Deep in the heart of Texas
This past week Texas experienced the perfect storm (no pun intended) of a deregulated power grid versus Mother Nature. Wanna take a guess who won? Daily news showed Texas looking like scenes from the movie, “The Day After Tomorrow.” A foot of snow in most of Texas left millions without power and heat for days, nor running water as the pipes froze. And while Sen. Ted Cruz laughed at California for not being able to keep the power on a year-and-a-half ago during the wind storms when PG&E shut down our power grid, the exact same thing happened in Texas this past week.
ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) runs the Texas power grid. Think air traffic controller for all these independent energy providers. ERCOT tries to match supply (independent energy) with demand (residential and commercial). What happens when supply suddenly drops 80% and demand increases by 100%? In Houston this past week the wholesale price of electricity went from $22 per megawatthour to around $9,000. People who average $100 per month in energy bills are about to get $1,000-plus bills this next month.
Why did the Texas power grid fail? Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said, “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business.” Said no sane Texan ever. Let me see … freeze to death or have government regulation over our power grid? Hmmm. Don’t worry, every Republican pundit was on Fox News to blame the Texas energy disaster on AOC, the New Green Deal and frozen wind turbines. For the record Texas gets only 11% of their energy from wind and solar. The other 89% comes from natural gas, coal and nuclear, which froze and stopped working this past week. They failed to mention that on Fox News. God forbid the free capital markets fail ... again.
Forty-seven states belong to either the Western Interconnection or the Eastern Interconnection grid. Texas, Hawaii and Alaska have their own power grids. Somehow Alaska and Siberia run power during worse winter storms. Minnesota wind turbines have a cold-weather package which includes heaters and de-icing mechanisms, not Texas. That costs money. Deregulation promotes profits over safety. And no state loves deregulation more than Texas. I find it ironic that Republicans run for elected government offices when they hate the government.
While all my cranky friends on Facebook keep complaining how awful California is with its regulation and taxes, I’ve offered to help them load up the moving van for a better life in Texas. Texas is the Lone Star state. We’ll overlook the fact that Texas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy during the Civil War. Texas is the Republican nirvana. Low taxes. Zero government regulations. The lowest wages paid in the nation. How much is your minimum wage if you’re a waitress or bartender in Texas? $2.13 per hour. They expect you to earn $5.12 in tips to meet the state basic minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. If you’re under 20 years old and in training they only have to pay you $4.25 per hour. If you’re a fulltime high school or college student working 20 hours per week or less they only have to pay you $6.16 per hour. Poverty wages with all the profits flowing to the top 1% while the other 99% get crumbs.
When the going gets tough, the tough gets going … to Cancún. Sen. Ted Cruz decided to accompany his daughters to Cancún during this environmental catastrophe. His constituents were not amused. His story keeps morphing as more facts come out. An employee at United Airlines released Sen. Cruz’s itinerary, which had the family down in Cancún for four days. Then his wife’s texts were released by one of her friends on the text thread where Heidi Cruz said, “Our house is FREEZING. Let’s go to the Ritz-Carlton Cancún.” Then Cruz changed the story again. “I was trying to be a good dad.” So Cruz had to accompany his daughters to Cancún? Only problem is, his wife was already traveling with the daughters. So why did #CancúnCruz leave his constituents during this turbulent time? The answer is simple. He is better than them and can afford to hop the family on a jet to warmer climates. Welcome to Republican Senate leadership.