Texas Republicans Prioritized Nonsense Over Winterizing The Energy Grid
AUSTIN, Texas ― Days before a winter storm plunged Texas into a prolonged freeze, bursting water pipes and cutting off electricity, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) announced a new legislative priority: All publicly funded events in the state would have to play the national anthem.
Barring special sessions, the Texas legislature meets only once every two years for five months, so Patrick’s priorities can crowd out other goals. That the archconservative, who presides over the state Senate, thought this issue merited the legislature’s limited bandwidth in the midst of a pandemic and widespread unemployment tells you everything you need to know about him.
Over the last week, as state leaders like Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called for investigations into the lapses behind the catastrophic failures that left millions without power, the Star-Spangled Banner Protection Act probably seemed a little less urgent, even to Patrick. But his inane choice of priorities wasn’t unusual. And it helps to understand how things went so wrong in Texas in the first place.
The problem is simple: In a sunny state that rarely sees prolonged freezes, power companies didn’t invest much in precautions to deal with extremely cold weather or to fortify the system’s reserve capacity. Texas lawmakers did equally little to either incentivize or require the utilities to prepare for uncommon catastrophes like the one that hit the state last week.
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/texas-republicans-priorities-energy-grid-203627284.html
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