Theoretical frameworks – theories of how society should work vs how it does work – are a vital part of discussions about how almost anything in society works. For instance, conservatives – especially the extremists who have a religious tint to them – embrace deregulation, privatization, and lower taxes. Those on the left look more to government and are less sensitive to the concerns of the conservatives.
These discussions are important when it comes to products and services that don’t fit neatly into the free market paradigm. This morning I woke to read that it appears the theories of the right wing took quite a jolt over the last few days, and Professor Richardson provides a short summary:
First up is the deep freeze in Texas, which overwhelmed the power grid and knocked out electricity for more than 3.5 million people, leaving them without heat. It has taken the lives of at least 23 people.
Most of Texas is on its own power grid, a decision made in the 1930s to keep it clear of federal regulation. This means both that it avoids federal regulation and that it cannot import more electricity during periods of high demand. Apparently, as temperatures began to drop, people turned up electric heaters and needed more power than engineers had been told to design for, just as the ice shut down gas-fired plants and wind turbines froze. Demand for natural gas spiked and created a shortage. …
Frozen instruments at gas, coal, and nuclear plants, as well as shortages of natural gas, were the major culprits. To keep electricity prices low, ERCOT [Electric Reliability Council of Texas] had not prepared for such a crisis. El Paso, which is not part of ERCOT but is instead linked to a larger grid that includes other states and thus is regulated, did, in fact, weatherize their equipment. Its customers lost power only briefly.
And so I learn a little history as well as the problems of Texas. Naturally, those who adhere with frantic zealotry to ideological positions didn’t take well to the poor outcomes:
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) told Sean Hannity [talking head at Fox News] that the disaster “shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal” for the United States, but Dan Woodfin, a senior director for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the organization in charge of the state’s power grid, told Bloomberg that the frozen wind turbines were the smallest factor in the crisis. They supply only about 10% of the state’s power in the winter.
Other sources directly blame the failure of the Texas energy system on its inability to prepare for extreme weather events because of low prices[1].
And that’s the key, isn’t it?
Not really.
The problem is that the deregulation leads to an emphasis on low prices rather than an emphasis on availability. Look: Deregulation has lead to putting energy into the same consumer category as, say, coats. But while coats are easy to make and normally an optional item, abundant energy available 24/7 is the foundation of our civilization, as well as any other advanced civilization of which I’m aware.
You lose your coat, you get a little cold. And in this weather causing problems from Minnesota[2] to Texas, you make sure you don’t lose your coat. But when it comes to energy, an individual can’t ensure they don’t lose it in this sort of weather. That moves energy out of the tidy confines of the free market and into the untidy range of public utility.
Texas’ insistence that deregulation and low prices are the be-all end-all illustrates the cost of having the wrong metrics in place for measuring success. Sure, it’s nice to have low prices for the most important commodity in the world – but the flip side is a greater addiction to it. And when it goes away in a dangerous situation, the consequences are dire. The proper metric is availability, and quite frankly this is a difficult metric to implement in a free market.
That’s why public utility commissions exist.
Will Texas figure this out? Not so long as the conservatives are in charge, but that’s a political and cultural matter. It may take a number of these events before they awaken to the question of how the energy system fits into the framework of society, and move it from the free market niche to the shared resource, shared management foundation. But it’s important to understand that the theoretical structures in play are the real culprits here, and if they are not corrected – or tossed out in favor of better theories – Texas and other states will continue to suffer.
1 It’s worth noting that, while Abbot’s remark reeks of a frantic defense of the religious tenet that is deregulation, it has a worthwhile side to it. The freezing up of turbines, of which I’ve not heard of happening here in Minnesota, suggests that wind turbine technology needs an upgrade, or that the mix of renewables in the future should be tuned such that wind turbines are a useful auxiliary but not a main load bearing member. Batteries remain an important, and, in view of Abbot’s remark, an underappreciated part of the mix of future energy grids. But fossil fuels, while no doubt having a future role, are basically on their way out, and rather than whining about a Green New Deal that no one else is talking about, he should start planning for the future, rather than just warming the governor’s seat.
2 Here in the Twin Cities we’ve had a stretch of temperatures in the minus teens Fahrenheit. This is unusual for February, and dangerous.
