WASHINGTON – Former Texas Governor Rick Perry suggests that spending days without power is a sacrifice that Texans should be willing to make if it meant keeping federal regulators out of the state’s power grid.
“Texans would be without electricity for more than three days to keep the federal government out of business,” said Perry. “Try not to let the crisis of the day take your eyes off having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically and strategically.”
The Texas power grid, managed by the Texas Electric Reliability Council, or ERCOT, holds a unique distinction in the United States for not crossing state lines and, therefore, not being under the supervision of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
This has been a source of pride for Texas politicians who, in the 2000s, chose to deregulate the state’s energy market and allow energy companies, not state regulators, to determine when and how to build and maintain power plants.
That system was examined in the past few days, when millions of Texans were left without power after an unusual cold wave. After an almost identical episode a decade ago, federal regulators warned Texas that it needed to take steps to better isolate its power plants.
But there is little evidence that this has happened, sparking criticism of ERCOT by Texas Republicans and Democrats.
Perry, energy secretary to former President Donald Trump, however, blamed the continued blackouts on the increase in wind and solar energy in Texas.
“If wind and solar is where we’re going, the last 48 hours should give everyone a real break and wait a minute,” said Perry. “We need to have a database. And the only way to get a base load in this country is to [with] natural gas, coal and nuclear. “
This argument was made by several conservatives amid blackouts. But it does not agree with the first reports, indicating that most of the lost generation was from natural gas plants and not from wind turbines, which actually performed better than the network regulators had predicted, said Michael Webber, professor of energy at the University of Texas.