Forbes Piece: As May Arrives, The Texas Grid’s Main Needed Fix Sits In Limbo

[Note: This story was also published at Forbes.com]

AUSTIN, TEXAS - JANUARY 17: Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick speaks after being sworn in during his inauguration ceremony at the Texas State Capitol on January 17, 2023 in Austin, Texas. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick were sworn in.

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Just a little more than a month now remains in the 2023 session of the Texas legislature and, just as was the case in 2021, members in the House of Representatives have yet to address one of the most crucial chronic shortcomings of the state’s power grid: The persistent lack of adequate dispatchable reserve thermal generation capacity. It’s a problem that has lingered for more than a decade now, one that no bill that has thus far had a hearing in the House would address in any real way.

Speaker of the House Dade Phelan appears unconcerned about the matter, and Governor Greg Abbott has gone seemingly AWOL on it in recent weeks, despite his inauguration promise in January to “build a grid that powers our state — not for the next four years, but for the next 40 years.” For Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, though, getting a fix in place remains a high priority, a fact he made clear recently in a press conference in which he threatened to force a special session on the issue should the House fail to act.

“I can’t call a special session,” Patrick admitted, recognizing the fact that only the Governor has that power. “But I can create one by not passing a key bill that has to pass. That’s what I did in ‘17.”

The legislature in Texas has few matters it is constitutionally required to address in each biennial 140-day session, but it does have a handful, one of which being a bill that enacts a balanced budget for the next two-year cycle. Should push come to shove, Patrick, as the presiding officer in the Senate, could simply refuse to allow that chamber to hold a vote on one of those must-pass items to force Gov. Abbott into action.