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On the road again:
Greetings from Rockport, Texas
Today’s Story
“On my honor, I pledge to do my best
To feed myself before the rest.”
This little kids' camp ditty is supposed to be a joke, but it's not funny.
Not in the real world of politics and enterprise where adults make decisions based on fear and greed for the betterment of a few and the detriment of the greater whole.
This past week, here in Texas, where Cyndy and I are RVing this winter, an ongoing history of that “feed myself first” attitude has catapulted the state into the national noir spotlight.
The catalyst is the polar vortex of cold, cold air that blasted through much of the nation for the past several days. But the result here in Texas is expansive power outages—more than 4.2 million of them as of last Monday.
On Tuesday night, after the worst of the vortex had hit, I found a US map that showed power outages in six states. The state with the second highest number was Oregon with 180,000 outages. The highest was Texas with 3.2 million.
Yes, Texas led the way in this infamous category by a ratio of nearly 18-to-1 even though Texas is only three times larger than Oregon.
How can this be? From what I've read from a variety of reliable sources—most of them in Texas—in recent days, the answer lies in the "rugged individualism" of Texas' government and its public (dis)service industry that has proclaimed, in effect, "Screw the rest of you. We in the Lone Star State will go it alone."
Nearly a century ago, Texas policy makers decided not to connect with the rest of the union to share its electricity across state borders.
Why? To avoid federal regulations as outlined in the Public Utility Act, which resulted in the Federal Power Act, which charged the Federal Power Commission with regulating sales of electricity across state lines.
Historical documents by the misnomered Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which oversees electrical transmissions within the state, relate, “Utilities in Texas were smart and made an agreement that no one was going to extend power outside of Texas.”
And, “By eschewing transmission across state lines, the Texas utilities retained freedom.”
ERCOT’s current CEO, Bill Magness, refers to Texas as “an electrical island in the United States. … That independence has been jealously guarded, I think both by policy makers and industry.”
This “electrical island” is a segregated grid that serves most of the state … except the northwest panhandle and the El Paso area where Texas gladly accepts electricity from Oklahoma and New Mexico. (as shown in the image to the right)
This “island” mentality is the polar opposite of the “No man is an island” wisdom of English poet john Donne, who also penned, “every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”
But, because Texas is an “electrical island,” the vast majority of its residents, in the midst of the current weather crisis, were not able to receive electricity from the nation’s other two grids, a situation that exacerbated the rolling power outages here.
Except in El Paso, which, with electricity from the Western Interconnection, had no outages … except one that affected 875 customers for five minutes.
But the “fear of the feds” attitude is prevalent among policy makers here.
Former Texas governor Rick Perry, who also served as US Secretary of Energy under Donald Trump, said, “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business.”
Even to the point of death?
As of yesterday, 30 Texans have died of weather-related causes in the past few days, according to The Washington Post, which also reported that 17 other Americans died in all the other states combined.
Yes, Texas alone reported two-thirds of the nation’s weather-related deaths in the past week.
And what about the financial cost?
Yesterday, NBC News reported that some Texas residents are being billed more than $9,000 per megawatt hour—compared to the seasonal average of $50 per megawatt hour—due to high demand and short supply.
Jack Roady, the district attorney in Galveston County is seeking a criminal investigation at the state level. As is San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, who has been warning state officials to prepare for this type of weather disaster for more than a decade.
Among the federal regulations that Texas has chosen to ignore is the requirement that its power-generation and -distribution systems—whether from fossil fuels or renewables—operate in sub-freezing temperatures … as they do in Alaska, the Northern Plains, the Midwest, and the Arctic Circle.
Even ERCOT admitted that its natural gas (fossil fuel) pipelines, the state’s main source of generation power, had frozen and that the temperatures were too cold to send employees outside to thaw them.
Nor does Texas have a contingency plan for the entire state being under a winter storm warning even though a comparable storm in 2011 created conditions like those now in 2021.
So enter from stage far-right Republican Governor Greg Abbott who, on Tuesday night, told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the electrical problem in Texas is because the wind turbines weren’t working.
Abbott said, “Our wind and our solar got shut down and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis.”
But in his own statement, Abbott shot himself in the foot, as reported by many media sources across the country who point out that a problem in ten percent of the system was not enough to cause outages in every county in the state.
Even ERCOT took aim at Abbott, saying, that only seven percent of the state’s winter capacity, or six gigawatts, was expected to come from wind power sources. About 80 percent, 67 gigawatts, was to be generated by natural gas, coal, and nuclear power.
In other words, the voluminous number of power outages in Texas is due to the state’s reliance on old fossil fuel technology, which, by design and decision, does not meet the federal standards and safeguards required for cold-weather operation of all other power sources throughout the country.
But that didn’t stop Abbott from taking a pot shot at renewable energies. He told Hannity’s audience, “This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.”
Oh, this damn politicizing that seems to come so naturally to those political illusionists adept at diverting attention: “Look! Over there … the problem is an idea that has neither yet been legislated nor implemented.” And is, thus, but another attempt to shift blame away from their own past bad decisions.
For this devious ploy, Abbott has been verbally skewered by many in the national government and national and local media. By the end of the week, he seemed to be pivoting, as Texas columnists point out he is wont to do.
But the politicizing goes on.
Do you remember Texas Senator Ted Cruz? He’s also over on the ultra-right side of the stage along with his buddy Donald Trump.
