{"id":29792,"date":"2013-07-18T09:05:14","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T14:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=29792"},"modified":"2013-07-18T09:05:14","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T14:05:14","slug":"five-ways-climate-change-threatens-energy-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/07\/18\/five-ways-climate-change-threatens-energy-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Ways Climate Change Threatens Energy in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29804\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"An array of rooftop solar panels \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/7169063498_0c83762d93_z.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-29804\" alt=\"An array of rooftop solar panels \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/7169063498_0c83762d93_z-300x188.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/7169063498_0c83762d93_z-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/7169063498_0c83762d93_z-620x389.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/7169063498_0c83762d93_z.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by flickr user IntelFreePress<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">An array of rooftop solar panels<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Department of Energy released a <a href=\"http:\/\/energy.gov\/sites\/prod\/files\/2013\/07\/f2\/20130710-Energy-Sector-Vulnerabilities-Report.pdf\">report<\/a> recently looking at how climate change and extreme weather could make our power supplies more vulnerable. Given that it\u2019s the nation\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eia.gov\/state\/?sid=TX\">leader in energy production<\/a>, Texas was prominently featured.<\/p>\n<p>The report looks at both current and future threats to the energy sector from climate change. There are three major trends, it says:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Air and water temperatures are increasing<\/li>\n<li>Water availability is decreasing in certain regions<\/li>\n<li>Storms, instances of flooding, and sea levels are increasing in frequency and intensity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Though the report stressed how different regions of the country are connected by the energy sector, StateImpact Texas found five key takeaways that relate to Texas. Let&#8217;s take a look:<!--more--><\/p>\n<h4><strong>1. Power Lines Can&#8217;t Beat the Heat<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>It gets hot in Texas, but climate change will likely mean that it&#8217;s going to get even hotter. According to the report, that could be bad news for the state&#8217;s grid and its power consumers.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s because higher temperatures <a href=\"http:\/\/jeteas.scholarlinkresearch.org\/articles\/Effect%20of%20Sag%20on%20Transmission%20Line.pdf\">decrease the efficiency<\/a> of electric transmission by reducing current carrying capacity. Translation: just like everything else, power lines have a hard time getting motivated in the summer heat.<\/p>\n<p>As temperatures rise, power lines can sag. That means electrical currents have to work harder to move down them. This makes electricity more costly to transmit, and could even cause power failure by lines sparking against <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kVXi_0H_ZzM\">trees and other foreign objects<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>2. After the Droughts Come the Floods<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><b><\/b>Texas&#8217; persistent drought has seen the state experience much less rain. But when rain has fallen, it&#8217;s typically more intense than your average drizzle.<\/p>\n<p>The report found that Texas experienced a 15% increase in the amount of \u201cvery heavy precipitation\u201d it received between 1958 and 2007. This isn&#8217;t necessarily a good thing, since too much rain at once can damage crops and cause flash floods.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_29795\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 392px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/Screen-Shot-2013-07-16-at-2.43.33-PM.png\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29795\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2013-07-16 at 2.43.33 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/Screen-Shot-2013-07-16-at-2.43.33-PM.png\" width=\"392\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/Screen-Shot-2013-07-16-at-2.43.33-PM.png 392w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/Screen-Shot-2013-07-16-at-2.43.33-PM-300x245.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 392px) 100vw, 392px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Map by the U.S. Department of Energy<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"> <\/p><\/div>\n<h4><strong>3. Cities Having to Choose Between Water and Fracking<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>It might seem unlikely that a city in Texas would lead the way in restricting the reach of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/fracking\/\">hydraulic fracturing<\/a>, or &#8220;fracking,&#8221; but that&#8217;s precisely what Grand Prairie did in 2011. In the midst of what was then the state&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.window.state.tx.us\/specialrpt\/drought\/pdf\/96-1704-Drought.pdf\">worst drought in history<\/a>,\u00a0the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb decided to ban the sale of municipal water to companies that were fracking in the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/fracking\/\">Barnett Shale<\/a>. Although it was the first city in the United States to institute such a ban, other municipalities and water districts followed suit.<\/p>\n<p>It should be noted that the ban didn&#8217;t halt fracking in Grand Prairie altogether. At least one drilling company simply\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/news\/2011-10-06\/parched-texans-impose-water-use-limits-for-fracking-gas-wells.html\">pumped water<\/a>\u00a0from the neighboring city of Arlington, and trucked it back over to wells in Grand Prairie.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>4. Goodbye to Galveston?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>In 1969, Glen Campbell wrote the song\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xsHUgpSxMoI\">&#8220;Galveston,&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0which trumpeted the Gulf Coast city as an idyllic seaside escape. While that may still be the case, one of the report\u2019s projections says it may not be for long.<\/p>\n<p>The report says that sea levels in Galveston could rise by as much as 3.5 feet by the end of the century. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.climatecentral.org\/\">Climate Central<\/a>, nearly\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/sealevel.climatecentral.org\/surgingseas\/place\/cities\/TX\/Galveston#show=cities&amp;center=10\/29.2334\/-94.8733\">25% of Galveston\u2019s population<\/a>\u00a0currently lives just four feet above sea level. Such a rise could also alter coastal ecosystems and damage infrastructure for energy and trade.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>5. $1 Trillion Worth of Risk for Gulf Drillers<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>As climate change progresses, so too will the risk for oil and gas companies who drill in the Gulf. The report cites a study by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.entergy.com\/\">Entergy Corporation<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americaswetland.com\/\">America\u2019s Wetland Foundation<\/a> that says that by 2030, over $1 trillion in energy assets in the Gulf of Mexico will be at risk from hurricanes and rising sea levels.<\/p>\n<p>Oil platform damage from hurricanes like <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hurricane_Ivan\">Ivan<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hurricane_rita\">Rita<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hurricane_Katrina\">Katrina<\/a> could become more common as the number and intensity of Gulf storms increases. The map below shows the distribution of Gulf energy assets that could exist by 2030, as well as where they would be located.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_29799\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 677px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/Screen-Shot-2013-07-16-at-2.52.29-PM.png\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29799\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2013-07-16 at 2.52.29 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/Screen-Shot-2013-07-16-at-2.52.29-PM.png\" width=\"677\" height=\"383\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/Screen-Shot-2013-07-16-at-2.52.29-PM.png 677w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/Screen-Shot-2013-07-16-at-2.52.29-PM-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/07\/Screen-Shot-2013-07-16-at-2.52.29-PM-620x350.png 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 677px) 100vw, 677px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Map by the U.S. Department of Energy<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"> <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Energy released a report recently looking at how climate change and extreme weather could make our power supplies more vulnerable. Given that it\u2019s the nation\u2019s leader in energy production, Texas was prominently featured. The report looks at both current and future threats to the energy sector from climate change. There are three [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29792"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29869,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29792\/revisions\/29869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}