Power grids supplied by clean energy are more reliable. That saves lives

(Sierra Club) – On February 2021, a rare Valentines Day winter storm wallops Texas with snow and a deep freeze. The storm will knock out power for at least 69% of people across the state. Hundreds will die. That was Winter Storm Uri. Many of us probably remember it as the storm that sent Senator Ted Cruz packing for a vacation in Cancun while his constituents suffered. Related Stories Captain Selena Xie, president of the Austin Emergency Medical Services Association, was enraged when she read from a local reporter at the time: “One reader who emailed me about the issue described the power and water outages as a ‘minor inconvenience’ for most Texans.” One of Xie’s first calls the morning after the storm was for a man who had planned to die at home, peacefully and surrounded by loved ones. That didn’t happen. Xie recounted, “When his oxygen, that was making him comfortable, went out, he started making awful grunting sounds. It is not acceptable to die like that, in agony. We had no other options at the time than to take the person to the hospital to keep him comfortable, but not before we let his wife cry against...