February 25, 2021      2:52 PM

HK: Texas electric grid inquiries begin, but collateral damage questions come later

Ironic that banning “taxpayer funded lobbying” is still a priority for some when thousands of entities were impacted; the legislative process is complicated, and this crisis demonstrates the need for professional communicators at the Capitol

There will be more hearings, commissions, political public executions, and ultimately legislation but there are two main substantive questions. Since weatherization recommendations for power plants were already issued a decade ago and apparently ignored, the private portion of accountability for the frigid apocalypse may already be apportioned.

Stories have already appeared in multiple media outlets highlighting the fact that it is relatively inexpensive to weatherize plants, drill rigs, windmills, transmission systems, and pipelines at the time of construction but orders of magnitude more expensive to retrofit.

At least with that issue, when all the finger pointing and chest beating have concluded, the fundamental question is who pays—the taxpayer or ratepayer, who of course are one and the same. The question is whether government raises taxes or generators raise prices.

There are no real dollar estimates yet about what it will cost to weatherize all the components of the grid.

By Harvey Kronberg

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