Texas furious after blackouts; strong questions

AUSTIN, Texas, USA (AP) – All the groceries were spoiled and there was no water for several days. Then Melissa Rogers – a firm believer that government should take its place in Texas – woke up to find that she had to pay $ 6,000 for electricity even before the snow and ice melted.

“The roads were awful, and we went all over town trying to get money out of whatever bank we could think of,” said Rogers, 36, whose Fort Worth family of four ultimately got a $ 80 remainder after the collections ate up her bills and her husband’s pay.

Now, the reaction to a winter catastrophe that caused one of the worst power outages in American history is unusual in Texas: People are calling for more regulation.

Texas power grid administrators are expected to come under fire Thursday in early public hearings on the crisis at the State Capitol, where the belief that less government intervention is better is reflected in a part-time legislature that It only meets once every two years and only for 140 days. The current session ends in May.

Because of this, Texas has little time to create stricter provisions that the state’s Republican majority has resisted for decades, after the frigid darkness that affected nearly all of the state’s 30 million residents in one way or another. The grocery shelves were emptied and thousands of water pipes burst. Likewise, the ignored warnings following the deep frost of 2011 in Texas had faded into skepticism.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott wants to force power plants to adapt to the freezing weather after nearly half of the state’s generating capacity was shut down due to freezing temperatures. There is also new support for safeguards to be placed on the deregulated Texas electricity market to prevent the skyrocketing electricity bills that financially wipe out homeowners like Rogers, who frantically drained their savings after electricity prices wholesale, typically a couple of cents per kilowatt-hour, will skyrocket to $ 9 per kilowatt-hour.

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At $ 9 per kilowatt-hour, the average American household would receive a monthly electric bill of about $ 8,000.

“In many respects, we are victims of our own attempt to let market forces out of the loop,” said Republican State Representative Drew Darby, who is on the House Energy Resources Committee investigating blackouts.

His rural district includes two or three houses in the Texas oil zone that ran out of power when the supply went intermittent, and he learned of plants that couldn’t burn piles of frozen coal in the open. Even before the storm dumped six inches (15.24 centimeters) of snow as far south as San Antonio, generators in Texas were required to submit backup plans to deal with freezing weather. Darby suspects that there was lax law enforcement.

“The Texas Legislature routinely opposes overregulation,” Darby said. “However, my point of view on something as basic as survival and people’s needs is that we must have a reliable supply of electricity and water.”

At least six board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which runs the state power grid, resigned this week ahead of potential claims to that effect during hearings. Authorities in Houston began their own investigations into the power outages and Austin prosecutors say they will investigate possible criminal wrongdoing.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to Texas on Friday, his first visit to a disaster site since taking office. Weeks before the blackouts, Abbott had directed state agencies to find ways to sue the new government over energy provisions that it said will obstruct the state’s largest industry.

Abbot has put much of the blame on ERCOT, which it accuses of misleading Texas about the network’s readiness. In a rare televised speech Wednesday night in Texas, Abbott said the legislature will not go into recess until the problems are fixed. “You deserve answers. You will have those answers, “he said.

Abbott did not name the state Utilities Commission, which oversees ERCOT and whose commissioners were appointed by him.

A federal report after the 2011 blackouts called for power generators to be hardened against extreme cold, but neither the commission nor ERCOT asked plant owners to do more than just submit emergency preparedness plans. cold. There are no rules on what those plans should contain.

ERCOT personnel conduct site inspections on small portions of power plants each year among other things to verify their progress in protecting equipment. However, ERCOT President Bill Magness said that “these are not inspections.” There is no regulatory authority that imposes fines or penalties.

Democratic State Representative Rafael Anchia said a crisis is often needed to push through transformative regulations.

“Sometimes standards are a cursed word in this building,” said Anchia, who sits on the House of Representatives energy committee. “But four million people without electricity and 12 million without drinking water, that draws everyone’s attention.”

In Houston, Mya James’ diabetic grandmother was rushed to an emergency room because she was having trouble breathing. There had been no light for two days. Nursing staff at another hospital collected rainwater in buckets to use in bathrooms.

James, 38, is a beauty products entrepreneur with overseas clients. When the blackouts began, customers in other countries were puzzled: How is it possible that Texas, a state built on energy, has no power?

“It was very difficult for people to understand,” James said. “If they know us by one aspect, let’s be good at that aspect.”

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Associated Press reporter David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

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