Good morning!

Today’s Texas Minute is devoted to cold, hard truths that should warm our hearts... and drive our actions.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, February 19, 2021
Update your email preferences.

• U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is in hot water from the media for having gone to Cancun this week with his family. He was supposed to be doing... what, exactly? Is he an electrician or a plumber?
   
• Frankly, we’d probably be better off if all politicians went to Cancun during a weather crisis, rather than preen on TV by telling us to “be safe on the roads” and instructing us on how to boil water.

• With millions of Texans freezing and 24 dead, five members of the board that manages Texas’ electrical grid don’t have to endure the consequences of the power grid’s mismanagement. Why? They live outside of Texas.
   
• As Joshua Pierce reports, the Energy Reliability Council of Texas’ board of directors consists of 16 seats. The board’s chair and vice chair, Sally Talberg and Peter Cramton, are among the non-Texans nonetheless managing Texas’ electric grid. Talberg lives in Michigan, where she was a Michigan Public Service Commissioner before joining the ERCOT board. Cramton is a professor at the University of Michigan and the University of Cologne in Germany, though his social media account says he resides in Del Mar, California. Another board member, Vanessa Anesetti-Parra, lives in Canada.
    
• According to ERCOT bylaws, these out-of-state appointments are legal, with Texas residence merely “preferred.” New ERCOT board members are chosen by a nominating board consisting of current ERCOT board members.

• Next week, Texas legislators –acting at the behest of Gov. Greg Abbott – will hold hearings aimed at browbeating ERCOT for its mistakes in mishandling this crisis.
     
• Will any of the lawmakers have the gumption to admit that ERCOT is overseen by the Public Utility Commission and state legislature? Or that the PUC’s members are appointed directly by the governor?

• Energy policy expert Bill Peacock finds most of Texas’ power grid was probably about as prepared as could be expected for this record storm. However, he writes, one part of the grid was mostly unprepared: renewable energy generators.
   
• “Because of market distortions created by renewable subsidies, when Texas ran low on electricity Monday night, the grid operator had nowhere to turn. Reliable natural gas plants that could have shouldered much—if not all—of the heavy load were nonexistent because they had not been built, thanks to renewables subsidies.” – Bill Peacock

• Join Brandon Waltens on The Headline at 11 a.m. today. He’ll visit with State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R-Arlington), who has been a long-time proponent of strengthening and securing the Texas power grid, about what the legislature should do next.
   
• Can’t watch live? The video archive is available immediately after it ends, and the podcast will be available shortly later.

• Parents say nepotism played a part in the Neches ISD superintendent’s wife keeping her job as a school principle after being indicted for tampering with evidence in a case involving the sexual assault of a child.
      
• Tera Collum reports that Kimberlyn Snider, a Neches elementary school principal, has also been charged with five counts of official oppression. Her husband, Neches ISD Superintendent Randy Snider, is letting her keep her job. And the local school board is meekly backing his decision.

• On Monday evening, we will host the first of Texas Scorecard’s Legislative Report for active donors. Make a contribution today of at least $18.36 to be included on the call. In addition, all donors receive the monthly print edition of the Texas Scorecard with special, exclusive content!

• This week has pushed everyone to their limits in uncomfortable and challenging circumstances. Let me offer a special note of thanks to the amazing Texas Scorecard team for putting their personal comfort behind their commitment to inform and engage our fellow Texans.
   
• And a special thanks to our donors and readers for the kind emails, text messages, and phone calls checking in on the team!

Friday Reflection

This has been one of the coldest weeks on record. We’ve all been troubled to learn just how deeply our state failed to properly prepare for emergencies like this. One can find temporary warmth in unfocused anger, or we can bask in the permanence of truth. I suggest the latter.

But let us be clear: it hasn’t just been a lack of prior preparation on behalf of our political class, it has been a carefully considered misdirection. Texas lawmakers have ignored calls to strengthen and secure the electric grid, preferring instead to seek cultural glory by spending billions of taxpayer dollars on unreliable and unproven energy schemes. What we learned this week is that even that price tag isn’t nearly as high as what it has cost Texans.

In Peter’s Second Epistle, we find these words: “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.”

Too many politicians were overcome by the whispered promises of lobbyists. Just weeks before the massive power outages, the governor himself was accepting accolades for his commitment to these unproven and unreliable energy sources from lobbyists seeking more of the taxpayers’ money. He’s not alone; Texas politicians and lobbyists have enslaved us to cronyism of the worst, most dangerous, sort.

First, a set of questions: What will lawmakers do about it? What will they change? What will they fix?

Better questions might be: What we will do about it? What will we fix?

We need to think about what we have been tolerating, and therefore enabling, in our political culture.

Second, we need to remind ourselves daily of the words of Jesus from John 16: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

It is a cold, hard truth that we will continue to experience troubles and tribulations, but we can take warmth from the knowledge that they are confidently addressed in part by viewing the world through the lens that Jesus has already secured for us that which is most important.

Today in History 

On Feb. 19. 1846, the Congress of the Republic of Texas transferred authority to the first Legislature of the State of Texas.