Houston Chronicle

Take it with a grain of salt, we’re told, about information from an questionable source.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s assurance that he’s got that electric grid thing taken care of, might require skepticism comparable to a 50-pound bag of rock-salt crystals. No need to worry.

The sun may be shining warm and bright during these early December days, but Texans can’t help but shiver remembering what happened nearly a year ago.

Thanks to Winter Storm Uri — and power industry unpreparedness — the state’s electric grid came close to complete collapse. Millions of us lost power for days as we wrapped ourselves in coats and blankets and hunkered down without heat and water in subfreezing temperatures. Hundreds of Texans, old and young, lost their lives .

Damages exceeded $20 billion. 

A few months after the storm, Texas lawmakers passed legislation designed to make the grid less vulnerable to extreme cold. Their efforts included requiring some facilities to weatherize, establishing a statewide emergency alert system and passing provisions aimed at improving communications among the various parties responsible for keeping the lights on across the state. They also passed bills to reform the grid’s manager, Energy Reliability Council of Texas.

The governor perused the Legislature’s handiwork and declared that it was good.

Abbott should have said he and his legislative colleagues did everything the all-powerful natural gas industry allowed them to do.

A recent report found the Railroad Commission of Texas refused to hold the industry to even minimal resiliency standards, despite the February catastrophe.

We know what happened 10 months ago was predictable — and indeed was predicted by regulators and industry observers who knew Texas had done little to respond to similar winter-related blackouts that revealed our grid’s vulnerability in 2011.

After that 2011 storm knocked out nearly 200 power plants and triggered blackouts for 3.2 million Texans, a report urged the state to require power plants to set minimum weather-preparation standards for gas producers. The industry fought the recommendations, and state lawmakers and regulatory officials caved.

Close to half of all generation outages during Uri occurred in gas-fired plants, because operators did not insulate the well equipment properly. And still haven’t.

So why is it that, despite the legislative reforms enacted earlier this year, the gas sector doesn’t have to lift a finger to winterize for this winter or next?

Answer: The oil and gas industry managed to schottische its way out of weatherization requirements by persuading lawmakers to limit upgrades to those facilities that a committee deems critical to the state’s power grid.

State regulators have until September to decide which facilities are on the list. Only then do those so designated have to start weatherizing.

That means those pipes are naked to the cold until at least 2023.

Other natural gas facilities can apply to opt out of that weatherizing by paying $150 and filling out some paperwork. After widespread backlash to this loophole, the Railroad Commission gave itself the ability to reject any such application for a waiver and disqualified the highest-volume producers from even applying.

Why should we trust the Railroad Commission to use this discretion responsibly? After all, commissioners are largely dependent on oil and gas firms’ largesse for political survival. More than two-thirds of the campaign donations to the sitting commissioners have come from their friends in the industry.

Likewise, with the governor, we can’t help but wonder whether the pass given to natural gas has something to do with the fact that the industry has been Abbott’s top campaign contributor from January 2017 through 2020.

The governor is probably playing the odds that his electric-grid words of assurance won’t be tested in coming months.

Judging by a poll released last month by the University of Texas and Texas Tribune, which found 60% disapproving of state leaders’ handling of the power grid collapse, we’re confident that Texans won’t need a Uri 2.0 to hold elected representatives accountable.