The GOP’s Perfect Free-Market Storm Just Devastated Texas

DAILY BEAST

Cliff Schecter


Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

President Ronald Reagan once claimed, in that jovial, grandfatherly voice that often concealed the impact of his words, “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I'm from the government and I'm here to help.’”

Thirty-five years worshipping at the altar of free markets and deregulation later, America has gone from being perceived by most countries as “a city on a hill” to a nation that sometimes has actual bread lines. (Wasn't this one of the things we didn't like about the Soviet Union?).

Yet, after a year in which the federal government under Donald Trump refused to take any responsibility for coordinating the response to a once-in-a-hundred-years pandemic that has claimed nearly half a million American lives, the tide seems to be turning. As I write this on Thursday, millions of Texans are without power and half of the people in Harris County, the third largest county in the country, also lack running water, after being hit with a frigid winter storm. Instead of bread lines, 20 years of all-GOP government in Texas has Houstonians lining up to get a bucket filled with potable water.



Without even getting into environmental degradation, gun violence, and income inequality we haven't seen since the Gilded Age, this the the moment for anyone who understands that a modern post-industrial country in an international economy needs a strong, fair government "to stand athwart history, and yell stop" at those who weaken us through a cultish devotion to deregulation at any cost.

Don't believe me? Let's return to the unnecessary suffering taking place across Texas right now, a state run 100 percent by Republicans, which hasn't had a Democratic governor since Ann Richards left in 1994. When the ice and snow storm began to shut down power across much of Texas on Feb. 15, the state was already a sitting duck..

According to Dan Dicker, longtime energy futures trader, analyst and author of three books on energy production, "Texas is the most lax in regulating oil and gas production in the entire country. That attitude extends from wellhead to gas burner—and these blackouts are a tangible result of that free-for-all."

In fact, two disastrous deregulatory decisions made by the long line of Republican leadership in Austin would set the state up for this tragedy that has already been linked to over 30 deaths. First, as Dicker told The Daily Beast, "Texas' ERCOT [Electric Reliability Council of Texas] is an entirely independent electric grid from the rest of the country… And theirs is the only state where people are freezing—that tells you all you need to know."

What does this mean? For some context, there are three grids in this country, the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection and the Texas grid, ERCOT. Texas may not have succeeded in its endless, mindless threats to secede, but its power grid sure did.

What this practically means is right-wingers running Texas, in order to avoid the federal scrutiny that comes with interstate electricity transmission, purposely put themselves in a position where they are mostly isolated from other power grids. Even with scientists warning that storms would get worse and this was a risk not worth taking, Texas Republicans decided to continue to take it.

Second, there was the decision by the state’s Republican governors and lawmakers, also in response to these warnings by scientists, to just put their cowboy boots up and ignore the necessity of weatherproofing power plants and transmission lines. Why? Because according to The Texas Tribune, these politicians “prioritized the free market.”

There were unenforceable guidelines issues, but unlike most other states Texas simply chose not to require the kind of equipment upgrades that would’ve prepared the system to handle more extreme weather events. In other words, this was completely predictable. In fact, it was predicted! But power companies have profits to make, and in any case, climate change is a Chinese hoax.

And, still, Texas got lucky, as the state was “seconds and minutes” away from having the whole system collapse into a catastrophe of months-long blackouts. Maybe that’s what Texas’ Republican Senator Ted Cruz was thinking as he ran off to Cancun while his constituents froze from his ideological handiwork. Or as Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Gov. Greg Abbott, blatantly lied about their failures by ridiculously trying to blame it on all on wind turbines.

Ted Cruz Blames His Daughters for Tone-Deaf Vacay to Cancun
AY CARAMBA
Pilar Melendez,
Jamie Ross



But Cruz, Crenshaw, and Abbott, while awful, are just emblematic of the GOP's dishonesty about their deregulation fetish in the years since Reagan. This is not to say the Democrats didn't also buy into some of this during the Clinton era. But in more recent years, from the Affordable Care Act to Dodd-Frank financial regulation, the Democratic Party has mostly embraced smart, 21st century regulation and infrastructure upgrades.

Meanwhile, for the GOP, every week is infrastructure week.

Which is to say, whether it's the derivatives market, energy, health care or many other areas that impact our everyday lives and need robust (but smart) regulation in our modern times, the GOP either ignores it, blocks it, or fights to deregulate it. The biggest example, of course, being a pandemic that needed a strong federal response and instead got a president sharing disinformation, attacking state leaders, and ignoring any responsibility to lead a massive (or any) response.

