By Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner
We will not soon forget the historic freezing temperatures that shocked the city of Houston in February. The winter weather created problems for many families who woke up to no electricity, a boil water notice, and severe damage to their homes caused by frozen pipes that burst.
Houstonians are strong and resilient, but the combination of elements continues to challenge many of our neighbors.
That is why I quickly organized with my team to create several citywide water distribution sites. Through various means and by working with partners who contributed resources, we handed out nearly three million bottles of water to drive-thru events at senior centers, houses of worship, and working with city council members.
Working with Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, I also established the Greater Houston 2021 Winter Storm Relief Fund to help our region’s most vulnerable neighbors during this critical time of need. The Fund will focus on relief and recovery efforts across the City of Houston and Harris County. CenterPoint Energy Foundation has pledged $1 million as the lead donation.
I am incredibly proud of Houstonians who pulled together to get our city through a tough time.
In the last year, we have confronted the deadly coronavirus pandemic, started providing vaccines to our most vulnerable population, and then an arctic blast hit us. Houston has endured a lot, but we are getting through all this together.
While there is a lot of positive happening in our city, as your mayor, I will continue to speak out about the problems contributing to widespread power outages during the winter storm.
In 2011, when I was in the Texas Legislature, I filed a bill that would have required the Public Utility Commission, which oversees ERCOT, which manages our Texas grid, to ensure that there was an adequate reserve to prevent blackouts. The leadership in Austin did not give it a hearing. Simultaneously, our system in Texas is designed primarily for the summer heat and not necessarily for a winter event. The reality is climate change is real. It is real, and these major storms can happen at any time. The system needs to be weatherized. You need to maintain an adequate reserve. And we need to open our Texas grid because right now- we have a closed grid. We can’t get generation from outside of the state because of our system, which is market-driven. When the demand exceeds the supply, the cost that the generation- the generators can charge can go from a few thousand to 9,000 megawatts. All of this was foreseeable. I wrote about it in 2011. And so, for these exorbitant costs, it’s not the consumers who should assume those costs. They- they are not at fault for what happened last month.
Our work continues.