A Cold Day In…🥶

A major pipeline company in Texas walked back its threat that could have cut off power in at least 400,000 households.

But the underlying financial dispute with a power company stemming from February’s deadly storm has not been resolved. https://t.co/T7pQB4boNF

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) January 21, 2022

 So I woke up this morning to a notice that my electric company had issued a “Rush Hour” notice to my Nest thermostat, telling it to stay set at 55F until 9:00 AM.

It was 36F outside.

I’ve had notices like this in summer. Nobody has an AC unit that runs on natural gas. This is the first one I’ve ever seen in winter.

This does not bode well for Abbott’s re-election.

The threat of a gas cutoff in that Tribune story would have been even worse if it had been realized. Fortunately even Texas has minimal consumer protections; just a complaint to the Railroad Commission ended that threat and restored some semblance of order. But imagine cutting off power to a medium sized city.

If the lesson of February is to be very afraid of cold weather (this has been a warm winter in Texas), then Abbott needs to be very afraid.  ERCOT has announced repeatedly that we should remain calm, all is well.

Electricity suppliers don’t seem to be listening.