Will Texas fail to lead on grid resilience?

After suffering one of the nation’s most costly blackouts in February of this year, the citizens the Lone Star State should know that their elected leaders are on track to pass up yet another opportunity to protect their citizens and to position Texas as a nationwide leader in grid resilience.

During this most recent legislative session, Texas lawmakers filed 26 bills related to the electric grid and on June 21^st, Governor Abbott stated that “The legislature passed comprehensive reforms to fix all of the flaws that led to the power failure.” However, experts disagree.

While the Governor said that the “bottom line is that everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas,” none of the eight bills that passed require all-hazards protection of the grid. A lack of focus on resilience is precisely what led the world’s 9^th largest economy to go dark.

It is questionable whether the new laws would compel the utilities to even adequately weatherize infrastructure to prevent another cold-induced blackout.

Governor Abbott has an opportunity to fix this. Having called a special session of the Texas Legislature beginning on July 8^th to address unresolved issues, he has the ability to add all-hazards grid resilience to the legislature’s agenda once again.

The governor has a track record of courageously leading where the federal government has failed on issues related to national security, particularly at the border. Grid resilience is another place where the State must act in absence of strong federal leadership.

That is why 23 members of the Texas congressional delegation wrote to Abbott in 2015, warning that “the federal government has struggled to address the vulnerabilities of our critical infrastructure at the national level,” and suggesting that Texas “adopt measures that maximize the resiliency of our electric grid against all hazards.”

Again in 2018, members of the Texas congressional delegation wrote to Governor Abbott their “strong recommendation that action must be taken with the utmost urgency at the state level” to “help Texas lead by example by creating workable solutions to protect the electric grid from all hazards…”

The “all hazards” approach to grid security would address even the most severe threats, including solar weather and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from a nuclear weapon.

Recognizing this vulnerability, Texas Senator Bob Hall authored legislation to promote all-hazards grid resilience in 2015, 2017, 2019, and again in 2021. Hall’s latest bill – S.B. 1606 –proposed a “Grid Security Commission” to focus on measures to protect the Texas grid. The bill had 23 co-sponsors, nearly 3/4^th of the Senate. Despite its substantial support, the bill was referred to the House State Affairs Committee and left to die.

Meanwhile, Texas is home to one of the nation’s most promising pilot projects on all-hazards grid resilience: San Antonio Electromagnetic Defense (SA-EMD).  This collaborative project between Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA), it’s electric utility – CPS Energy, and the surrounding community, is a beacon of hope for Texas, and for America.  SA-EMD shows how local leaders can work together with public and private partners to ensure resilience for their communities across the country.

This sort of can-do attitude and spirit can easily be translated state-wide. SA-EMD would serve as useful resource for a Texas Grid Security Commission, and help address the state grid’s vulnerabilities. Such a Commission could rapidly bring lessons learned in San Antonio to the rest of the state and help develop a playbook for communities across the country to protect their electric grid infrastructure from all hazards.

Texans are a resilient and pioneering people. They expect everything in Texas to be the biggest, best, and toughest. And that extends to their electric grid.  The upcoming special session will last only 30 days, so Governor Abbott should move to urge the legislature on day one to resurrect S.B. 1606 (and its identical companion bill in the Texas House – HB 3792), amend as needed,  and get it to his desk for signature.