Which is why Democrats must step up and step forward with a strong message and emotional, personal stories about how deregulation really harms us, and how we need well-run government in this modern age. They cannot allow this to remain an abstract concept for Republicans to message. And members of the GOP must be forced to reevaluate these stances, or they must lose.

The alternative is that we'll suffer more Texas storm responses. More financial meltdowns. And we'll continue to fall behind China and other countries that realize a 21st century infrastructure is necessary if a country expects to compete in a 21st century world.

Winter storm wreaks havoc in Texas

Montinique Monroe/Getty Images


Winter Storm Uri has covered 75 percent of the continental United States in snow, with another storm expected to hit the already-strained American South. [The Wall Street Journal / Talal Ansari and Elizabeth Findell]

Across the South, whose energy grids are largely unwinterized, power outages have left people without heat and water, causing rolling — and in some cases continual — power outages. [Vox / Umair Irfan]

In hard-hit Texas, deregulation has disincentivized power companies from securing their grids for winter weather. Now, pipelines have frozen, power plants have gone dark, and the price of electricity is soaring — and over 4 million Texans are without power. [The Washington Post / Will Englund]

The natural gas companies that primarily power the grid have enforced rolling blackouts in order to reduce the load at the direction of state regulators, with some areas experiencing persistent outages. [The Houston Chronicle / Marcy de Luna and Amanda Drane]

The outages, combined with nearly a year of the coronavirus pandemic, have pushed many Texans to the physical and mental brink: People are unable to charge their medical devices, sleeping in their cars, and losing access to water and grocery stores. [The Texas Tribune / Shannon Najmabadi and Marissa Martinez]

Minority neighborhoods were among the first to lose power and could be the last to see it returned. Their houses often lack proper insulation and will be at risk of pollution exposure due to proximity to stopping-and-starting industrial sites. [The New York Times / James Dobbins and Hiroko Tabuchi]

Across Texas, hundreds of cases of hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning have been reported in hospitals as people desperately try to get warm using stoves, grills, gas ovens, and other dangerous means. [The Dallas Morning News / Joseph Hoyt]

A political battle has ensued, as Republicans have blamed wind and solar energy shutdowns for the blackouts and used it as an opportunity to criticize the Green New Deal — which has not been passed. In actuality, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy are responsible for the vast majority of outages. [The Associated Press / Ali Swenson and Arijeta Lajka]

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

The deep freeze in Texas, which overwhelmed the power grid and knocked out electricity for more than 3.5 million people, leaving them without heat. It has taken the lives of at least 23 people.

Most of Texas is on its own power grid, a decision made in the 1930s to keep it clear of federal regulation. This means both that it avoids federal regulation and that it cannot import more electricity during periods of high demand. Apparently, as temperatures began to drop, people turned up electric heaters and needed more power than engineers had been told to design for, just as the ice shut down gas-fired plants and wind turbines froze. Demand for natural gas spiked and created a shortage.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) told Sean Hannity that the disaster “shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal” for the United States, but Dan Woodfin, a senior director for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the organization in charge of the state’s power grid, told Bloomberg that the frozen wind turbines were the smallest factor in the crisis. They supply only about 10% of the state’s power in the winter.

Frozen instruments at gas, coal, and nuclear plants, as well as shortages of natural gas, were the major culprits. To keep electricity prices low, ERCOT had not prepared for such a crisis. El Paso, which is not part of ERCOT but is instead linked to a larger grid that includes other states and thus is regulated, did, in fact, weatherize their equipment. Its customers lost power only briefly.

The Texas Winter Storm & Rush Limbaugh

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON 

The crisis in Texas continues, with almost 2 million people still without power in frigid temperatures. Pipes are bursting in homes, pulling down ceilings and flooding living spaces, while 7 million Texans are under a water boil advisory.

Tim Boyd, the mayor of Colorado City, Texas, put on Facebook: “The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!... If you are sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your lazy is direct result of your raising! [sic]…. This is sadly a product of a socialist government where they feed people to believe that the FEW will work and others will become dependent for handouts…. I’ll be damned if I’m going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves!... Bottom line quit crying and looking for a handout! Get off your ass and take care of your own family!” “Only the strong will survive and the weak will parish [sic],” he said.

After an outcry, Boyd resigned.

Boyd’s post was a fitting tribute to talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who passed today from lung cancer at age 70. It was Limbaugh who popularized the idea that hardworking white men were under attack in America. According to him, minorities and feminists were too lazy to work, and instead expected a handout from the government, paid for by tax dollars levied from hardworking white men. This, he explained, was “socialism,” and it was destroying America.

