The Situation in Texas

This week, our grid failed us when temperatures reached historic lows and people needed electricity and heat the most.

There were almost 4.5 million customers without power during the peak of the outage on February 16th. As of today, there are still close to 3 million Texans without power.

Like many of you, I have been without power since early Sunday morning. Like many of you, I still have no estimate of when I will have electricity again.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, manages about 90% of the state's power for 26 million customers. ERCOT has stated there were 45,000 megawatts offline. ERCOT is overseen by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature. Their recently elected chair and vice chair for the board of directors do not live in Texas and live in Michigan and California respectively.

Around 5:00 last Friday, the Governor issued a disaster declaration in advance of the severe weather predicted to impact all 254 counties of Texas.

My agency, the Railroad Commission of Texas, acted swiftly to ensure we did everything within our authority to free up natural gas for Texas families and electrical generation facilities. At 6:30 that night, we conducted an emergency open meeting and passed an order requiring gas utility systems to prioritize “human needs customers” such as residential homes and hospitals. The goal was to reduce the use of natural gas for industrial needs to ensure Texas families had access to electricity and heat as temperatures dropped.

Unfortunately, demand continued to outpace supply. On the morning of February 14th, ERCOT CEO Bill Magness warned: “We are experiencing record-breaking electric demand due to the extreme cold temperatures that have gripped Texas. At the same time, we are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines and limited natural gas supplies available to generating units.”

Many, including myself, have warned for years about the dangers of relying too heavily on unreliable, intermittent forms of electric generation like wind and solar to meet the energy needs for thirty-million Texans.

The issue isn't the existence of renewable energy, but that it has displaced reliable generation (coal and nuclear), not through natural market forces but through massive subsidies and punitive regulatory policies from progressives in Washington D.C. In 2009, “coal-fired plants generated nearly 37 percent of the state’s electricity while wind provided about 6 percent. Since then, three Texas coal-fired plants have closed… In the same period, our energy consumption rose by 20 percent.”

ERCOT was notified over a decade ago that Texas power plants had failed to adequately weatherize facilities to protect against cold weather. A federal report that summer recommended steps including installing heating elements around pipes and increasing the amount of reserve power available before storms.

In 2011, then Senator Glenn Hegar passed SB 1133 requiring the Public Utility Commission to analyze emergency operations plans developed by electric utilities; analyze and determine the ability of the electric grid to withstand extreme weather events in the upcoming year; and make recommendations on improving emergency operations plans and procedures in order to ensure the continuity of electric service. As a state representative, I voted in favor of this bill.

Instead of spending our resources making our grid more resilient, policy and spending has focused on mandating or subsidizing wind and solar to expand their presence on the grid.

The takeaway from this storm should not be the failure of fossil fuels, but the failure of leadership at ERCOT and the dangers of relying on intermittent, unreliable forms of energy like wind for a quarter of our energy needs.

It shows as clear as day that the goal of 100% renewables by 2035 is unrealistic and attempts to get there will only increase suffering and harm Texas families during adverse weather conditions.

Had Texas been using 100% renewables, we would have had 100% blackouts.

I support Governor Abbott in making ERCOT reform an emergency item this legislative session. I am thankful that Speaker Phelan and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick have quickly called for legislative hearings on this matter as well. We must ensure this never happens again.

My thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families across our state without power, our linemen, energy producers, first responders, doctors, hospital support staff, essential workers, and everyone else helping Texans get through this difficult situation.

Stay safe. Stay warm.