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Compensating Customers for Power Outages: A Bad Regulatory Policy?
Author(s) -
Costello Kenneth W.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
climate and energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2692-3823
pISSN - 2692-3831
DOI - 10.1002/gas.22246
Subject(s) - blackout , harm , storm , thunderstorm , climate change , severe weather , extreme weather , environmental science , power (physics) , meteorology , geography , electric power system , political science , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , law , biology
Few people doubt that the United States will continue experiencing long‐lasting, highly damaging electric power outages—like outages from Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the Texas Blackout, record‐breaking heat waves causing wildfires and infrastructure damage, and more tornadic activity and severe hurricanes in Florida and other coastal states. Many weather experts believe that hurricane strength, precipitation intensity, thunderstorm frequency, and winter storm activity—all partially attributed to climate change—will continue to escalate in the future. These occurrences will likely lead to more frequent and longer‐lasting power outages with the potential to inflict significant harm on businesses, individuals and local economies.