This blog on Texas education contains posts on accountability, testing, K-12 education, postsecondary educational attainment, dropouts, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, environmental issues, Ethnic Studies at state and national levels. It also represents my digital footprint, of life and career, as a community-engaged scholar in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin.
Friday, July 09, 2021
Here’s why I think Gov. Greg Abbott selfishly didn’t include energy reform for the special session by Dave Lieber of The Watchdog
Thoughtful analysis and critique by Dave Lieber on why our Governor isn't prioritizing fixing Texas' energy grid that failed Texans last winter with at least 100 individuals losing their lives, as a consequence. Why? Consider, the following:
"A Texas Tribune analysis of donations found that going back 20 years, Abbott received $27 million from energy lobbyists. His current 'war chest' is $55 million, a state record, the Tribune reports."
This war chest figure is insane. When we express concern about money in politics, this is what we mean and how corrupting it is. Simply put, it means that you don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Imagine what he would do as our country's president....
The Watchdog accuses Gov. Oil & Gas of jeopardizing the safety of millions of Texans with a Faustian bargain.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott likely listened to his largest donor base -- the oil and gas industry -- by not putting energy reforms on the 2021 special session legislative agenda.(Eric Gay)
Commission because it doesn’t care about the public,
it became the (p)UC.
The R was stripped from hapless grid operator ERCOT because it stands for reliability. Howdy E-COT.
Abbott, I hereby bestow on you, with the powers invested in me to mock, the new nickname of Gov. Oil & Gas.
I do this because I believe Gov. Oil & Gas has traded the safety and security of 29 million Texans in return for campaign donations from his BFFs in the oil and gas industry.
As I first stated in my Wednesday night Watchdog newsletter (sign up here), I’ve covered politics since 1975, and I’ve seen a lot of stupid stuff. But Gov. O&G’s stubborn decision not to place electricity reform on the Texas Legislature’s current special session agenda strikes me as particularly selfish.
I’ll share my hypothesis of why I believe he did that in a moment. But let’s recap:
Last month, Gov. O&G made a statement that is a front-runner to become his political epitaph: “Bottom line is everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid.”
Six days later, on a mildly hot day, we had a grid conservation emergency. E-COT asked us to conserve for much of that week due, in part, to the shutdown of a nuclear power plant after a fire for which the local fire department was not even called. Suspicious.
There’s been no investigation — either in-house or independently — of the February freezeout. Our “leaders” don’t want to know what happened.
Attorney General Ken Paxton — who needs a nickname of his own and I’m taking suggestions — also showed his loyalty is not to us. He has declared that power generator companies are permitted to withhold freezeout documents from public view, despite the state’s open records law.
Abbott thought he could shush his critics with a work-around. Earlier this week, he sent a letter to his puppets at the (p)UC.
He asked the puppets to “improve electric reliability.”
He cited wind and solar facilities that misfire on cloudy, windless days. He wants those companies to pay when they don’t produce enough power. Cue the laughter from the fossil fuel industry.
Abbott wants E-COT to do a better job scheduling when power plants go offline. That’s like asking the Texas Rangers to win 10 games in a row. What are the odds?
I read one quote where Abbott said the Texas grid “is better today than it’s ever been.” I’d say that statement is as dim-witted as a possum, but I don’t want to be unfair to possums.
Gov. Oil & Gas has traded the safety and security of 29 million Texans in return for donations to pay for TV ads.(Karen Lieber)
I promised I would share my guess, and that’s all it is, about why Abbott is doing this. And you already may believe this yourself.
Money.
Former state Public Utility Counsel James Boyle points me to a Texans for Public Justice report that found Gov. O&G, from 2017 to 2020, raised $16 million from “electric power interests.”
A Texas Tribune analysis of donations found that going back 20 years, Abbott received $27 million from energy lobbyists. His current “war chest” is $55 million, a state record, the Tribune reports.
Former U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn (long before his name became a toll road) called the energy lobby “the most powerful, dangerous lobby … that has ever been created by any organization in this country.”
What does Abbott do with these millions? He will buy television ads. He has two strong opponents. This is a man who has never faced a GOP primary opponent in his lengthy career.
Let me define strong. Allen West has the most dangerous mouth in state politics. The provocative statements he utters will make great fodder for pro-Abbott TV ads.
Sample Abbott ad: Allen West is running for office. He once called House Speaker Dade Phelan “a Republican political traitor.” He lied about Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s push for a gun rights bill. If Allen West hates most Texas Republicans, why does he want to be one?
And Abbott must run ads to counter those placed by millionaire ex-state Sen. Don Huffines. Huffines, in addition to his own political ads, has his family car dealerships’ commercials singing at you morning, noon and night:
From Plano to Denton down to Lewisville, too. Huffines has it. Also in McKinney, we’ll prove it to you. Huffines has it. Service, selection, savings and more. Feel the excitement when you walk through our door. Huffines has it. Huffines has it.
Somebody has to pay for Abbott’s ads to match all those car ads, which now also advertise his opponent.
As for Abbott, is it naive to think that parts of “the most powerful, dangerous lobby” made it clear to the governor that energy was not to be placed on the special session agenda?
In gratitude, his patrons will pay for Abbott ads. Look at his energy hall of fame donors list: Oncor Electric Delivery, Energy Transfer Partners, Hunt Consolidated, TXU, Kinder Morgan, Exelon, NRG, CenterPoint and many others.
Gov. O&G worries about them. The Watchdog worries about all Texans, especially the elderly, the sick and the frail who face the possibility of blackouts on hot summer days. Texans deserve leaders that live by the state’s historic can-do mentality.
That’s why I believe that Gov. O&G has traded the safety and security of 29 million Texans in return for donations to pay for TV ads.
He’s made a Faustian bargain with the devil’s representative. He gets to go on if they call the shots.
As the line in Faust goes, “Two souls live in me, alas, irreconcilable with one another.”
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The Dallas Morning News Watchdog column is the 2019 winner of the top prize for column writing from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. The contest judge called his winning entries “models of suspenseful storytelling and public service.”
Dave Lieber, The Watchdog investigative columnist. Dave has written a hard-hitting newspaper column in Dallas/Fort Worth since 1993. His work appears twice a week. His goal is to save readers time, money and aggravation. In 2019, Dave won top prize in America's largest column-writing contest. The contest judge called his winning entries “models of suspenseful storytelling and public service."
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