The Energy Crisis: In the case of the recent energy crisis, it is the general consensus of energy experts that the breakdown of the state’s energy providers resulted directly from the state’s inaction to require energy system providers to winterize their equipment in preparation for extreme weather conditions. Pat Wood, a former chair of Texas’ Public Utility Commission testified Thursday at a Senate hearing that the misery suffered last month as blackouts left millions of Texans freezing in the dark for days could have been averted — if the state and its utilities had heeded a decade of advice to prepare for extreme weather.[1]. Federal regulators warned state lawmakers a decade ago that Texas needed to weatherize its power plants and grid. In fact, in its 2020/2021 Winter Reliability Assessment, the North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) warned of:
“…the potential for extreme generation resource outages in ERCOT due to severe weather in winter and summer, and the potential need for grid operators to employ operating mitigations or energy emergency alerts to meet peak demand.”
While most of the members of the Public Utilities Commission have resigned, they were appointed by Gov. Abbott. Rather than accept some responsibility for the crisis, However, Gov. Abbott opted to shift blame to the renewable energy sector, which was widely disputed by energy experts.
In response to Gov. Abbott’s new “crisis,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki countered that Gov. Abbott was trying to deflect attention from the catastrophic power outages that left many Texans freezing for several days and resulted in many deaths. Psaki also pointed out that Abbott has refused federal funds that Texas, local governments and nonprofits could use to test all migrants for the virus. Several public officials in South Texas confirmed that migrants entering the U.S. through their border were routinely quarantined and tested for COVID-19 prior to entry and release.
Historically, the flow of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. has been a challenge to several past administrations and is not a new phenomenon. During the Trump administration, many asylum seekers were denied entry into the U.S. and forced to wait in Mexico during the application process for asylum. Also, the Trump administration closed many of the organizations that had the responsibility of matching migrant children with families in the U.S. Consequently, what appears as a recent “surge” includes thousands of families that were denied entry into the U.S. by the policies of the Trump administration.
In creating the fictitious crisis of immigrants spreading COVID-19, Gov. Abbott is following the Trump playbook for the “immigration and crime crisis” that was effective in convincing nearly half of Americans that immigrants make crime worse. However, studies addressing this issue in Texas [6] and throughout the U.S. have confirmed that immigrants commit fewer crimes, on average, than native-born Americans [7,8]. Figure 1 below shows the results of a large-scale analysis relating violent crime rates and growth of the immigrant population in 200 U.S. metropolitan areas.
Following are the conclusions reached by the study investigators who
represented four universities:
“In 136 metro areas, almost 70
percent of those studied, the immigrant population increased between 1980 and
2016 while crime stayed stable or fell. The number of areas where crime and
immigration both increased was much lower — 54 areas, slightly more than a
quarter of the total. The 10 places with the largest increases in immigrants
Clearly, fabricating a crisis to generate hysteria can be
politically beneficial to public officials, especially during a time when many Americans
readily embrace the various distortions of reality promoted routinely by public
officials. Ethically speaking, however,
the voting public deserves to know the truth and reject the hysteria that often
accompanies political campaigns.
Gov. Abbott, it is time for you to show some courage and
accept responsibility for your poor judgment in these areas. Your administration presided over the
decisions regarding the energy crisis that led to the deaths of many Texans and
caused significant damage to the state’s infrastructure. Your administration
blocked the allocation of vaccines to vulnerable Black and Latino communities
in Dallas County. And your administration lifted the mask mandate despite
objections by medical experts, an action that is likely to increase the mortality
rates of Texas Blacks and Latinos.
In planning for the Texas gubernatorial race that begins in
2022, let’s hope that voters will remember the series of “crises” that Gov.
Abbott has manufactured to shift attention away from his failure in leadership.
Reference Notes
[1] Gillman, T.J. and Thompson, E. (2021, March 11). U.S. Senate hearing focuses on Texas’ overdue need for grid upgrades after Arctic blast triggered blackouts. The Dallas Morning News, Accessed at: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/03/11/after-texas-blackouts-senate-probes-need-to-prepare-grid-for-extreme-weather/?outputType=amp
[2] John
Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center,
Accessed at: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/us/texas
[3] Morris,
A. (2021, February 2). Report highlights
disparities. The Dallas Morning News, https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-dallas-morning-news/20210202/281522228766766
[4] Krause, K. and Morris, A. (2021, February
21). Texas officials cut number of COVID-19 shots for Dallas residents, county
says. The Dallas Morning News, Accessed at:
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2021/02/20/texas-officials-cut-number-of-covid-19-shots-for-dallas-county-residents/
[5] Gillman, T. J. (2021, March 3). Abbott-Biden
tilt continues. The Dallas Morning News, Washington Bureau, Accessed at https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?artguid=80998d0b-9ca9-4aa4-b5d6-6bb7a9150f6b&appid=3565
[6]
Nowraster, A. (2018, February 26). Criminal immigrants in Texas. The CATO Institute, Accessed at: https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/irpb-4-updated.pdf
[7]
Kurbin, C., Ousey, G.C., Reid, L., and Adelman, R. (2017, February 11). Does immigration lead to more crime? Not according to data. Newsweek, Accessed
at: https://sports.yahoo.com/news/does-immigration-lead-more-crime-101002691.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGmvQhce8atAQZLKo9yOU-zQP_Hj8rmKABZIl8UeaEeGDftMTccfpJLMG1Qgv_nhl4B6beW7ihnkKrzJhS-EcxKS6wILtLXj7HUH1c1-iUz50sZvS8yASNWwOuL0siZgRcRN1gBtFNR1nIgPZPOg9p5XH_bedrESZSlfcsgIYAgU
[8] Flagg, A. (2018, March 30). The myth of the criminal immigrant. The Marshall Project. Accessed at: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/03/30/the-myth-of-the-criminal-immigrant
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