Texas Lawmaker Seeks to Improve Texas’ Power Capacity by Joining Regional Grid and Agreeing to Federal Oversight

Industry Discussions Energy & Utilities
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Electrical grids are vulnerable to climate change, which amplifies intense heat and drought in the summer and intensifies storms in the winter. Nowhere is the problem more pronounced than in Texas, as recent history has shown.

Texas has the added challenge of running its own power grid that doesn’t cross state lines and connect extensively to neighboring regional grids—by design, thus enabling the state to evade regulation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

So it’s been hard for Texas in times of extreme heat or intense storms to come up with the power it needs at times of peak demand when, in the age of climate change, having adequate, reliable power can prevent people from freezing or sweltering to death in their homes.

“Broadening your interconnection reduces your risks and increases your reliability,” said Dennis Wamsted, an energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a nonprofit energy policy research group, who noted the need for building interregional transmission lines. The lines are expensive to build, he said, but interconnection could lower energy costs once the transmission lines are built.

“Broadening your interconnection reduces your risks and increases your reliability,” said Dennis Wamsted, an energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a nonprofit energy policy research group, who noted the need for building interregional transmission lines. The lines are expensive to build, he said, but interconnection could lower energy costs once the transmission lines are built.

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Now, freshman U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a former a labor organizer, Austin City Council standout and rising progressive star in Texas, has introduced legislation that would establish power connections across state borders that he said would prevent climate-related blackouts as well as aid the transition to clean energy and cut electricity bills.

He also wants $11 billion from a federal Department of Energy program to support companies that take on the slow, expensive task of building the interregional transmission lines.

The “Connect the Grid Act” is an answer, he said, to a deadly winter storm in 2021 that left households and businesses across the state dark for days. Winter Storm Uri was blamed for 246 deaths related to rolling blackouts in the fast-growing state.

“Millions of Texans needlessly lost power. Hundreds of people needlessly died. And we’re stepping up today to finally do something about it,” Casar said at a press conference Feb. 21 in Austin.

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Failure to do the Obamacare Medicaid expansion is killing more Texans than the inadequate and problematic power grid. They seem to be fine with it.

I bet Texans would rather freeze in the dark that tie in to that Commie, northern power grid.

intercst

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