What Happened with the Texas Energy Grid

When the Texas electric grid failed over Valentine’s Day weekend in February 2021, the recriminations were plentiful and contradictory: too many renewables that failed; too much natural gas-fired generation that didn’t show up; a flawed regulatory model that fell short on resource adequacy and weatherization; a competition model that gives customers apparent choice with over 70% of the market controlled by two retailers. While ideological priors explain many of the explainers’ explanations, the terrible fact is that the Texas grid went down, causing death and misery. The Texas legislature has now instituted reforms to correct the problems with the Texas market, but a hot summer already has Texans on edge whether the grid will meet the soaring demand. This teleforum explored the legal and regulatory fallout from the Texas electricity mess with a former Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, Barry Smitherman. The focus of the conversation was not be so much on recriminations, but on an assessment of what went wrong, the regulatory and institutional challenges and what the experience might mean for energy policy nationally.

Featuring:

-- Barry Smitherman, principle of BARRY SMITHERMAN, P.C. and a former partner at Vinson & Elkins LLP. He served on the Texas Railroad Commission from 2011 through 2014, and was Chairman of the Commission from March 2012 through August 2014.

-- Raymond L. Gifford, who counsels communications, electric and gas utilities, and information technology companies on state and federal aspects of regulation, administrative law, and competition policy. He is an expert in public utilities law, and the law and economics of regulation of network industries.

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As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.