THE SPECTATOR: SNOWMAGEDDON
What a difference a week makes. 70 degrees versus 7 degrees. In my lifetime I don’t ever remember snow staying on the ground in Washington County for more than a day or two. And the multiple days of subfreezing temperatures made for some extremely difficult conditions for anyone having to work outside. Those folks have taken some unfair criticism on social media…but then again, social media has never let a little thing like facts stand in the way of bashing someone.
Granted there are plenty of people who deserve to be taken to the woodshed over the disruptions in power and water service. But it’s not the folks who work for The City of Brenham or Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative…or any of the area utility companies. Their crews did a heck of a job working round the clock to make repairs and restore service to homes and businesses. And it’s not the upper management of those utilities, who were forced to follow the instructions from the folks who control the power grid for Texas. ERCOT….the oh so poorly named Electric Reliability Council of Texas. One week before that winter storm hit Texas, ERCOT’s board spent all of five minutes of an hour and a half meeting discussing how the weather looked frightful in the coming week, but they were prepared for it. I guess so…at least the 5 board members who lived outside of Texas probably felt very prepared. To date, 6 board members have resigned.
I hope that doesn’t stop our state’s leaders from calling them on the carpet to explain what happened. I’ve heard so many different excuses and explanations about why ERCOT was forced to institute rolling blackouts for several days. At this point I don’t think people care what caused it. They just want it fixed so it will never happen again. We need people who work in the industry to help manage the grid…not academics. And our state leaders share some responsibility in this mess, as the members of the ERCOT board were appointed. Find your answers and fix it!
And that’s the way it looks to this Spectator.
Yes sir. Well said. What has happened to to the people of Texas concerning their power supply is border-line criminal.
This should have never happened. Now that we know what can happen, this should never happen again.
Also, there should be no one person on any board that has any power over anything in Texas that does not live in the state full time, NO exceptions. We are smarter and better than this. It is time to show it.
Five years ago a bill was created to address the rapid changes in climate variability as it related to certain state agencies (ERCOT). it was voted down. Our own representative voted against HB2571. It would have put the wheels in motion to address our power grid. Decades ago, Texas chose to have zero regulation from outside the state on any issue concerning our power grid and energy sector. It is a recipe for a free market which has provided extreme profits for business. Profits should not come at the expense of the people paying the bills.
I agree and also have been told the top people on ercot are in other states like Michigan and such. Maybe our representatives can change that. One individual from up north was quoted saying that all Texans have woodburning stoves and would ride out the storm fine.
Of the 5 living outside the state, one is CANADIAN, and one lives in Germany.
I have yet to receive my government-issued woodburning stove