Snow in Kansas from eight years ago. We didn’t lose power that day, for what it’s worth.
I’ve been devouring the news about the calamity in Texas ever since my son texted me to say that I shouldn’t worry if I couldn’t reach him via text, phone or email. He was turning off all his electronic devices to conserve battery life because, at that point, he’d been without power for seven hours. He promised to check in periodically just to let me know he was OK.
(And he is OK – power came back on after 38 hours, pipes stayed intact, water stayed running. His final piece of well-being dropped into place a week later when the boil water order was lifted in his neighborhood. Thanks for asking.)
So along with the rest of America I’ve learned how Texas power companies are kind of like that guy in the neighborhood who won’t cut his grass or paint the peeling garage door or pick up that brush pile that’s been accumulating junk and rodents in the back yard. Routine maintenance is for rule-followers and he doesn’t much care about your well-being or property value if it’s going to cost him time or money.
In this case, the utilities opted out of basic winterization for windmills, power plants and pipelines, reasoning that severe cold spells were a rare occurrence, and that most Texans would rather go without power for a few hours than pay higher rates for gas and electricity.
Let me introduce you to my friend, Mr. Polar Vortex.
Last week’s visit wasn’t his first to Texas. The state had brushes with extreme cold in before, most recently in 2011 and 2018. Rare, yes, but frequent enough that one might consider taking steps to protect power plant infrastructure from cold weather.
That, however, could eat into the industry’s massive profits (remember, Texas doesn’t regulate its power utilities) and it appears to me that the utility company boards and shareholders don’t much care for your well-being or property value if it’s going to cost them time or money.
So maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised when Congressman Michael McCaul, a Republican who represents a district that includes the city of Austin and some Houston suburbs as well as the counties in between, said that federal disaster aid may be used to pay consumer power bills that skyrocketed during the arctic blast.
No mention that utility companies may bear some responsibility for those bills because they failed to winterize.
No mention that natural gas suppliers who hit the jackpot with the high prices they were able to charge because of supply shortages related to frozen pipelines might have played a role in those bills.
Just that Mama Fed’s largesse should be used to pay the bills, while the guys who caused the problem dance off to Cancun with their profits.
Certainly, local municipalities should have a voice in how such aid is used. And paying utility bills will certainly help the bottom line for those whose daily lives have been devastated by the brutal cold and its results.
But I’d like to think that someone might suggest that the dough to pay the power bills should come from the folks who caused the problem: the companies who failed to do simple maintenance and the companies who profited from a spike in demand for their product. Fine the utility companies for their lack of maintenance (and require them to winterize their equipment) and fine the natural gas companies for price gouging. Put the money in a fund that covers the cost of power bills.
That might stretch the federal dollars a little further when it comes to supplying water and food in areas where the grocery store shelves are empty, or repairing homes damaged by burst water pipes. Maybe it could even replace some of the furniture that Texans burned in their efforts to keep warm.
Federal aid can’t restore lives lost, but maybe it could help pay the medical bills for people who lost limbs and digits to frostbite or who had to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.
Fines might suggest to the utility companies and corporations everywhere that being a good neighbor, caring about people’s property values and well-being, is worth their time and money.