Flailing TX Response To Grid Failure Won't Help Residents Or Reform System, But Rates WILL Go Up

[hatrack]

So there's that, I guess . . .

EDIT

The Texas Senate added an amendment in the final week of the session to House Bill 4492 that would have allowed the state comptroller to provide one-time bill payment assistance grants of $350 to residential customers. That measure was stripped from the bill in the House, and Patrick and some senators called for the proposal to be brought back up during a special session. “It is only fair and right,” said Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio. “People froze in their homes. A $350 credit is the least we can do.”

The Senate stripped away House proposals to help electric customers, too. An amendment to Senate Bill 3 by Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, would have created a grant program for projects that add backup power generation to water treatment plants, local electric utilities, hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis centers. The amendment was taken out during the two chambers’ negotiations. “I don’t know if we got any good consumer wins, which is disappointing to think about,” Zwiener said of the session.

What the Legislature didn’t do

Although lawmakers required electricity generators to weatherize against extreme weather, they took a more limited approach to requiring gas fuel facilities to weatherize — Senate Bill 3 requires only gas facilities that are deemed "critical" by regulators to make changes. Dozens of natural gas companies failed to do the paperwork that would keep their facilities powered during an emergency, so utilities — under orders from ERCOT to shut down parts of the grid as demand surged — cut their electricity at the very moment that power plants most needed fuel during the storm. Some power plants were unable to operate during the storm due to natural gas fuel shortages.

Lawmakers did not set deadlines for gas companies to weatherize their equipment, which critics argue will allow companies to delay the upgrades. Lawmakers also stopped short of ordering an energy market overhaul; some proposals would have fundamentally changed the state’s deregulated market structure, which relies on supply and demand to set power prices, but lawmakers didn’t bite.

EDIT

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/03/texas-electricity-bills-winter-storm-legislature/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_content=1622901626&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

[lark]

1. TX legislators to the people of TX - it's ok to die for the profits of the rich and white.