Texas governor's biggest donors: Energy industry that failed

As frozen Texas reels under one of worst electricity outs in U.S. history, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has blamed grid operators and iced-over wind turbines but gone easier on ar culprit: an oil and gas industry that is state's dominant business and his biggest political contributor.

And as toll deepened Thursday from a week of historic winter storms, which have killed more than 20 people in Texas , dogpiling on a power grid that is proudly isolated from rest of country igres warnings kwn by state's GOP leaders for years.

“It's almost like a murder suspect blaming ir right hand for committing crime," said Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. His suburban Austin home lost power for 40 hours and had working faucets Thursday, when roughly 1 in 4 people in Texas woke up under instructions to boil water.

Like most of state's 30 million residents, Talarico's power is controlled by grid manrs at Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which Abbott again laid into Thursday after more than 4 million people at one point were enduring outs in subfreezing temperatures. But that is t where responsibility ends, as power plants that feed grid were kcked offline by extreme cold, and natural gas producers didn't protect wellheads from freezing. “ERCOT is a convenient whipping boy," Talarico said.

crisis has put fossil fuel industry that lavishes Texas Capitol with money in crosshairs in ways that Abbott has t had to navigate when steering America's second-largest state through or disasters, including hurricanes and ongoing pandemic. For first time Thursday, Abbott called on Texas to mandate that power plants be winterized.

Oil and gas built and enriched Texas, and with that its politicians, including those who became president. But ne has reaped campaign contributions on scale of Abbott, who in six years in office has raised more than $150 million from dors, more than any goverr in U.S. history .

Texas' energy interests are biggest backers of his political rise, and he has t ruled out a White House run in 2024. More than $26 million of his contributions have come from oil and gas industry, more than any or ecomic sector, according to an analysis by National Institute on Money in Politics.

As Texas' grid first began buckling early Monday, Abbott drew overnight backlash after going on Fox News and laying fault on solar and wind producers, at a time when natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems were responsible for nearly twice as many outs .

Pressed on those comments later, Abbott took a softer tone and ackwledged every source of power had been compromised. But he accused ERCOT of misleading public with messs that grid was ready for storm. “It's especially unacceptable when you realize what ERCOT told state of Texas," Abbott said.

ERCOT is overseen by Texas Public Utility Commission, whose three members are appointed by Abbott. While ERCOT mans most of Texas’ power grid, commission and Texas Legislature make key policy decisions that have factored into ongoing crisis.

After state’s last major freeze, during 2011 Super Bowl held in Arlington, Texas, a federal analysis found that energy producers' procedures for winterizing ir equipment “were eir inadequate or were t adequately followed” in many cases. report repeatedly cites ar Texas freeze, in 1989, as a clear warning.

Girding power generators against fierce winter wear is essential in colder climates. In Iowa, where wind farms supply 40% of state’s electricity, windmills have been turning all week despite temperatures that dropped to minus 17 degrees in Des Moines. In Texas, grid officials say y can't speak for why power generators here don't do same.

A decade ago, report on last Texas failure lists a number of ways to winterize an oil well or a natural gas device and estimated costs: installing a cold-wear production unit ($23,000), collecting gas vented from an injection pump to supply a heater ($675), or building a fiberglass hut to enclose production equipment ($1,500).

Winterizing 50,000 wells — just under a third of number of total natural gas wells active in Texas — was estimated in 2011 to cost as much as $1.75 billion, a figure that would almost certainly be higher today due to inflation. By comparison, Texas oil and natural gas industry paid $13.9 billion in taxes and royalties last year alone, according to figures from Texas Oil & Gas Association.

Republican Ryan Sitton, former commissioner of peculiarly named Texas Railroad Commission that regulates state's oil and gas industry, said an issue with bolstering power plants is cost passed on to electric customers. Of Abbott's focus on ERCOT, Sitton said, “Calling for an investigation is easy. Actually performing a good investigation and taking ownership of results is where rubber meets road."

He said oil and gas interests, which generously funded his own political campaigns, don't hold sway public imagines.“y make donations, sure. But unless entire energy industry is speaking with a unified voice, which almost never happens, re's t that much influence," Sitton said.

(Im Credit: AP)