Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told CNN today that the state’s power grid, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), is an agency of the state, and that it cannot be the scapegoat for lack of leadership from state elected officials.
Turner was a state legislator in 1999 when energy was deregulated in the state, introducing retail competition to the electricity market.
When asked whether Turner now has second thoughts on that, he said he thought it was the right decision, but also recognized the need for greater oversight over ERCOT.
Turner explained that he introduced a bill in 2011 that would have mandated ERCOT have enough energy capacity to prevent blackouts, but said the bill never got a hearing.
“If that bill had been put into place in 2011, we would not be put in this situation now,” Turner said at an event to distribute bottled water to Houston residents. “The deregulation is not the problem. It’s what happened after the fact. And that is, the system was engineered, designed more to benefit the generators than the customers and the people themselves.”
“It was designed for summer heat, not for winter storms,” he added.
Asked whether ERCOT should be part of the national grid, Turner said that the closed system in Texas is archaic and needs to be upgraded.
In reaction to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s trip to Cancun, Turner said, “It’s good to have him back.”
Turner continued: “People who are fighting to stay warm, taking care of their families, looking for a way to move forward, if nothing else, they expect their leaders to be where they are, to remain on the ship and not to abandon the ship so you can have some comfort.”
The mayor added that this has been a difficult week amid a difficult year.
“This has been a hard week, ok? I’ve dealt with Harvey, I’ve dealt with social civil unrest, the coronavirus for almost a year, and now dealing this week. This has been a hard week,” he said.