SID MILLER’S
Texas P.O.W.E.R. Plan
Proper Oversight, Winterization, and Electricity Reform Plan
Back in February of 2021, Texas experienced a winter storm worse than most. The frigid temperatures taxed our power grid beyond its limits and left millions of Texans without heat as temperatures dropped into the single digits.
This led to a cascade of failures that deprived millions more of basic food and clean water.
According to ERCOT officials, Texas came within 4 minutes and 37 seconds of the complete collapse of our power grid.
Such an event would have thrown us back into the 1800s and led to human suffering and death on a scale that is hard to imagine in a prosperous, modern state like Texas.
This is unacceptable and it must never happen again. As the Texas Agriculture Commissioner, I am demanding answers from the leaders and institutions that failed us.
I am also releasing the Texas P.O.W.E.R. Plan to ensure that we never face a situation like this again.
This plan is a series of common-sense reforms that will make our grid more resilient, the institutions that manage and oversee it more accountable, and the companies that participate in it more responsible.
As Texans, we must expect nothing less.
SID MILLER
Texas Agriculture Commissioner
Sign The Petition
If you agree with these reforms, please sign the petition on the right to show our state leaders that Texans demand action!
Spread the word:
Proper Oversight, Winterization, and Electricity Reform Plan
(The Texas P.O.W.E.R. Plan)
- Members of ERCOT, PUC, and other regulatory entities must reside in and be legal residents of the state of Texas.
- Winterization of coal, nuclear, gas, solar, hydro, and wind generation systems – we must make voluntary weatherization requirements mandatory.
- Remove liability shields that prevent accountability in the power system.
- Significantly increased storage capacity.
- Shield Texas consumers from sudden price spikes cause by natural disasters, systemic failures, EMPs, and cyber-attacks.
- Significantly increase accountability and oversight to empower regulators to impose compliance and sanction non-compliance on power generators and retail providers.
- Enhance cyber-security measures to protect grid integrity.
- Create a severe event early warning system to text important weather updates directly to Texas residents in a timely manner.
- Review, modernize, and harden essential infrastructure to prevent weather, cyber, and EMP disruptions.
- Expand and diversify Texas power to include more nuclear and hydro-power production.
- Limit “maintenance downtime” for power producers to no more than 3% of the state’s total capacity and schedule downtime across the calendar year instead of stacking maintenance in late winter.
- Incentivize back-up, localized power generation systems at essential facilities such as water treatment plants and hospitals.
- Mandate a statewide contingency plan to be implemented when our unreliable sources go offline.
- Create a memorandum of understanding with the military and National Guard to deploy their mobile generators to critical areas of the state.
