Profit over public safety
Texas was ill-prepared to respond to the polar vortex that barreled through this week causing extreme temperatures and energy/water shortages. The question isn’t why. We know that ERCOT oversees the grid, but not the energy producers who pay ERCOT to use this grid. We also know the producers failed to follow the 2011 recommendations of the FERC to winterize. They ignored the best practices issued by ERCOT in August 2020. Producers did not want to spend the money and took the risk. Profit over public safety.
Our legislators failed and did not provide oversight because of their desire to deregulate.
We have paid for cheap energy with the consequences of small-mindedness. We need to accept that climate change is real, deregulation is not the answer, and that we would be better off being part of the national grid like El Paso and the Panhandle who are part of the national grid and did not suffer like the other 85% of Texas.
I am ashamed of how Texas put its citizens’ health and safety at risk and for what? Profit.
— Stephe Crane, Longview
