Texas Blackouts Highlight Energy Inequality

A historic and rare winter storm leaves the state’s most vulnerable without power while downtowns are lit up

Victor Zelaya tries to start a fire on a barbecue grill during a power outage caused by the winter storm on February 16, 2021, in Houston, Texas. Photo: Go Nakamura/Getty Images

Millions of Texas residents have been left without power after a rare and historic winter storm swept through and caused blackouts throughout the state. But poor and minority communities in the state have been hit especially hard by the blackouts, the New York Times reports.

The blackouts are making a bad situation worse — temperatures in Texas this week have dropped to as low as minus 19 degrees in some places, leaving people in the state scrambling for warmth.

The Times spoke with Ricardo Cruz, a 42-year-old father of five who lives in a San Antonio housing project, about how the blackouts are impacting his family. “I need to take my kids somewhere to keep them warm. I don’t know where,” he said on Monday, when the low temperature was 10 degrees in San Antonio.

Texas Blackouts Hit Minority Neighborhoods Especially Hard

On Tuesday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the corporation that manages…