By Tania Pena Reyes, Spring 2021.
It was in the not-too-distant past that the state of Texas encountered one of its biggest winter storms in history. I had the honor of being one of the millions of Texans who lost power during this disaster. I was lucky: my family went without power for just over 13 hours. It felt much longer. As someone who sees a learning opportunity in every situation, I am proud to say I got this one fairly quickly: like the baby-boomer think-pieces say, Americans today are not ready to survive without electricity. However, our society’s reliance on electricity is not intrinsically a bad thing. On a global scale, access to reliable electricity has caused a dramatic drop in poverty rates as well as increased the level of education, health, and agricultural productivity.[1] Instead of scorning our dependence on electricity, it is critical we explore it and understand how even in the US, this necessity is not accessible to everyone. Because if sitting in a darkened, quiet house for hours taught me anything, it’s that no one deserves to be left powerless.
In developed countries like the US, some of the most basic and critical parts of the day depend on having a reliable source of power to fuel physical infrastructure. Water treatment plants and at-home cooling and heating units constantly use power to provide us with a safe environment. As many Texans learned last February, most food supply chains in the US are a short power outage away from collapsing. This is because each step in the supply chain is affected by the loss of electricity[2]: grocery stores lose cooling systems and are forced to throw food out, new shipments get delayed due to malfunctioning traffic signals, and production is halted by a lack of access to processing machinery. Situations such as these demonstrate how power outages have widespread consequences across society.
Digital infrastructure also heavily relies on a consistent energy supply. When communities lose power, they often lose more than just wifi routers and a source to charge their laptops—they also frequently are left without a reliable cell phone signal[3], making it nearly impossible for everyday people to communicate with those outside the affected area. A recent outage in Illinois revealed that because of the interconnectedness of electric, cable, and cellular grids, a loss of one can frequently result in loss of the others. In a natural disaster, losing these resources is life-threatening. And even in daily life, communities rely on internet access for communication, news, work, and school. Our dependence on a cellular or local internet connection only amplifies our dependence on electricity.
When most people experience a lack of access to reliable electricity, it is usually over in a short burst of time. However, even in these brief losses of power, the US measures up badly when compared to other nations.[4] In their most recent infrastructure report, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the US a C- grade for energy[5], meaning that many parts of our power grid are showing serious amounts of deterioration. Recent analyses have shown that the US has a higher rate of power outages than most developed nations. In 2016, the average utility customer had 1.3 power outages adding up to a total of 4 hours in the dark throughout the entire year. Although not major crises, instances such as these disrupt daily life and result in valuable time lost for the people who experience them.
For many communities across the country, however, energy insecurity is a constant worry. Low-income Americans faced with too-high bills consistently face the reality of going long periods of time without power. Additionally, historically marginalized communities are often left behind when it comes to electrical access. A 2011 study found that out of the 48,000 households on Navajo reservations, 18,000 lacked access to electricity.[6] Factors like geographic isolation, political issues, and the high cost of infrastructure investment have left thousands of Americans without reliable power. This energy insecurity further alienates historically marginalized communities and serves as a reminder that despite the incredible feat that is the US energy grid, in the places where it falters, it often hurts those who have the most to lose.
With the country’s energy dependence becoming increasingly evident, many agencies have explored ways to counter these insecurities. When faced with natural disasters such as the annual heat waves in California, regional agencies have experimented with rolling blackouts. Meant to reduce the length of individual power outages, rolling blackouts will frequently result in an unequal impact on communities: families with the means to do so turn to personal generators or solar energy, while those without bear the full brunt of the outage.[7] Although they provide a solution to a volatile energy grid, rolling blackouts often exacerbate the issues of inequality in energy accessibility.
Another way the US is looking to address its electric dependence is seen in the proposed American Jobs Plan. If passed, this bill plans to allocate $100 billion to updating the US energy grid, building long-term infrastructure to generate renewable energy and creating a new Grid Deployment Authority within the Department of Energy which would be tasked with building new power lines to bring electricity to areas with energy insecurity. Energy advocates, like the American Society of Civil Engineers, have praised the bill for its attempt to bring accessible, dependable electricity to all parts of the US.
As America moves through the 21st century, our dependence on electricity has become more apparent than ever, yet so have the inherent disparities our energy system cultivates. Living through a prolonged power outage teaches you many things: how to play cards by candlelight, why your grandmother was right about your phone habits, and who amongst your neighbors would survive an apocalypse. But mostly, it teaches you to value the simple act of turning on a light, and that no one should have to face uncertainty when reaching for a light switch.
[1] Bridge, Brandon A., Dadhi Adhikari, and Matías Fontenla. “Electricity, Income, and Quality of Life.” The Social Science Journal. January 12, 2015. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0362331914001505.
[2] Aguilar, Julián. “Texans Running out of Food as Weather Crisis Disrupts Supply Chain.” The Texas Tribune. February 18, 2021. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/17/texas-food-supply-power-outage/.
[3] Rivers, Amie. “Storms Leave 340,000 without Internet, Cable in Iowa/Illinois.” Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. August 26, 2020. https://wcfcourier.com/news/storms-leave-340-000-without-internet-cable-in-iowa-illinois/article_8fa8640b-279f-5ebe-bc55-5bd38602269f.html.
[4] Chroback, Ula. “The US Has More Power Outages than Any Other Developed Country. Here’s Why.” Popular Science. August 17, 2020. https://www.popsci.com/story/environment/why-us-lose-power-storms/.
[5] ASCE’s 2021 Infrastructure Report Card. March, 2021. https://infrastructurereportcard.org/.
[6] Tarasi, David; Christian Alexander; Julie Nania; Bob Gregory, “18,000 Americans without Electricity: Illuminating and Solving the Navajo Energy Crisis,” Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy 22, no. 2 (Spring 2011): 263-282 https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/colenvlp22&i=269.
[7] Bussewitz, Cathy. “California Power Outages Highlight Economic Disparity.” Associated Press. October 13, 2019. https://apnews.com/article/california-us-news-ap-top-news-income-disparity-ca-state-wire-abf6aa6a271447c1a2a3c1303f2b7884