Thread by @douglewinenergy

Check out this discussion with two #txlege leaders to hear what they're thinking about solutions for dealing with future extreme weather (aka #climatechange).

@evanasmith always asks good questions. Tune in now!

#txlege #txenergy #TexasBlackout

https://twitter.com/TexasTribune/status/1369671932141043712

@GoldmanCraig, asked why the #TexasBlackout happened, said all sources of power had failures: coal piles froze, one of the two nuclear plants froze, wind turbines froze, gas pipelines froze, and solar panels had snow.

#txlege #txenergy #ttevents

@Menendez4Texas agrees and says he heard testimony that even if we had more gas plants, it wouldn't have mattered because you couldn't get gas to the plants.

#txlege #ttevents #txenergy

@evanasmith asks @GoldmanCraig who's to blame. Says there's been all kinds of "dunking on PUCT" and ERCOT but anyone else?

Chair Goldman says PUCT Chair Walker did what she needed to do during the event. Smith says "Did I just hear you defend the Chair of the PUCT?

#ttevents

@Menendez4Texas This didn't happen just because of the storm. The bigger failure was not enforcing the recommendations and findings after the 2011 event.

Says @ERCOT_ISO didn't take enough demand offline early enough and then slammed the breaks too quickly.

#energytwitter

@Menendez4Texas cites as proof that PUCT didn't do what they needed, Garland Power which did winterize and stayed running.

Q: Is the Governor to blame?

A: All of us are to blame. This is the problem with our society, always quick to blame. We're all to blame.

#txlege

@evanasmith asks if there should be changes to the PUCT governance.

@GoldmanCraig says the PUC should stay appointees, not elected so that we get experts on there.

@Menendez4Texas says he's leaning elected PUCT but understands Goldman's point

#txlege #txenergy

Menenedez continues and says we need an Energy Commission to better communicate and coordinate within the energy systems which are interrelated.

Smith brings up @RafaelAnchia's efforts to change the name of the Railroad Commission to Energy Commission. Should we do that?

@GoldmanCraig says there will be bills to increase coordination between the agencies but not convinced that a single agency is the answer.

[I'm paraphrasing these responses.]

uh-oh, technical difficulties on the #TTEvents livestream...

And we're back. @evanasmith asks the $16b question. @Menendez4Texas says he's been in conversation with @cpsenergy CEO Paula Gold Williams bc PUCT/ERCOT kept those $9000MWh prices in place for too long. Said he told her to protect the ratepayers

Menendez continues to say this adds insult to injury, to make ratepayers pay for this. @evanasmith asks should we be concerned that @KHancock4TX didn't sign the letter calling for prices to be lowered?

#txlege #ttevents

@Menendez4Texas says he doesn't know why he didn't sign but is confident all will rally to protect ratepayers

@GoldmanCraig agrees that prices should be lowered.
#txlege #energytwitter.

For more background see texastribune.org/2021/03/05/tex…

@evanasmith asks @GoldmanCraig about #HB14, the bill to winterize gas supply. Goldman doesn't have details yet. Says he's working with industry and other stakeholders to write the bill. Doesn't want to do anything that leads to less gas generation being online.

#txenergy

Smith asks shouldn't people be skeptical #txlege will do anything. This was all brought up post 2011.

Do you have not only the will but the wallet?

@Menendez4Texas says we're in Texas, 2nd most populous state. Every energy company wants to be here.

@Menendez4Texas (cont) I don't want to hear that taxpayers will pay for it. I don't care what it costs. If you want to do business in Texas, do what Garland did. Winterize. 80 people died. If we don't fix this, none of us should reelected from the Governor on down

#txlege

@GoldmanCraig says some oil and gas operators did winterize but lost electricity. they need to be on the critical infrastructure list. We must have better coordination.

#ttevents

@evanasmith asks about the Wall St. Journal article that says deregulation cost Texas $28b

wsj.com/articles/texas…

Goldman says no one testified we should re-regulate. Says we've been deregulated since the 70s and we're not going to connect to other grids.

[he's mixing different issues here. deregulation could continue while connecting to other grids. Texas was dregulated in '95 and '99]

@Menendez4Texas We have a broken market, we need to change how we price. We could connect to other grids and export energy when we have a lot. But the market and pricing does need to be fixed regardless.

#energytwitter #txenergy

Great discussion and important public service from @TexasTribune. #txlege

End.