Weather forecasters are predicting wild temperature swings across the eastern U.S. Wednesday was expected to be another scorcher before temperatures plunge as much as 30 degrees.

Public Utility Commission chair Peter Lake had spearheaded a plan to help the state’s power grid withstand weather disasters, but the plan lacked support in the Texas Legislature.

The biggest barriers to making Texas’ power grid 100% renewable have little to do with politics.

In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with University of Texas at Austin professor Michael Webber and environment reporter Erin Douglas about the state’s widespread power outages.

It's been a bear of a year for Ohio's Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, the nation’s second-largest zoological park.

The conversation will focus on what we’ve learned about extreme weather in Texas and beyond — and what can be done about it.

HOUSTON – Frustration is still boiling over the deadly freeze that ravaged Texas last month. A freeze, that according to ERCOT’s records, show’s a large number of facilities in the state going down. Some of them are the same ones that went down during a paralyzing North Texas freeze in 2011. Ten years ago, as a state senator, Hager authored legislation requiring the winterization of generators to avoid future failures. Ad“It’s the same lessons learned,” said deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas, Michael Webber.

Evan Smith, CEO of The Texas Tribune. (Audio unavailable. Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Millions of people across Texas lost power during this week’s storm, and some died in the extreme cold without heat. Natural gas plants, utility scale wind turbines, coal and nuclear plants alike began to trip — many lacked the investments necessary to keep them online during low temperatures. AdRetrofitting existing natural gas wells would be extremely difficult and probably cost prohibitive, according to Parker Fawcett, a natural gas analyst for S&P Global Platts. While ERCOT did not expect to have very much wind energy available during the peak of winter energy demand, experts said that wind turbines, too, could be winterized. That’s because most states and countries rely on wind power as a cheap additional source of energy rather than a primary source.