March 1, 2021
Tell Lawmakers Texans Need Clean, Affordable, Reliable Power
In response to the February power crisis, committees in both the Texas House and Senate held hearings last week. The hearings lasted for two days, and featured presentations from energy industry leaders and regulators who clarified that as horrible as the crisis was, it could have been much worse: Texas was four minutes away from a total grid collapse that would have left the state without power for more than a month.
The CEO of Texas’ largest electric provider, Vistra Energy, stated that his faith in Texas’ so-called deregulated electric market had been shaken. “I was a big proponent of this market, but we’ve got to look at something more stable, because this is just not befitting the State of Texas,” he said. Watch Vistra Energy CEO Curt Morgan’s testimony and other clips from the hearings on Texas Impact’s LegeTV
Insist that lawmakers put the “public” back in public utility, and make the grid reliable, affordable, and clean.
- Reliable – Texas needs diverse power sources that are resilient even to unlikely disasters. If the power goes out, people die.
- Affordable – It’s up to policymakers to distribute costs for maintaining common goods like utilities—poor people must not get soaked so giant industries can maximize profit.
- Clean – Insurance actuaries and the military are planning for climate change—it’s time Texas plans, too. Renewable energy works in very hot and very cold locations around the world.
Lawmakers still need to hear about your experience during this crisis.
Click here to share your story
While the comment period for the Feb. 25th hearings are closed, Texans may still submit comments through the House’s new Public Comment portal for organizational hearing for House State Affairs on March 4. An organizational hearing is a briefing that covers all the topics under the committee’s jurisdiction. In other words, it is not too late to tell your story to the committee and your representative.