Energy experts based in Texas are warning that the GOP leadership in the Lone Star State have not done enough to protect the state's energy infrastructure from failing as it did last year when a major winter freeze left millions without power, hundreds died and the state suffered an estimated $20 billion in damages.
According to a report for Bloomberg, with temperatures dropping as winter nears, analysts are worried the state will see a repeat of the chaos that ensued last year -- that even saw Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) attempting to flee for the sunny beaches in Cancun.
Bloomberg's Mark Chediak and Naureen Malik report Gov. Greg Abbott (R) made some efforts to prepare for another arctic blast but came up short.
"When Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed in June a series of reforms intended to shore up the electrical grid that catastrophically failed last winter, he pledged that 'everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas,'" they wrote. "But one key segment of Texas's energy system that fell woefully short during February's deep freeze has gone largely unchanged: the natural gas system that seized up, choked power plants of fuel and led to shortages across the region."
According to Michael Webber, a University of Texas at Austin professor who specializes in energy, "Texas has not done enough," before bluntly stating, "We are not ready for another cold winter."
The report goes on to state that the world is facing major problems as energy systems are "buckling under the strain of ever-growing demand," with the Bloomberg report dryly adding, "Texas—having been among the first to endure what would prove to be a series of energy crises worldwide—stands out as a test case of what could be done, at least if the political will is there."
At issue was the energy company's running to the Republican-dominated legislature and begging to be exempted from making all the upgrades needed.
"After a spate of power reforms, there are no gas-sector winterization requirements in place for this winter, or next," the report states. "That's because the oil and gas industry—an outsized influence in Austin—successfully lobbied to limit the scope of the weatherization requirements to only those facilities that a committee deems critical to the state's power grid, not those supplying gas to, say, generators in other states, industrial users or exports. But that mapping process to decide which of the state's hundreds of thousands of wells, half a million miles of pipeline and thousands of facilities are critical won't be completed ahead of this winter."
The report notes that Abbott is a major recipient of energy industry contributions which might have a bearing on the incomplete measures he demanded.
"The oil and gas industry was Abbott's top campaign contributor from January 2017 through 2020, giving him $16.5 million, 21% of the total raised, according to a report by Texans for Public Justice, a watchdog group focused on curbing political corruption in the state," the report states. "Abbott got about $4.6 million from oil, gas and energy interests during the post-legislative session this year, his biggest haul for that period since becoming governor, according to an analysis by the Texas Tribune."
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