BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — A study by Climate Central, a nonprofit research group, finds extreme weather events to be behind a spike in power outages over more than two decades.
The rise comes as extreme weather gets worse amid the rise in global temperatures. As the demand for electricity climbs, the country’s energy infrastructure gets older and more vulnerable.
The analysis found that from 2000 to 2021, 83 percent of all reported power outages were caused by a weather related event. Such events range from drought-fueled wildfires to damaging storms like tornadoes and hurricanes, many of which will only intensify as the climate warms.
