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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.”