Our power went out for four hours on Valentine's Day, Sunday February 14th. It went out again at 1:30 am Monday, February 15th and did not return for good until Thursday, February 18th. In the middle of our frozen blackout Representative Drew Darby told San Angelo Live.
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.
We did not experience a rotating blackout as promised by ERCOT.:
Rolling outages were supposed to last about 10 to 45 minutes each. But by Tuesday afternoon, millions were still without power in heat in Texas with no end in sight to the blackouts.
Rep. Darby's Energy Committee is responsible for:
- electric utility regulation as it relates to energy production and consumption;
- identifying, developing, and using alternative energy sources;
- increasing energy efficiency throughout the state;
An ERCOT video states it and the Public Utility Commission operate under "the guidance of the Texas Legislature."
Representative Darby began serving in the Texas House of Representatives in January 2007. He served as Chair of the Energy Committee from 2015-2018.
Representative Darby played a key role in electrical utility regulation in the decade since the 2011 grid failure that produced recommendations for change. That grid failure lasted roughly 36 hours and impacted 3.2 million people. Those recommendations went unheeded.
Our prolonged arctic event saw the number without power grow from 2 million to 3 million to nearly 4.5 million.
"10 years ago, the PUC identified the incapacity to deal with extreme shifts in the weather and did nothing," state Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, wrote Wednesday on Twitter.
As the PUC operates under the guidance of the Texas Legislature citizens know who to hold accountable.
"Once the grid is back to being fully operational again, we must address why, after ten years have passed, are we in a worse position today than in 2011."
It's because our leaders enabled the abandonment of millions of their constituents, now livid
“This was poorly managed,” she said. “It was clarifying, to be honest with you, because now we know when things hit the fan, we're in it alone.”
Here's my feedback for AEP, ERCOT, the PUC and the Texas Legislature:
The PUC jumped into action that Monday evening of the crisis and raised wholesale electricity rates and made them retroactive.
The Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas has directed the state's main grid operators to raise energy prices, as millions of people are enduring below-freezing weather without power in their homes.
The PUC met in an emergency open meeting on Monday evening to address concerns that "certain pricing mechanisms were not generating an optimal response" to the electricity crisis sparked by the extreme winter weather in the state, according to a news release issued on Monday.
That decisive Monday action got us power on Thursday. Don't send me an outrageous energy bill applied retroactively either.
I don't think there is a credit large enough for what we endured to stay alive, prevent damage to our wells and property and keep animals alive. With a fireplace insert going around the clock the house got down to 41 degrees. It stayed in the 40's much of the time our power was off.
I do thank the Lord for getting us through it. He didn't abandon us but our leaders surely did. San Angelo Mayor Brenda Gunter called it with her statement mid crisis:
"the bigger picture is that the state infrastructure utilities plan failed us all."
Rep. Darby will take on ERCOT, the group he's provided guidance for as an elected official. Does that mean he's taking on himself?
Update 2-24-21: Texas energy executives are ecstatic over their huge profits while citizens suffered mightily.
Update 2-25-21: One Texas Representative went without power for 30 hours.
Update 3-21-21: Neither the Texas Legislature nor the Texas Supreme Court chose to deal with Grid Failure. Markets win, citizens lose.
A move in Texas to wipe out more than $4 billion in electricity overcharges from last month’s devastating blackouts appears dead in the water after deeply divided lawmakers left town without taking final action on the proposal.
Immunity from accountability wins, citizens lose.
The all-Republican high court split 5 to 4, with the majority deciding that a legal technicality prevented it from weighing in on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s claim to governmental immunity in a case that predated the February disaster. As a result, a lower court ruling granting government immunity to Ercot stands for now.
Piss poor leaders gave Texans a system that not only failed millions but overcharged in a time of crisis. That system remains firmly in place.
Update 3-29-21: Former CEO Bill Magness testified to Congress that ERCOT had no choice but to order rolling outages to prevent long-lasting damage to electric infrastructure. We got outages, no rolling.
Update 6-15-21: ERCOT is again warning power customers to conserve. Energy plants are down and power may be in short supply.
Update 11-29-21: Texas has done “next to nothing” to weatherize its natural gas supply which would result in major power outages should the state experience another long term freeze.
Update 12-5-21: Rep. Drew Darby's latest abandonment of the health and safety of his constituents involved his opposition to federal vaccine mandates. Shannon Medical Center had to suspend its requirement for employees to be COVID-19 vaccinated as courts deal with the constitutionality of mandates. Tom Green County's highest COVID death toll occurred just months ago. Darby's House District shows education and health care as the biggest employer. A Texas education official recommended COVID vaccines be mandatory in schools, like other required vaccinations.
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