New Report: 2021’s Winter Storm Uri Didn’t Need To Be So Deadly and Expensive

Kansas City, KS -- A new report published today by the Sierra Club identifies key lessons to be learned from 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, which left over seven hundred people dead and caused approximately $200 billion in damages. One year after the tragedy, the report finds that regulators and policymakers have done little to address the underlying vulnerabilities and inequities that led to nearly 10 million people losing power during sub-freezing temperatures. 

While the gas industry and some public officials were quick to blame the power outages on wind and solar, later analysis showed that the gas system was the primary source of the grid’s failures. The price of gas sailed to astronomical highs during the storm, forcing utilities and homeowners to incur massive debts, and prompting investigations into price gouging. Millions of Americans from Texas to Minnesota will be paying higher gas bills for decades to come due to the gas system’s failures during this period, making the report relevant to Kansas.

In particular, this report identifies six key ways that public officials at local, state, and federal levels could address the failings that allowed Winter Storm Uri to cause such extensive damage:

1. Increase Energy Efficiency, to allow the same amount of electricity to go further;

2. Implement Demand Response, to intelligently shift when and where electricity is used;

3. Protect and Improve the Grid, to create a smarter energy system, ensure existing power generation can coexist with clean and distributed energy sources, and ensure that localized issues (such as outages due to extreme weather events) don't spread across the entire grid;

4. Increase Access to Clean Energy, to ensure that all communities can enjoy its benefits;

5. Foster More Public Input, to guarantee that individuals and communities (not just utilities and large corporations) have a voice in any and all regulatory decisions; and

6. Learn from Past Mistakes, so that the lessons learned from Winter Storm Uri—as well as from past extreme weather events like those in 2011 and 1989—are used to create a cleaner, more resilient grid.

Sierra Club released a report called Kansas Pays the Price Volume 2 last year that details how to accomplish some of these goals. 

Statement from Ty Gorman, Kansas Campaign Representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign:

“The climate crisis isn’t just a problem for the next generation. It’s impacting Kansas right now, and it’s causing more extreme weather, including winter storms. While we may not have been hit as hard by Winter Storm Uri as people living in Texas, the tragedy highlights the importance of modernizing our entire electric grid and transitioning from fossil fuels to 100% clean, renewable energy. Likewise, we must increase community engagement in energy policy, particularly in Black and Hispanic communities, both of which have historically been left out of the conversation, and should receive utility investment to help shape our energy future.”

Statement from Jenn DeRose, Missouri Campaign Representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign:  

“We need effective avenues for people to be heard during critical energy planning processes, because it turns out that gas utilities are not inclined to change a business model that extracts wealth from people and our environment. In the last year alone, the gas utility Spire defended an industry that massively failed during the winter freeze while scapegoating renewable energy. Spire also engaged in a fear campaign about its inappropriate self-dealing to build a pipeline it didn’t need, and launched greenwashing ads promoting its “net-zero” carbon emissions goals, even though the utility doesn’t have a plan for achieving that goal. Now is the time for communities to take control of their energy future. We hope this report spurs more community action around energy issues and more utility accountability to the communities they serve.”