The Texas power grid, ready for winter, What's Your Point?
The Texas power grid
Seven months after the big freeze, months after meetings and legislative sessions have come and gone, weeks after the Governor has assured all of Texas that it's all being taken care of... what has been done? Industry representatives say they won't even begin to inspect sites for winterizing until December.
Houston - Hundreds of dead and billions worth of damage and economic disruption.
Blind-sided by a polar vortex this past February, much of the Lone Star State was plunged into days of miserable, freezing darkness.
In the weeks and months which followed, state leaders promised over and over... "never again"..never again would a 21st-century Texas be brought to its collective knees by an under-prepared, ill-equipped electric power grid.
In May, Governor Greg Abbott would boldly announce "all that needed to be done was done in the legislative session."
Fast forward to this week's hearing of the state Senate's Business and Commerce Committee - where lawmakers seemed absolutely dumbfounded to hear the following: State inspections to insure electric generators are properly "weatherized" against freezing weather will not get underway until December 1st.
And even more alarming - the Director of the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the natural gas pipelines delivering essential fuel to generators, admitted his agency is "no where close" to launching inspections
While lawmakers were told the Electric Reliability Council of Texas has substantially increased the amount of emergency backup power "held in reserve" - Houston Senator John Whitmire told FOX 26 he's not convinced. We "aren't any better protected now from a massive failure" than we were last year."
Brad Jones, the interim Director at ERCOT sounded confident " keeping the lights and the heat on" when he said, " My commitment to you is that we understand winter is coming and we will be ready."