Power Grids Are Failing All Over America
We can no longer trust our nation’s infrastructure to keep our families safe, happy, and healthy
Last Wednesday, the snow started to fall thick and fast in Denver, Colorado. My kids went to bed hoping for a snow day. They’ve spent most of their childhood in California, and sometimes we had smoke days there. These days were ominous and choking, ash fell from the sky and got stuck in our eyelashes. But snow days? Snow days are sleds and snowmen. My daughter heard that if she wore her pajamas to bed inside out on a snowy night, she’d wake up to a snow day. That night, we all went to bed wearing our pajamas inside out.
We woke to 10 inches of fresh snow. It was a big snowstorm for Denver, our seventh largest February storm since 1874. Breakfast had a festive air. The kids chanted “Snow day! Snow day! Snow day!” as they bundled downstairs to watch Phineas and Ferb. I listened to them chant and thought of the children in Texas who had recently died because of a few snow days. Lights went out, heaters went cold, and frozen pipes burst because the Texas power grid had failed.
The power grid may be abstract to the common houseperson. If we’ve paid our bills, we expect to be able to turn on a light, warm an oven, heat the rooms that house ourselves and our children…
