Mess with Texas

Or should that be ‘mess in Texas’?

BY THE TIME you read this, there may still be some Arkansans without power because of this one-two punch of a winter storm. But because of some cold and wet workers outside, not only fighting the frigid temperatures but working with cold and wet power lines, the electricity will be on soonest. Bank on it.

But they’re really having trouble in Texas. Millions have lost power. Millions may still be without it. A little digging will tell you why the state with the most energy resources (by far) can’t keep the lights and heat on. And it’s not all environmental wacko stuff.

Yes, some frozen wind turbines are stuck and not moving. Which caused some conservative pols down in Texas to complain that the state was relying too much on renewable power. But The Texas Tribune reports that wind power “makes up only a fraction” of powergenerating capacity in Texas.

And nuclear and fossil-fuel plants need (unfrozen) water to operate. One nuclear plant in Bay City shut down because of a lack of water. And, as the paper notes, Texans don’t use insulation on their pipelines to protect from cold, so everything froze up.

The Republican governor isn’t blaming renewables. He’s blaming the agency that operates the power grid in Texas—the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, more locally known as ERCOT. Speaking of the power grid . . . . Reasons for the blackouts in Texas are many, but here is one that you might not have heard yet: Many Texans still think of their state as a quasiindependent country. We remember not long ago that some still argued its state constitution allowed for it to secede from the Union at any point. Back in 1935, when FDR signed the Federal Power Act—setting the basis for sharing electricity between the states—Texas decided: no thanks. And set up its own power grid system.

“There are three power grids in the United States,” CNN reports. “The eastern power grid, the western power grid, and, well, Texas.”

It gets better. Or for Texans right now, worse:

“And while being independent from the yoke of federal regulation has always been a point of pride for Texas, the limits of that strategy are being realized now. See, because Texas—or at least 90 percent of the state—is controlled by ERCOT, they can’t simply borrow power from either the eastern or western power grids. That’s never been a problem before because Texas has always been able to generate more power than its citizens need. But the reality is that Texas is an electricity island, which isn’t a problem until the lights go out, and you don’t have enough power in the state to turn them back on.”

To make matters worse, The Houston Chronicle notes that the chair of ERCOT lives in the state of Michigan, and the vice chair lives in California. So the leadership isn’t even local. You can imagine the frustration in Texas. Actually, you don’t have to imagine. The governor and Legislature are calling for emergency hearings and a special session.

Many Arkansans have friends and family in Texas, and we wish them well. Because that’s the only thing we can do from here. We can’t send power.

For now, we all need to hunker down. But after this storm clears (by the weekend) the nation needs to have a long talk with Texas. There has got to be a better system. Even if only during emergencies.