February 2021 Media Brief

The Energy in COVID-19 monthly media briefs collect the latest news read by our working group members. Each month, different working group members take the lead in writing up summaries and the brief’s framing, always in conversation with the full working group. The overall aim of the briefs is to showcase how disasters instigate policy changes, particularly around economic crises. The February edition of the media brief covers two themes:The Texas Grid Failure: Coverage and Impacts, and Impacts of COVID-19: Energy Usage, Utility Moratorium and Subsequent Energy Burdens.

Summary

The Energy Right Project’s February Media brief covers two distinct themes: The Texas Grid Failure: Coverage and Impacts, and Impacts of COVID-19: Energy Usage, Utility Moratorium and Subsequent Energy Burdens. The artifacts relating to the Texas Grid Failure discuss the conditions that led to the crisis, the increasingly cyclical and compounded disasters of climate change and energy crises, and the ways in which energy markets have been impacted by the grid failure. Artifacts from February also continue to cover the impact COVID-19 has had on energy usage in the United States and elsewhere, the ending of utility moratoria in Pennsylvania and in other states, which provided protection for customers who had been struggling to afford their utility bills, and energy burdens that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.