Limbaugh didn’t invent this theory; it was the driving principle behind Movement Conservatism, which rose in the 1950s to combat the New Deal government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, and promoted infrastructure. But Movement Conservatives' efforts to get voters to reject the system that they credited for creating widespread prosperity had little success.

In 1971, Lewis Powell, an attorney for the tobacco industry, wrote a confidential memo for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce outlining how business interests could overturn the New Deal and retake control of America. Powell focused on putting like-minded scholars and speakers on college campuses, rewriting textbooks, stacking the courts, and pressuring politicians. He also called for “reaching the public generally” through television, newspapers, and radio. “[E]very available means should be employed to challenge and refute unfair attacks,” he wrote, “as well as to present the affirmative case through this media.”

Pressing the Movement Conservative case faced headwinds, however, since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) enforced a policy that, in the interests of serving the community, required any outlet that held a federal broadcast license to present issues honestly, equitably, and with balance. This “Fairness Doctrine” meant that Movement Conservatives had trouble gaining traction, since voters rejected their ideas when they were stacked up against the ideas of Democrats and traditional Republicans, who agreed that the government had a role to play in the economy (even though they squabbled about the extent of that role).

In 1985, under a chair appointed by President Ronald Reagan, the FCC stated that the Fairness Doctrine hurt the public interest. Two years later, under another Reagan-appointed chair, the FCC abolished the rule.

With the Fairness Doctrine gone, Rush Limbaugh stepped into the role of promoting the Movement Conservative narrative. He gave it the concrete examples, color, and passion it needed to jump from think tanks and businessmen to ordinary voters who could help make it the driving force behind national policy. While politicians talked with veiled language about “welfare queens” and same-sex bathrooms, and “makers” and “takers,” Limbaugh played “Barack the Magic Negro,” talked of “femiNazis,” and said “Liberals” were “socialists,” redistributing tax dollars from hardworking white men to the undeserving.

Constantly, he hammered on the idea that the federal government threatened the freedom of white men, and he did so in a style that his listeners found entertaining and liberating.

By the end of the 1980s, Limbaugh’s show was carried on more than 650 radio stations, and in 1992, he briefly branched out into television with a show produced by Roger Ailes, who had packaged Richard Nixon in 1968 and would go on to become the head of the Fox News Channel. Before the 1994 midterm elections, Limbaugh was so effective in pushing the Republicans’ “Contract With America” that when the party won control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1952, the Republican revolutionaries made him an honorary member of their group.

Limbaugh told them that, under House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the Republicans must “begin an emergency dismantling of the welfare system, which is shredding the social fabric,” bankrupting the country, and “gutting the work ethic, educational performance, and moral discipline of the poor.” Next, Congress should cut capital gains taxes, which would drive economic growth, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and generate billions in federal revenue.

Limbaugh kept staff in Washington to make sure Republican positions got through to voters. At the same time, every congressman knew that taking a stand against Limbaugh would earn instant condemnation on radio channels across the country, and they acted accordingly.

Limbaugh saw politics as entertainment that pays well for the people who can rile up their base with compelling stories—Limbaugh’s net worth when he died was estimated at $600 million—but he sold the Movement Conservative narrative well. He laid the groundwork for the political career of Donald Trump, who awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a made-for-tv moment at Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address. His influence runs deep in the current party: former Mayor Boyd, an elected official, began his diatribe with: “Let me hurt some feelings while I have a minute!!”

Like Boyd, other Texas politicians are also falling back on the Movement Conservative narrative to explain the disaster in their state. The crisis was caused by a lack of maintenance on Texas’s unregulated energy grid, which meant that instruments at coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants froze, at the same time that supplies of natural gas fell short. Nonetheless, Governor Greg Abbott and his allies in the fossil fuel industry went after “liberal” ideas. They blamed the crisis on the frozen wind turbines and solar plants which account for about 13% of Texas’s winter power. Abbott told Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity that “this shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.” Tucker Carlson told his viewers that Texas was “totally reliant on windmills.”

The former Texas governor and former Secretary of Energy under Trump, Rick Perry, wrote on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s website to warn against regulation of Texas’s energy system: “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” he said. The website warned that “Those watching on the left may see the situation in Texas as an opportunity to expand their top-down, radical proposals. Two phrases come to mind: don’t mess with Texas, and don’t let a crisis go to waste.”

At Abbott’s request, President Biden has declared that Texas is in a state of emergency, freeing up federal money and supplies for the state. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has sent 60 generators to state hospitals, water plants, and other critical facilities, along with blankets, food, and bottled water. It is also delivering diesel fuel for backup power.