There was a silver lining in living for three days without power and freezing conditions inside my house. Having an electric car in the garage which provided a temporary reprieve for charging devices, temporary warmth and power outage news. Outfitting electric cars with generators would be extremely helpful.

Investments in electric cars and necessary infrastructure to make it viable is an important step in reducing emissions. But the power outage of last month demands reckoning with the facts on climate change. 2021 snowstorm happened after the hottest decade of all times since the 2011 storm. People suffered when our leaders played blame game.

Texas leadership is in denial and we should demand action. We are surrounded with things which are made using fossil fuels including electric cars. Transition away from fossil fuels would be extremely hard but not impossible. Let us take a first step and put price on carbon.

Kalpana Sutaria

Submitted to the Austin American-Statesman

March 22, 2021