AUSTIN, Texas — Every two years when lawmakers assemble at the Texas Capitol for a new legislative session, they are joined by thousands of lobbyists hired by special interests to influence how laws are made.
This session, the most powerful professional arm twisters are focused mainly on one thing: the Texas power grid.
Its spectacular collapse during February’s record-smashing winter storm revealed how unprepared our power system was to handle days of below-freezing temperatures.
About 4.5 million Texans lost power and heat the week of Valentine’s Day, and about 150 died, when power plant pipes and instrumentation froze and went offline. Some gas-fired plants were unable to power up and generate electricity because the plants couldn’t get natural gas for fuel because of winter outages in the oil patch.
The public rightly demanded answers, and more importantly, swift action from Austin.
Power plants officials, and the natural gas firms that supply their generators with fuel, knew what was coming: a mandate to prevent another tragedy by spending million, maybe billions, to weatherize all their facilities that froze up and stopped working during the storm.
To help manage the legislative storm, the Texas energy sector hired lobbyists. Hundreds of them.
“Yeah, they would be very foolish not to be well-represented while their futures are being debated,” said Bill Miller of HillCo Partners, one of the most influential lobbying outfits in Austin. Records show he’s representing 23 clients this session, including a major energy company.
“They need to have good, strong, smart people representing their interests, arguing for their side, whatever it may be,” said Miller, a 35-year veteran in the business. “And buying that kind of talent – it does cost money.”
“There’s an old adage that, if you’re not at the table, you might be on the menu,” said Dr. Clare Brock, a Texas Woman’s University political science professor in Denton, and expert on lobbying.
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