Yesterday, with great fanfare, Greg Abbott signed bills that would do virtually nothing to fix the power grid that massively failed during the Polar Vortex in February, knocking out the power in almost 5 million homes and causing the deaths estimated by some to be as high as 700.  Let’s be clear – the electrical power grid in Texas is managed differently than ANY OTHER STATE, and it doesn’t work.  It’s never worked, and never will work as long as incompetent politicians like Abbott stay in charge.  Texas is not connected to the national grid; the system is deregulated to the point where there are no requirements for minimum baseload generation; the system is designed to maximize profits for the generators and retailers and offers virtually no assurance of maintaining power for consumers during weather events such as hurricanes, extreme heat, or extreme cold.  AND, Texas consumers in the ERCOT system pay MORE for the privilege of having less reliable power than all those other poor slobs in the rest of the country who labor under the socialist thumb of regulated power companies that do their jobs and are held accountable. The Texas system is broken, and Abbott’s pronouncements yesterday that everything is fixed is simply false.  He’s lying to us, he knows he’s lying to us, but is lying nonetheless because that’s what is donors and base want to hear.  Period.

Here’s what the bills DIDN’T include: relief to consumers for gross overcharges of power during the Polar Vortex; any baseload power requirements; any weather hardening requirements with set penalties for not doing so; interconnections with the national grids; no minimum reliability requirements.  Here’s what the bills DID include: handing oversight board selection over to the legislature and governor.  Now the PUC and ERCOT are completely controlled by Republicans who HATE government oversight.  The bills also provided for generators and suppliers to issue state guaranteed bonds to pay for the exploding overcharges during the Polar Vortex.  Who pays for those bonds?  YOU DO, through surcharges to your monthly bill.  Yep, YOU.  The only positive in these bills is that floating wholesale style pricing for consumers has been disallowed.

The result of this new legislation?  Texas consumers in the ERCOT system are still at great risk for brownouts and blackouts during  extreme weather.  We’re still standing alone from the national grids with still no reliability requirements or programs to add generating capacity outside of the “free market” which actually isn’t free.  In short, Abbott and the legislature have once again shirked their duty to serve Texans while getting their pockets lined by those profiting from the existing system.  So, when you’re boiling this summer or freezing next winter with no power, remember who did it to you and maybe think about changing your vote at the next election.  After all, you get what you vote for.