Passing the Buck: Who Failed Texas During the Winter Storm?

 By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

An online definition of the phrase "pass the buck" reads to "shift the responsibility for something to someone else." President Harry S. Truman had a sign on his desk in the Oval Office that said "The Buck Stops Here." I doubt you'll see a sign like that on the desk of any of Brownsville's local leaders.

This morning, Brownsville Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez and Brownsville Public Utilities Board's CEO John Bruciak held a press conference at the Brownsville Public Library.

During the 42 minute press conference, the mayor spoke about the city's handling of the recent problems that plagued Brownsville during the winter storm we still aren't out of. However, the mayor's address was not the comedic part of the press conference. The real circus began when PUB's John Bruciak took the podium.

People listened with baited breath, since the biggest of the issues Brownsville had to deal with were the supposed rolling blackouts and power outages the city had to endure. The city ground to a halt as stores, restaurants, and traffic lights went dark. Thousands of Brownsvillians took to the street looking for something to eat only to be turned away at almost every eatery around town. Even worse was the fact that medical clinics and facilities were dark and unable to provide their patients with life-saving medical procedures. There were reports of people having to jury rig oxygen machines to car batteries so their elderly parents could breathe.

Now we were going to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. Why wasn't the city prepared? Why were these rolling blackouts necessary?

Before I get into that, it's important to understand what a rolling blackout is supposed to be. This practice is also known as rotational load shedding or feeder rotation. It is supposed to be a short-term, intentional shutting down of certain parts of the power grid that is supposed to be a last-resort measure to avoid an entire shutdown of the entire power grid in question.

The thing is these rolling blackouts are not supposed to last for several days. All over social media, and all throughout the mayor's live press conference people were commenting from all corners of the city they hadn't had power for two, three, or four days in a row. The simple fact is losing power for the better part of a week doesn't sound like a rolling blackout, especially when auto dealerships and other businesses that were closed still appeared to have power while residential areas suffered.

But now on to the important stuff — why did this happen?

Through Bruciak's often unintelligible mumblings, he laid the blame at the feet of ERCOT — the Electric, ahem, RELIABILITY Council of Texas, an oxymoron if ever there was one. ERCOT is a nonprofit (another doubtful statement) corporation that runs approximately 90% of the Texas energy grid. Bruciak said Brownsville and the PUB had plenty of power to go around, and Brownsville never stopped producing electricity, but ERCOT did not grant the PUB permission to use that power. 

One of Brownsville's local blogs, El Rrun Rrun, broke the story before the press conference. Juan Montoya has written several articles stating Brownville had sufficient power to avoid these blackouts and power several neighboring cities, but ERCOT did not allow PUB to release that power.

During his statement, Bruciak then mentioned during these last four days of the winter storm, PUB both bought and sold power. He then outraged AEP customers who lost power during this time, mentioning PUB had purchased power from American Electric Power. 

I have never claimed to be the smartest person in the world, but that statement didn't make a whole lot of sense. If you have enough power to run the city, but you weren't able to provide it because of ERCOT, why would you have to buy power? Then the logical question follows — if you have enough power to sell, why would you then have to buy power? None of this statement made any sense.

Then Bruciak, always worrying about money and his inflated salary, didn't fail to mention he expected rates to go up and customers should be prepared to see the rate increases to be reflected in next month's bill.

Then during a question and answer period, KRGV Channel 5's Rudy Mireles asked a battery of questions, most of which Bruciak sidestepped. Bruciak did confirm he did not bother asking ERCOT to allow PUB to release the power they had in reserve; he simply accepted the decision ERCOT made without question. Bruciak then went into a rambling non-answer when Mireles asked why PUB should be trusted given their recent problems and investigation by the FBI.

Then The Brownsville Herald's Nubia Reyna (or does she work for the Monitor, or the Valley Morning Star, or MyRGV.com? I guess it's all the same jumbled mess, regardless of the name) managed to ask a repackaged version of the same question about five times in a row. Not known for hard-nosed journalism, Reyna even managed to giggle as she and the mayor appeared to share an inside joke type moment when the mayor mentioned she obviously knew what had been going on all the while not really answering a whole lot.

In conclusion, Bruciak and the mayor blamed ERCOT for the mess and Bruciak made sure to let us all know our PUB rates would be going up in about a month.

PUB is being mismanaged. The top executives make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and all they've done is raise our rates for an imaginary power plant that was never built (they never brought the rates back down after admitting they weren't going to build the plant after all, by the way), squandered millions of dollars and never answered where that money went, and finally, they've risked our lives and left Brownsville in darkness while having plenty of power left in reserve.

Just like the powers-that-be at ERCOT, the big wigs at PUB have to go. They have run the utility that is supposedly owned by the community into the ground. Bruciak and his executive team should resign. 

Our city commissioners have conveniently gone dark on the issue. The only commissioner making any sort of comments on social media is, of course, Jessica Tetreau, claiming she is "trying her best to help people (how, exactly, she's trying to help I have absolutely no idea)," but she had to take time out of her busy schedule to play the victim because someone posted some criticism on her Facebook page. 

Our governor is flailing his arms saying ERCOT needs to be investigated. Then he goes on Fox News and complains something like the Green New Deal wouldn't work in Texas, adding fuel to the conspiracy theory fire that wind turbines are at fault for the power shortage when energy experts across the state say wind turbines didn't play into the shortage.

Our former governor, and former Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, once thought of as a suitable candidate for President of the United States until he opened his mouth to speak, is spewing the same ridiculous wind turbine theories. You'd think he wasn't ever in charge in Texas since it's apparent he has absolutely no idea what he's talking about.

US Senator Ted Cruz thought it would be a good idea to hit the beach in Cancun to avoid dealing with the problems that are plaguing his constituents. When he was called out for his "Let Them Eat Cake" moment, he first blamed his daughters, saying his daughters' friends wanted to take a vacation so he and his wife were just going to fly them down then come back to Texas. His story changed when he got back to Houston saying he had originally planned to stay in Cancun over the weekend with his family, then the New York Times published transcripts of text messages sent by Cruz's wife saying their house was freezing and she was asking her friends and neighbors if they wanted to join her at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun in a 300 dollar a night room.

Who is to blame?

The simple fact is no one agency, no one politician, is responsible for the millions of Texans who are currently suffering. The problem is no one agency, or politician, is stepping up to take responsibility and offer legitimate solutions.

Passing the buck with people's lives in the balance is a very dangerous game.