Texas grid outage ignites feud over GOP oversight of energy industry

The grid outage in Texas, which left millions of people struggling with electricity in freezing cold, sparked a row between Democrats and the GOP over Republicans’ oversight of the energy industry for decades and sparked calls for a system that is more resistant to extreme weather conditions.

Texas has avoided federal regulation by building its own power grid that is almost cut off from the rest of the country – an isolated system that ruling conservatives have long lauded.

But the system collapsed this week amid a surge in energy demand associated with frozen utility plants during a brutal winter storm, which then raised energy prices and triggered the worst blackouts. state power for decades.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-TX, accused Texas Republican leaders of prioritizing “dumb culture wars,” such as efforts to make Texas a gun “sanctuary state,” rather than to protect residents from extreme weather events made worse by climate change.

“Much of it was preventable,” O’Rourke said this week in an interview with MSNBC. “Let’s go back to the deregulation of our power grid in Texas, which created an incentive not to tamper with the elements or protect against these events.”

“The energy capital of North America cannot provide enough energy to heat and power people’s homes,” continued O’Rourke. “We’re approaching a failed state in Texas. And it has nothing to do with God or natural disasters. It has everything to do with those in positions of public trust who have let us down.”

The outages have led to major public criticism of lawmakers and state agencies for their apparent failure to heed warnings about the network’s inability to handle extreme weather conditions. Energy experts said the collapse was in part due to the state’s decision not to require equipment upgrades for a more resilient system.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she expects the House Energy and Trade Committee to look at energy issues in Texas.

Jennifer Granholm, President Joe Biden’s candidate for energy secretary, said the United States must modernize its grid infrastructure as soon as possible. “One thing is certain: the US electricity grid is simply not able to handle extreme weather events,” she wrote in a tweet Wednesday.

Although the GOP has overseen the state’s energy sector for decades, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, along with other Conservative state leaders, has falsely blamed the blackouts on renewable energy sources like wind and solar. , which represent only a small fraction of the state’s energy.

Abbott claimed in an interview with Fox News this week that reliance on wind and solar power “plunged Texas into a state of statewide power shortage,” an argument that was contradicted by its own energy department.

Read more:
Texas power outages show just how vulnerable the power grid is to climate change
How the grid failed and what could prevent it from happening again
Texas water outages hit water supplies as thousands struggle without power for fourth day

Julian Castro, a former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, tweeted: “Governor Abbott has failed to prepare for this storm, has been too slow to respond and is now blaming everyone except himself for it. mess.”

“He neglected the state’s outdated and deregulated power grid,” said Castro, who also served as secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and energy secretary in the Trump administration, proclaimed Wednesday that Texans would prefer to endure even longer outages “to prevent the federal government from going about their business” and prevent Democrats to implement regulations to combat climate change.

Yet the vast majority of this week’s outages stemmed from problems with limited natural gas production and frozen supplies at natural gas, coal and nuclear facilities – not solar and wind outages.

Although solar and wind power went offline because frozen blades made wind turbines unusable, these technologies represent only a small fraction of the electricity in Texas. The state has ramped up wind power in recent years, but relies on wind power for only 25% of electricity production, according to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

Texas Republican lawmakers who scoffed at Democrat-led power outages during extreme heatwaves in California were also criticized this week after grid collapse in their home state resulted in blackouts .

Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in August blamed Biden and Kamala Harris, then running for president and vice president, for trying to make “California’s failed energy policy the norm at national scale”.

Photos on social media on Thursday reportedly showed Cruz flying to Mexico as millions of Texans remained heatless during historically low temperatures.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., Wrote in a tweet this week that the problems with the Texas grid should be a message to lawmakers to watch their words in an emergency.

“I hope this teaches politicians in Texas to stop sinking into other states when they go through disasters,” Gallego wrote. “All Americans deserve the help and empathy of their compatriots, whether it is a Blue or a Red state.”