Greg Abbott is up against it now

Will the lights stay on? That is the million-dollar question. And for Texas Governor Greg Abbott, it is the question — at least one of them — that will define his electability for another dismal term as the Governor of the Lone Star state.

There can be no doubt that the failure of the Texas power grid is one of the biggest failures of any Governor. For Abbott, it is merely one in a long line of failures, but it is an important one.

The lives of Texans were deeply affected by the Governor’s incompetence. There was loss of life. The Grid’s failure and the failure of Abbott to do anything about said failure was catastrophic.

Still, the race in Texas will be a tough one. Simply put, the state is gigantic, and there are many Texans who will again vote for the flailing Governor simply because he has an R next to his name. It is a sad fact of life that, sometimes, all it takes to win is belonging to the right party — or in Abbott’s case, the wrong one.

Yet, there has been increased scrutiny on the power grid. And with that focus comes a question: what will happen this winter? Will Abbott be able to keep the lights on?

Abbott seems confident that he will. He explains that the Grid is more “reliable” than ever — because of actions he took after the last failure. He claims that all the “key components” of the Grid have been winterized.

Well — that’s a nice thought, Greg. Only somebody needs to explain that to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. Because they have recently released their “Winter reliability assessment,” and this assessment says Texas will not be able to meet much of the power demands — almost 40% should this winter be a rough one for Texans.

Ercot explains that if the winter in Texas is normal, all should be well. But if weather conditions are extreme? All bets are off.

Yet Abbott, who mightily promised to capture rapists all over Texas, is now promising the lights will stay on. So, who to believe?

I would go with Ercot, who has no skin in the game except to tell it to Texans like it is. I would most definitely NOT go with the word of a man who cannot even acknowledge that there may be (more than) a few rapists he will never be able to catch.

So, as 2022 comes flying toward us, let’s do what we can to make sure the mighty state of Texas remains mighty — with a courageous Governor who won’t mess with Texas and their power grids — except to fix them.