Times 22 Feb. 2021
Ironically, a decade ago a similar cold snap kicked Texas’ ass. Instead of seeing that event as a warning, the state wrote it off as a fluke. This month the reckoning came due. Lives lost, billions in property damaged and one helluva mess in a rare yet predictable and preventable disaster.
Closer to home, through Sunday this February contained 943 Heating Degree Days. Normally that would be 625, meaning local families can expect their next heating bill to be 50% more than last year – plus any surcharge for extra, high-cost natural gas or electricity area utilities had to buy to meet demand. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch 22 Feb 2021]
Over the decades – since a high point during the Reagan administration – federal heating assistance funds have been trimmed. Energy grants originally formed part of the Republican support system to keep workers in low paying jobs via targeted, means-tested benefits. Food stamps; the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children; free USDA commodity foods [government cheese]; free school meals; energy assistance, and, Medicaid made that $7.25 an hour job almost tenable. Millions of Americans faced permanent serfdom, yet, few fell off the cliff.
In recent years, alas, the same GOP turned on the poor. Now they oppose benefit programs and even now refuse to raise the minimum wage.
The result?
A constant stream on TV news of long lines for free food distributions. (Being unemployed or underemployed does not negate the need to feed your kids.)
In coming weeks this region, along with the rest of America, comes to a reckoning on hunger. Those feeding families will do all that they can. The coming decrease in unemployment pay, coupled with the end of moratoriums on evictions and utility cut-offs, will leave struggling families with even less money for food. They need us to help.
Now, the long-term solution remains controlling – via vaccination and smart public health practices – COVID-19.
In Missouri that fight is led by Dr. Randall Williams, a refugee from North Carolina…
Yes, in his previous job running public health in North Carolina, Doctor Bow Tie lied about the safety of drinking water. In order to appease the coal industry, he claimed coal waste wasn’t contaminating wells – when it was.
Can we trust him when he says that Missouri is doing all that it can to fight COVID-19?
I never did reach my friends in Texas. I did trade e-mails with their daughter, an East Coast person. She too has been in the dark but feels bad news would have gotten out. So 2021.
Glenn