Electricity runs through a power line at approximately 167,000 miles per second. That’s about 90% of the speed of light.

The only thing faster than that may be the speed in which political opponents start gloating in Texas.

About as soon as the news hit of four new federal connectivity projects, those wanting to put an end to the Lone Star State’s famously independent power grid status began to pop the champagne cork. Those who have been beating on three-decades-and-running Texas Republican leadership for recent power outages wasted no time praising President Joe Biden for the departmental announcement. It’s especially tempting with just one month to go before the November presidential election, with Democrats eager to dunk on the GOP as much as they can.

𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞!! Texas to get connected to the national grid via federal grant. https://t.co/xoUq4pNkQQ

— CollinCounty ⭐️Texas Democrats (@CollinDems) October 5, 2024

Greetings from the Lone Star State.

Hell hath frozen over. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.https://t.co/Rcn9MAXhP9

— Neil Alan Willard (@neilwillard) October 4, 2024

 

But “hell” hasn’t “froze over” yet, according to Texas’s utility chief.

“While the Southern Spirit Transmission line would cross multiple state lines, the Texas grid will remain independent from the national grid and would not be subject to any federal oversight,” said Public Utility Commission Chairman Thomas Gleeson. “In fact, there are already similar direct current ties in Texas, and they do not have any impact on the independence of the Texas grid.”

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, $1.5B for four transmission projects was approved by the agency, including the “Southern Spirit” project to connect the Texas grid to Southeast U.S. grids for the first time — bankrolling 1,000 miles of new lines and increasing capacity by 7,100 megawatts. Here’s the TL;DR:

“Southern Spirit will construct a new 320-mile HVDC line connecting the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid for the first time with electric grids in the southeastern U.S. power markets, including Midcontinent Independent System Operator South (MISO-S) and Southern Company (SOCO), which will enhance reliability and prevent outages during extreme weather events, like Winter Storm Uri [ED: are we taking the Weather Channel’s practice of naming winter storm seriously?] that hit Texas in 2022. This line across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi will provide 3,000 MW of bidirectional capacity and create 850 construction jobs and 305 permanent operations jobs. (up to $360 million potential contract value).”

The approved project is in line with the Biden-Harris Justice40 Initiative, “which sets the goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.”

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) authored a bill to connect Texas’s grid to the rest of the nation. He was busy escorting U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (S-Vermont) around Texas and did not comment on the DOE’s announcement. With a GOP majority in the House, the bill is expectedly languishing in committee.

From the hip: Texas’s grid is independent, but not in an absolute sense. The Texas Interconnection, as it’s properly called, serves most of Texas, under the oversight of the ERCOT. Several Eastern, far West, and Panhandle counties are served by other regional U.S. grids. And there are points here and there where lines are connected to the Texas grid for numerous purposes. In other words, it’s not an island.

So this won’t be the first time Texas has been connected to other power networks, as the Commissioner Gleeson said above. And to be fair, Texas has had its share of utility bureaucracy drama of late with plenty of resignations due to alleged and actual mismanagement: that’s not new, either.

However, what is relatively new is the cutthroat tactic on the Left to play up any and all severe storm or blackout scenario as the fault of Republican leadership and/or man-made climate change. In case you don’t remember, in February 2022 then-gubernatorial hopeful Beto O’Rourke held a candlelight vigil and crooned ‘Lean On Me’ over 1 winter storm death per Texas county. We only wish we were kidding. And if you need some light reading, take a look at Casar’s “Connect the Grid” page to promote his bill, also using climate alarmism and social justice worry wart-ism to his Democratic-Socialist advantage.

A lot of liberals are new to Texas and may not know this, but we have extreme weather. And that’s been going on for a long time before anyone ever started talking about man-made climate change. Blaming Republican leadership (or the free market economy) for power outages because of the Texas weather would be like blaming politics for Hurricane Helene taking out utilities from Florida to North Carolina. In other words, not logical and not cool. Voters should summarily reject any candidate or incumbent who stoops to that level.

Then we have what this writer prefers to call the fait accompli error — the automatic assumption that because something is progressive that it must be the inevitable wave of the future. Here’s an example: a web-based headline from the Houston Chronicle that read “ERCOT may finally connect to U.S. grid thanks to $360 million project.” Did you catch that? “Finally” — as if the nation is on a slow but sure march toward federalized everything. Despite the fact that States are taking back power in ways not seen since the early days of our Republic. Ignoring the fact that Roe v. Wade returned the bulk of abortion rights decisions to the States. And completely non-cognizant that even the DOE itself is in the crosshairs of conservative Republicans should they ever take back real power on Capitol Hill.

At least for now, it seems there’s a finality about Texas maintaining its intransigent power grid.