Darby Cites Legislature as Critical to Massive Power Outages

 

In the middle of the winter storm Rep. Drew Darby said:

A failure of this magnitude cannot happen again, State Rep. Drew Darby said. 

“As a member of Energy Resources, I intend to ensure that your voice is represented at this hearing and we get to the bottom of what forced millions of Texans to be without power in sub-freezing temperatures,” Darby said.

Darby opened his questioning at the House Energy Committee hearing with:

"Thank you Mr. Chairman.  With all due respect to the process there is a lot of blame but I''m not going to point any.  If we want to look for blame we can look at this building and the folks that occupy these seats, both now and the years predecessors to us.  So my question is going to relate to how to fix it."

Darby went on to identify two sticking points, the 20% limit on electrical generation capacity and his belief that transmission line carriers could not communicate with customers because they don't know who they are.  Vistra Energy CEO Curt Morgan said the second constraint is not true, stating line carriers know the customers they serve, the people at the end of the meter.  I can attest to that having called AEP numerous times during the winter storm to report power outages.

Rep. Darby asked the wind generation representative about the actual wind shortfall during the long outage and about the relationship between wind and natural gas, seen by the wind industry as complimentary and not competitive.   I have more video to review from yesterday's House committee testimony.

Rep. Darby did speak to the national media and told the press:

“In a lot of respects, we’re victims of our own attempt to let free market forces work,” said Republican state Rep. Drew Darby, who sits on the House Energy Resources Committee that is digging into the outages.

“Typically, you know, the Texas Legislature pushes back on overregulation," Darby said. “However, my view on something as basic to human survival and need is we need to have reliable power and water."

The victims were the millions of Texans left without power for days.