Tragedy in Texas

I remember years ago reading about the US electrical grid and how basically there's the Eastern United States, the West, and then there's Texas which is on a standalone grid.

If the kind of devastating power outages had occurred in say Ohio, then electricity supplies from neighbouring states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Kentucky would have been tasked to supplement the grid in Ohio.

But Texas, which has long boasted about its independence didn't have that option or at least not in any kind of viable terms.

Additionally, under recent governors (including Greg Abbott), the state has undergone a massive privatisation scheme which has not been without scandal. Undoubtedly some readers will remember Houston-based Enron and some of the scandals that surrounded that unfortunate company, and the harm it caused in the name of profits. It's par for the course in the world of energy trading and speculation.

Right-wing media (including our local Christian radio station) have attempted to spin the story and blame the failures on so-called green energy policies. This coverage has mostly focused on frozen and failed windmills. The Christian station (echoing FOX) has blamed the crisis on the fact that the windmills freeze up and are thus unreliable in the cold and thus reckless and insufficient to rely upon for a steady supply.

Subsequent reports from other media sources have demonstrated this is skewed at best – blatantly untrue at worst. It wasn't just the windmills that failed but all types of power plants including the natural gas plants were shut down – because of frozen cooling systems. The managers did not take measures to protect their facilities from freezing.

I found the coverage from Western New York based FLN (Family Life Network) to be particularly odd as their region has many such windmills – and the cold and snow Texas is experiencing is par for the course in the Snowbelt regions of the Great Lakes. The windmills there don't fail and I don't recall any severe outage problems. The difference is this part of the country is used to this kind of weather. It happens every year and people know what to do. The same is true with residential plumbing and heating systems.

The problem was that the Texas power officials were caught unprepared and the state had no back-up mechanisms – like relying on the wider national grid.

Avaricious capitalism (as evidenced by the exploitative and criminal bills some are receiving) and mismanagement are to blame for their woes. I was also struck by the voices on the news – many calling for some kind of government aid. Now I hardly know the affiliations of those being interviewed but I found it somewhat ironic as the Texas ethos is that of the mythological cowboy – just me and my gun, right? And so as people sit freezing in their homes without heat and water, maybe they should think about that. Is that kind of libertarian order what they really want? But if they do want the mechanisms of the state to kick-in for aid then they must be prepared to pay taxes. That's the trade-off.

And what of Ted Cruz? All Christians should already know what he is and what he's really about but instead they will defend him and justify his actions. Did he do something criminal? No, but a US Senator wields a certain degree of power and he could have used it to make phone calls, shake things up and do something to help the people of his state. He chose to go on holiday – his selfish and disgraceful ethic on full display. He was simply living out the true nature of his Mammon-focused creed – which despite his profession is at complete odds with Christianity. Our Lord said as much.

Will the lessons be learned from this terrible incident? I almost certainly doubt it. And I don't doubt that churches in Texas and indeed across the land will misrepresent these events and spin them to favour their political agenda.

Whether green policies and wind energy are good, right, or efficient is beside the point. Tell the truth. What can we say about people that seem to have no truth in them?