Texas Power Cuts Could Last Till Sunday, Nearly 12,000 Affected

Icicles hang off the State Highway 195 sign in Killeen, Texas, on Feb. 18, 2021. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Thousands of Texas citizens are waiting for their power to return after last week’s winter weather disruptions, with a major energy company warning that the wait could last until the end of this weekend.

On Friday, over 350,000 Texans were without power as the sleet and freezing rain from an ice storm weighed down on trees and power lines. On Monday, many of these disruptions were resolved. However, several thousands of homes were yet to get power back online. As of 09:48 a.m. ET, Feb. 7, 11,933 customers in Texas were out of power, according to data from poweroutage.us.

The bulk of the outage was accounted for in Travis County where 8,569 customers were without power. Austin Energy, which serves Travis County and other areas, had the highest number of customers without power at 9,186.

In a situation update, Austin Energy claimed that over 96 percent of its customers currently have power and that they are presently focusing on the “most complicated and time-consuming restoration efforts.” However, the firm doesn’t expect power to be fully back anytime soon.

“Forecasted wind and rain this week could further complicate these efforts. Based on current information, we expect to restore power to nearly all remaining customers by Sunday, February 12,” Austin said. If this turns out to be true, the power outage would have lasted almost two weeks.

“Those that require electrical repairs to customer-owned or maintained equipment may be out of power longer. This estimation is based on the following factors: rate of restoration since the start of the storm, number of workers involved in the restoration process, a more complete damage assessment, and weather.”

Environmentalism and Power Outage

A report from KUT, a public radio station from Austin, cites pro-environmental policies as a reason for the current power outage crisis.

Until 2006, the city used to cut back fast-growing trees up to 13 feet away from power lines while slow-growing trees were clipped up to 9 feet back. Around 2007, the city started relaxing policies dictating the trimming of trees around power lines. The move was pushed by neighborhood associations and property owners.

“Very powerful people who are rich and are in the neighborhoods with the beautiful trees were complaining … They didn’t want their pretty trees in their yards touched by the city,” Michael Webber, who served on the city’s Electric Utility Commission between 2008 and 2013, said to the station.

As a result, fast-growing trees were only cut back up to 8 feet while slow-growing trees were clipped only up to 4 feet.

In 2019, Austin Energy COO Charles Dickerson announced that the tree-trimming policy would be reversed, warning that “we could find ourselves in a very precarious situation” if this was not done.

The new standard called for fast-growing trees to be cut back up to 15 feet away from power lines and slow-growing trees by up to 10 feet.

But in the last four years, the city has failed to clear the backlog of power lines where trees need to be trimmed to the new stricter standard. And then the winter storm hit Texas this year, leading to the prolonged power outage.

Power Monopoly

Kirk Watson, Austin’s Democrat Mayor, is under pressure for the power crisis. He has called a meeting this week that will reportedly put the job of the city manager, Spencer Cronk, on the line.

Republican lawmaker Ellen Troxclair, a former City Council member, has highlighted the monopoly power of Austin Energy amid the power outage, threatening to strip it away.

“Many Texans have the right to choose energy providers. Not those on #AustinEnergy! They are captive to the monopoly bc of the Austin City Council, which manages AE [Austin Energy] but doesn’t have the knowledge or experience to do so—causing high rates, poor service, & frequent outages,” Troxclair said in a Feb. 4 tweet.

“Over 50 percent of the outages across the state were #AustinEnergy customers, even though other cities had more icing, more large trees, and providers who serve more customers … They are the largest utility that owns generation that does not have an independent board.”