(The Center Square) \u2013 U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued emergency orders to mitigate blackouts in New England and Texas as 24 states have declared an emergency due to an Arctic blast moving across the U.S. over the weekend.<\/p>\n
More than 200 million people are in Storm Fern\u2019s 2,300-mile path, stretching from New Mexico to Maine. The storm has led to roughly 12,000 flight cancellations, impacting airports stretching from Dallas to Boston. More than 31,000 flights were disrupted nationwide since Friday, according to FlightAware<\/a>\u00a0data.<\/p>\n Twelve states have reported more than a foot of snow so far, Fox Weather reported.<\/a> Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire are expected to get more than a foot before the storm is over.\u00a0<\/p>\n Southern states have been hit hard, including in northern Mississippi, where tens of thousands<\/a> of residents are without power due to ice-laden trees downing power lines.<\/p>\n More than 900,000 electricity customers have lost power nationwide, according to multiple reports.<\/a><\/p>\n Wright issued the\u00a0emergency orders<\/a> pursuant to Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, authorizing ISO New\u00a0England Inc. and the Electric\u00a0Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to run\u00a0specified\u00a0resources\u00a0in their regions, overriding environmental permits or state law restrictions. He has issued<\/a> two emergency orders\u00a0in response to ERCOT requests to leverage backup generation at data centers and other industrial sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are three major grids in the U.S. New England states fall under the Eastern Interconnection\u00a0electric grid managed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation\u2019s Northeast Power Coordinating Council. Texas operates its own grid managed by ERCOT.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wright argues the orders will\u00a0help\u00a0ISO-NE and ERCOT manage power generation, minimize blackouts and reduce electric costs. He also blames the Biden administration for increasing electricity costs and weakening the grids nationwide.<\/p>\n \u201cThe previous administration\u2019s energy subtraction policies weakened the grid, leaving Americans more vulnerable during events like Winter Storm Fern,\u201d Wright said. The Trump administration is \u201creversing those failures and using every available tool to keep the lights on and Americans safe through this storm,\u201d he said in a news release.<\/p>\n On his first day in office, President Donald Trump\u00a0declared a national energy emergency<\/a>\u00a0\u201cafter the Biden administration\u2019s energy subtraction agenda left behind a grid\u00a0increasingly vulnerable<\/a>\u00a0to blackouts,\u201d Wright said. The Biden administration\u2019s \u201cpremature forced closure of reliable generation such as coal and natural gas plants leaves American families vulnerable to power outages,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wright cites a\u00a0North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)<\/a> warning stating that \u201cwinter electricity demand is rising at\u00a0the fastest rate in recent years\u201d and a\u00a0NERC 2025-2026 Winter Reliability Assessment<\/a> warning about elevated blackouts risks nationwide during extreme weather conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Power outages also cost Americans $44 billion a year, according to DOE Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory analysis<\/a>. It cites several extreme weather events in 2021 as examples, including Winter Storm Uri in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n The storm caused wind turbines to freeze and natural gas pipelines were impacted by ice, preventing fuel delivery to many gas-powered plants, the report notes. Systemic failures impacted 40% of Texas\u2019 power generation capacity; subsequent outages impacted roughly 4.5 million customers left without power for one week, the report notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n State legislative hearings found that ERCOT failures weren\u2019t attributed to Biden administration policies but ERCOT policies and failed state regulatory oversight, The Center Square reported.<\/a> ERCOT board members didn\u2019t even live in Texas, were using \u201cphantom reserve margins<\/a>\u201d and systemic failures were identified within the state utility commission, The Center Square reported.<\/a> Multiple people were fired and resigned.<\/p>\n The Texas legislature enacted a series of reforms that state regulators and the energy industry have since implemented, The Center Square reported.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n As a result, electricity customers have seen their electricity rates<\/a> and bills increase exponentially. They have also not experienced a repeat of the 2021 catastrophic failures.\u00a0<\/p>\n During last January\u2019s polar vortex, the Texas grid and energy companies set three all-time records for demand and supply and met energy needs during subfreezing temperatures, The Center Square reported.<\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n Storm Fern ushered in<\/a> thundersleet, snow and ice to most of Texas, including the oil and gas producing Permian Basin and Houston region where refineries are located. Ahead of the extreme weather, the Texas energy industry weatherized operations and says oil and natural gas production will continue to meet increased demand. ERCOT says Texas\u2019 grid remains strong despite issuing the DOE requests, The Center Square reported.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013 U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued emergency orders to mitigate blackouts in New England…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21759,10746,4491,58548,1225,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-138454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-maine","9":"tag-massachusetts","10":"tag-national","11":"tag-new_mexico","12":"tag-public-safety","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-headlines","15":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}