WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH TEXAS?: THE DISASTER SHOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED

Many Americans couldn’t help noticing the incongruity between the recent landing of a powerful rover on Mars while millions of Texans  struggled with freezing homes, burst water pipes, and disruptions in supplies of food and other commodities. We note the Mars landing was a project of the federal government, while the disaster in Texas resulted from policies of the state government. 

                                           

The Texas catastrophe drew our interest because one of us lives there and we found the suffering of so many of our fellow citizens revolting.  More than 50 people died at last count. That’s unacceptable, given our understanding of why it happened. Like the toll from the pandemic, much suffering could have been avoided with a more compassionate, attentive government focused on human needs.

The Roots of the Disaster

We’ve alluded at various times to Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. The book shows how

Republicans capitalized on social and racial issues in getting lower and middle income whites to vote against their economic interests to the benefit of big business. That’s a lot of what caused the Texas disaster. For years, Texas Republicans, in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry and utility interests, neglected imposing regulations that could have prevented the equipment failures that caused the electrical system breakdowns. These politicians, preaching the gospel of deregulation, didn’t heed warnings from a decade ago that electrical generating facilities in Texas needed weatherization. The power producers preferred not spending the money  and politicians

didn’t make them do it. They insulated themselves by harping on culture-based issues that kept the majority of Texans voting Republican.

Texas operates its own electric grid which serves about 80 per cent of the state. The federal government doesn’t regulate that grid.  Texas, therefore, can’t access electricity from neighboring states in an emergency.

When the freeze occurred, Republican

heavyweights like former Governor Rick Perry, energy secretary in the Trump administration, advanced the suggestion Texans would trade a few more days without electricity so they could avoid federal regulation. Rob and other Texas residents said, “Speak for yourself, Mr. Secretary.”    

 

Rob’s Take from the Ground

I’m not a native Texan (like Henry and Woodson I was born and grew up in Arkansas), but I’ve lived here 40 years and consider it home. Though I’m proud of my University of Texas degrees and the fact three of my children were born here, I’m not proud of the brain-dead politics that created this disaster. Our state’s political leaders apparently care more about protecting corporate interests that fund their campaigns than about the welfare of ordinary citizens who found themselves burning their own furniture in sometimes futile attempts to stay warm.  

I should say that my partner and I got off easy. We didn’t lose power. Thanks to her decision a few years ago to switch to weather resistant pipes, our water supply remained intact. But I have reason for anger. The three of my children who live in Texas suffered through a good portion of the four-day emergency with little electricity or water. They got the full brunt of the misery and the blame lies squarely on state leadership.

 

The Green New Deal?  Give Us a

Break!

Texas Governor Greg Abbot, who

harbors 2024 presidential ambitions, went on Fox News during the tragedy and blamed the problems on the fact wind turbines and some solar facilities failed. He said that showed how America would fare with the Green New Deal.

Republican legislators called for more emphasis on fossil fuels. All that was disinformation.

Texas gets about ten per cent of its electricity from renewables like wind and solar. The shortfall went way beyond that. Grid operators admitted most of the problem resulted from disruptions in power generated by natural gas caused by frozen gas lines. Abbott eventually walked back the renewables statement. His dissembling didn’t help and didn’t encourage confidence in a state government under fire for a preventable human tragedy.

 

Any Hope of Change?

Public anger raised hopes for change in Texas. Abbot put several energy regulatory issues on his legislative agenda. Details aren’t clear yet, so it’s too soon to predict what might pass and what effect anything passed would have.

Many weren’t holding their breath.

Public attention in disasters, white hot for a time, notoriously fades. The 2022 election, when voters might throw out some of the culprits, seems ages away. Many other things will occupy the political space between now and then.

That brings us to two Texas politicians who took leave of the state while things

were bad. U.S.  Senator Ted Cruz, when caught heading for a vacation in Mexico, claimed he took the trip because his children besieged him to and he “wanted to be a good dad.” He flew back to Houston the day after he left, admitting he’d made a mistake. Attorney General Ken Paxton and his state senator wife found meetings in Utah they couldn’t miss.

People are mad at Cruz and Paxton, but their loyal followings remain.

By the time they face the voters again (Cruz 2024, Paxton 2022), both will likely have pivoted to the usual list of Republican boogeyman issues that have kept them and those like them in power all these years. We won’t bet against them. We wish we could.