When California experienced power outages due to high temperatures last summer, Cruz, on August 19, 2020, sniped at liberals and Democrats: “California is now unable to perform even basic functions … like having reliable electricity.”
Joining Cruz on the firing range was Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who, on August 20, 2020, said, “This is what happens when Democrats are left in charge.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, on September 6, 2020, volleyed, “California’s politicians did this, not the heat.”
Now, with the shoes of natural phenomenon on their feet, these three are mum about the flaws of the electrical infrastructure in their home state.
Cruz even went so far as to take his family to Cancun on Wednesday. His explanation: His daughters, aged 10 and 12, “asked to take a trip with friends. … I wanted to be a good dad.”
While text messages from his wife to neighbors indicated the family—including presumably Daddy Ted—intended to be gone for several days, Cruz was out of the country only overnight, flying back to Texas on Thursday.
It is speculated that he shortened his time away due to an onslaught of criticism for not exercising his position as a US senator to influence governmental aid for his constituents.
My opinion is that the “good dad” excuse doesn’t wash. To me, a good dad sets a good example. A good dad would say, “No, daughters, we’re going to stay right here and help poor people in our city survive.”
Helpfulness of that nature is exhibited by Beto O’Rourke, who Cruz narrowly defeated for the Senate seat in 2018. This Democrat is hosting events and organizing people to aid Texas’ senior citizens who are without heat and water.
US Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee organized a coalition of Christian churches to deliver food and water to people in Houston.
US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who doesn’t even live in Texas, has raised $2 million to aid Texans in need and is on her way to Houston to put her boots on the ground and lend a helping hand.
As one Texas columnist wrote, while these others are doing Cruz’ job, the senator lacks both imagination and inclination to proactively serve his constituents.
But maybe he was just taking his cue from Trump who frequently flittered into Twitter Land rather than face the harsh realities of true leadership.
Yet the ultimate bombast in this politically charged environment of “screw others” comes from Tim Boyd, the now-former mayor of Colorado City, Texas. Boyd resigned this past Tuesday, immediately after his Facebook posts reached the public stage.
In regard to his constituents being without power, Boyd posted, “No one owes you are [sic] your family anything; nor is it the local governments [sic] responsibility to support you during trying times like this! … Come up with a game plan to keep your family warm and safe. … Sink or swim it’s your choice! … The strong will survive and the weak will parish [sic]”
Yes, that’s right. Boyd said that … and much more vitriol. You can find his statements in multiple news sources.
His message included, perhaps, the ultimate in rugged individualistic mentality: “Get off your ass and take care of your own family!”
So, if you’re like me, you might be thinking that Boyd’s comments—and Texas’ isolationist attitude—is so far, far, far politically askew from Jesus’ commandment to “love thy neighbor” or Christ’s parable about the Good Samaritan.
But, wait, there’s more!
On January 26, 2021, State Rep. Kyle Biedermann, a Republican, introduced—again this year—a bill, the Texas Independence Referendum Act, which is but another attempt to put the issue of secession from the United States on the Texas ballot.
Political scientists point out the bill’s folly as well as its constitutional illegality, but its advocates are dead serious. And a poll indicates that 26 percent of the population would vote for the measure.
I stated that infrastructure is the ultimate example of a cooperative community—of socialistic, humanitarian values, if you will—whether that be shared and accessible public roads, public education, public services, or public utilities.
The Texas government’s decision not to cooperate with the rest of the nation in regard to electricity is an ultimate example of debilitating anti-socialism … of incapacitating “me-first-ism” that is the antithesis of helpful, supportive, “love thy neighbor” society.
Two days ago, I wrote a Facebook post about Cyndy’s and my experiences of being without power and water here in the Texas trailer park where we’re located.
I also commented on the cooperation and solidarity prevalent here as we RV campers looked out for each other. “How are you doing? Do you need anything? Are you warm enough?”
Some made multiple gas and grocery runs of 80 miles to the nearest town with electricity for others.
And we are clearly people of visibly diverse political stripes. Walk around the park and you will see Trump hats and flags, peace sign decals, “Make American Green Again” bumper stickers, and Cyndy’s and my Earth Flag and “Black Lives Matter” garden flag.
So what I’ve written about Texas government and ERCOT doesn’t necessarily apply to the people of Texas … or to the many Winter Texans who are RVing here.
Evidence of this comes from San Antonio where a store owner stacked 150 cases of bottled water outside so people could help themselves. In return, many dropped money through a mail slot, paying more than the retail price.
Likewise I have friends in various states who exhibit a rugged sense of individualism and who I admire because they, the strong, go out of their way and bend over backward to help others in need.
Thus, overall, I have faith in “we, the people.”
I also believe that being rugged and being confident in one’s individuality is not the problem.
In fact, societies function best when those who are capable at any given moment reach out and help those who are incapacitated—as any of us could be at any given moment—as evidenced by the indiscriminate infliction of disease by the coronavirus.
No, the problem is greed and disregard for the welfare and humanity of others.
That is why I strongly disagree with elected officials, like those here in Texas—or in any state or government or political party—who sing the isolationist / nationalist anthem:
With disgrace and dishonor, we do our best
To serve ourselves and screw the rest.
Thank you for reading.
My blogs are usually not this comprehensive, but there’s a lot to be said about what’s happening here deep in the cold heart of Texas.
And please remember: God blesses everyone ... no exceptions
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Thank you for reading my stories.
Thank you for caring.
God blesses everyone ... no exceptions.
Robert (Bob) Weir
