Energy and water must weatherize for all extremes, not just winter storms

In his televised address Wednesday night, Gov. Greg Abbott expressed sympathy for Texans who suffered in homes without power, heat and water. He said they deserve answers and vowed immediate actions. But the governor’s answers miss the mark.

Gov. Abbott announced investigations of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas — ERCOT — which manages the state’s electric grid. But he left out agencies that manage gas and water systems that failed us, too. We need to take on the full challenge in front of us. If, after this massive failure, we settle for

some minor tinkering, we will set ourselves up for more disasters. First, let’s look at the governor’s call to action.

He called for the Legislature “to mandate and to fund the winterization of the Texas power infrastructure,” to protect it from future winter events. But winterization alone doesn’t protect us from the full range of extreme events that Texas can face. In a warming climate, we will more often face extreme heat, drought, hurricanes and floods than repeats of winter events. Climate science remains unclear whether arctic blasts will become more common, but we know that heat and precipitation extremes are becoming more severe.

We shouldn’t focus only on freeze failures. We have to anticipate future disasters. We must weatherize, not winterize.

Reliable and resilient energy and water systems must prepare for a full spectrum of extremes, not just winter events. Some winterization investments, such as de-icing equipment for wind turbines, protect against freezes but reduce power output during the summer, when we’re more likely to need it most. By contrast, investments in efficiency and better transmission within and beyond the state would benefit us throughout the year, but not count as winterization.

Moreover, by calling to “protect our power grid,” the governor ignored the other systems that failed us. The freeze revealed the vulnerabilities and interdependence of three systems — power, gas and water. Failures in the gas supply and electric power outages cascaded upon each other because we rely too heavily on gas to make power and use power to move gas. Our water systems failed for lack of electricity while backup generators froze up.

Preventing future crises will require recognizing that the freeze failures extended beyond the power grid to gas and water systems as well.

And we must build out a more diversified portfolio of power sources, including more renewables linked with more robust transmission, rather than relying so heavily on the gas supply systems that failed us.

The governor’s call to “mandate and fund” winterization is troubling too. Who will fund those actions? Will we once again socialize the costs of our energy systems, while privatizing the gains? That would be especially galling after gas and power producers landed windfall profits while failing to provide us enough energy when we needed it most.

This leads to the big question many of our leaders are doing all they can to avoid. The United States — along with other countries that have signed the Paris climate agreement and a growing number of energy companies and banks — have set aggressive targets to transition away from fossil fuels. Those targets could turn gas plants and supply lines winterized at taxpayer expense into stranded assets.

Gas is often called a “bridge fuel” from coal to renewable energy and a “firm” resource available whenever we need it. But the freeze failures revealed the urgency of crossing that bridge and constructing more resilient systems beyond it.

Texas is known for its weak governor system of government. The governor’s speech was indeed weak. It’s time for the state Legislature and Public Utilities Commission to step up and deliver the solutions we need to make our energy and water systems more reliable, clean, affordable and resilient throughout the year.