Environment Texas responds to Speaker Phelan’s priority bills on electricity

Environment Texas

AUSTIN – Environment Texas Executive Director released the following statement in response to Speaker Phelan’s announcement of seven priority bills to respond to the winter storm outages.

“While the text for each bill is not yet available to read, the Speaker’s package of bills to respond to the blackout includes some important measures, including HB 12 (Raymond, to study a statewide emergency alert system) and HB 14 (Goldman, to weatherize gas infrastructure). 

Failures in gas infrastructure, including at oil and gas wells and with gathering lines, led to supply shortages at natural gas power plants. Salty water is a byproduct of the oil and gas extraction process and, in long cold snaps, that water can freeze and block the flow of gas from the well. From there, the combined oil, gas, and water are sent to a separator to extract the oil and gas from the water, where unprotected pipes or valves can fail. Requirements to weatherize this equipment (for example, by enclosing key equipment inside buildings) will better protect Texans the next time disaster strikes.    

On the other hand, HB 17 (Deshotel), to “ban any ordinances or rules that prohibit the connection of residential or commercial buildings to specific infrastructure based on the type or energy source it would provide to users” has no business being part of this package of bills. Clearly the oil and gas industry is trying to take advantage of the disaster to piggyback their agenda onto the response. Electrifying buildings would reduce overall use of gas in Texas, which may have helped during the blackouts, and reduce the global warming pollution that is making weather-related disasters more common and severe. But Rep. Deshotel’s bill wouldn’t just ban local ordinances requiring new homes be all-electric, it would prohibit even measures to encourage electrification, such as rebates, or any “other measure that has the purpose, intent or effect” of limiting gas use. It’s overly broad and dangerous.       

I’m also disappointed no bills to reduce energy demand were included in the Speaker’s package. According to a report for the PUC, Texas could cost effectively reduce energy use by 23%, but Texas lags the nation in energy efficiency. A greater investment in energy efficiency would have significantly reduced energy use as demand hit record levels during the storm. The package also includes no measures to provide emergency backup power for critical infrastructure such as water pump stations, fire stations, and hospitals. Solar paired with batteries could provide an emergency source of power when the grid goes down.”