Yes, it can happen again. Texas leaders must prevent another $300 billion winter storm
If there were ever a time for Texans to stand up and scream, this is it.
We nearly lost it all. Our state was within minutes of a power blackout that would have reduced Texas to a dark shell until at least March, sending families and businesses scattering for refuge the way Louisiana emptied out after Hurricane Katrina.
Arkansas, Oklahoma and Colorado would have been overrun by Texas refugees seeking heat and drinkable water. El Paso and Beaumont, both outside the state power grid, would have become Texas’ largest inhabitable cities. Jefferson, once East Texas’ bustling steamship port, would have boomed again.
Burglars and vandals would have ransacked the empty homes and businesses. Bodies would still be piling up, many at healthcare facilities plunged into darkness.
Now let me tell you what’s really scary.
Nobody can prevent this but the Texas Legislature.
Texas’ lazy leadership is no longer a TV-show joke. The state’s future depends on whether lawmakers — and to a lesser extent Gov. Greg Abbott, assigned to oversee electric providers — can put political campaigning aside and provide genuine governance for a state in economic crisis.
But wait — what am I thinking?
It’s the Texas Legislature.
For 20 years now, politics has always won out.
“Their whole psyche is, ‘We’re not going to spend any money,’ “ said County Judge Glen Whitley of Hurst, a Republican in his 25th year in one chair or another at Tarrant County Commissioners’ Court.
“You wait till May or June and see if they’re going to pay out any money. They have short memories.”
Former state Rep. Jason Villalba, a lawyer and Dallas Republican, has hope.
“The Legislature never acts as quickly as they did about this,” he said.
But the same Legislature failed to do anything when warned after shorter 2011 Super Bowl ice storm blackouts.
“We should not lose sight of the fact that this is a direct result of the Legislature not acting in 2011 when it was clear there was a problem,” Villalba said.
“The Legislature needs to look deeply at its own culpability.”
Chris E. Wallace, president of the Irving-based North Texas Commission, said the Legislature can’t afford to leave Texas at risk.
“The question,” he said, “is how much will it cost and who’s going to pay for it?”
Whatever the cost, prevention is cheaper.
The storm this month is expected to cost Texas as much as nearly $300 billion in losses, according to Waco-based expert Ray Perryman.
Many Texans lost a week’s pay. Others’ workplaces are still under repair.
“The impact of having the state out of commission for a week is pretty overwhelming,” Wallace said.
“Think if we were down for weeks or months.”
If you’re wondering where to start, I’ll spell it out:
1. Voters oversee natural gas utilities. We elect the misnamed Texas Railroad Commission.
2. The governor oversees electric utilities. He or she makes appointments to the way-too-cozy Texas Utility Commission, which in turn supervises that outside “reliability council” blamed for the not-so-rolling blackouts.
3. The Texas Legislature writes the utility laws and spends the money.
4. Voters oversee the Legislature and governor. We vote again in primaries in spring or summer 2022.
You see where the buck stops.
This story was originally published February 27, 2021 at 12:00 AM.
