Texas Leaders Failed to Heed Warnings that Left the State's Power Grid Vulnerable to Winter Extremes, Experts Say

Texas officials knew winter storms could leave the state’s power grid vulnerable, but they left the choice to prepare for harsh weather up to the power companies — many of which opted against the costly upgrades. Dev Niyogi, a geosciences professor at the University of Texas at Austin and Planet Texas researcher, said climate scientists want infrastructure design to consider a “much larger spectrum of possibilities” rather than treating these storms as a rarity, or a so-called “100-year event.”