> Nearly all of Texas' electric generation units and transmission facilities have passed the state's new winterization rules
That is very slippery language and the rest of the Yahoo/Reuters article reads like a puff piece.
According to Texas Monthly's investigation, sounds like there's fuckery afoot:
> When Schwertner sent his bill to the House, the legislation also created a committee to map the gas-electric supply chain and determine which gas facilities were critical to the operation of power plants. It authorized the Railroad Commission to use its hundred new employees to inspect and, if necessary, fine gas companies. When the bill returned from the House, though, the language had been revised: only companies “prepared to operate during a weather emergency” were considered critical. This created a troubling loophole. Once the bill had passed, the Railroad Commission was responsible for implementing it, and the agency proposed a rule allowing gas companies to exempt themselves from winterizing simply by paying a $150 filing fee and claiming that a facility wasn’t prepared to stay operational—a dizzying bit of circular reasoning.
Good to know that you can just say you're ineligible to get fined for breaking rules because you weren't going to follow them anyway. Like at least create a government incentive program for being prepared for winter weather other than lost profits during downtime. Why would I, as a power company, want to spend any money on hardening systems against the cold when the only downside is a potential small financial hit? It's like a consumer product recall, how much does it cost to do nothing versus how much does it cost to fix the problem?
That is very slippery language and the rest of the Yahoo/Reuters article reads like a puff piece.
According to Texas Monthly's investigation, sounds like there's fuckery afoot:
> When Schwertner sent his bill to the House, the legislation also created a committee to map the gas-electric supply chain and determine which gas facilities were critical to the operation of power plants. It authorized the Railroad Commission to use its hundred new employees to inspect and, if necessary, fine gas companies. When the bill returned from the House, though, the language had been revised: only companies “prepared to operate during a weather emergency” were considered critical. This created a troubling loophole. Once the bill had passed, the Railroad Commission was responsible for implementing it, and the agency proposed a rule allowing gas companies to exempt themselves from winterizing simply by paying a $150 filing fee and claiming that a facility wasn’t prepared to stay operational—a dizzying bit of circular reasoning.