Light Reading for a Sunday: Thoughts on the deep freeze in Texas and the Pandemic.

 I sit here, lucky in East Texas, never lost heat or water, and we have had food.

But, we are odd in Texas.  Much of the state is boiling water, wishing for power, dealing with pipes bursting and empty shelves in the grocery stores.  Those that have electricity and ordered from the wrong provider are receiving astronomically high bills ( https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/us/texas-storm-electric-bills.html ) rewarding these companies for the scarcity of electricity to heat homes in the middle of freezing temps and ice storms.

How did we get here as a rich and growing state?  The Texas economy grew because of oil and natural gas, and yet it created its power grid that dis-incented generators to build and upgrade their plants.  Under the assumption, the market was a better manager of electricity cost and demand than the government.  I read an article on ERCOT, the manager for the Texas grid,( https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/18/texas-power-outages-ercot/ ) that most of Texas was minutes from the whole system crashing, which is why they had to do the rolling blackouts,, and that scarcity of power resulted in the above high prices for some consumers.  

It started me to consider how we can leverage this time in our country to not only help citizens recover from COVID and the recent freeze but leave our country better off for future generations?

Then I thought about the $1.9 Trillion stimulus package being hustled through congress. We may all focus on the stimulus money being sent to our homes, and there is needed money for local and state governments, but I am sure much of this money is going to projects and programs we don’t know or possibly care about.  

During the depression, under FDR’s leadership, the country created the WPA (Work Progress Administration) to hire people and help them recover and improve the country.  Over 8 million people working for the WPA help build many bridges, parks, and public buildings we still enjoy today.  The government allowed people to have jobs and incomes and left the country's infrastructure in better shape by investing wisely. 

Let’s take a page out of the country’s response to the depression.  After setting aside money for those whose needs are the most urgent, let's invest in commissions staffed by government and private sector professionals.  These commissions would be responsible, in a timely manner, for defining the different areas this country needs to reinvent or improve, evaluate best practices here and abroad, and make recommendations, including the role of government and private enterprise.

Some areas that came to mind to consider:

Power Grid: Best practices for modernizing and increasing the grid resiliency among our growing centers of the economy and less prosperous areas.

Education:  Best approaches to invest in education to deliver excellence to children across the entire country.  Equalizing education will equalize opportunity for all.  Kids from rural towns and impoverished neighborhoods may advance to bigger cities and other neighborhoods, but manywill choose to help their local communities and families.  Providing equal education to all children will also help eliminate systemic racism that provides unequal education to different parts of our communities. 

Healthcare: There needs to be a balanced approach between investing in a healthcare economy that helped bring out a COVID vaccine and access to essential quality healthcare for all. Being poor and or disabled should not be a sentence to inadequate healthcare or even death. 

Global Warming:  The Polar Vortex didn't just sneak into Texas any more than the tidewaters coming up from Florida's drains. We can look at global warming as inevitable and decide to build out infrastructure and investment based on how best to deal with the millions of people with homes that will be underwater in a few years, or invest in cleaner energy and lifestyles that will slow down or even help stop the warming itself. 

Water:  Clean water has been taken for granted too long.  Global warming and growing population centers are increasing demand while droughts and storms reduce water availability.   Just look at the Colorado River and the drought that is affecting western states all the way to the southern California farms that help feed our nation.

The Role of Government:  We all don't want to pay more taxes.  But, this winter storm shows that we quickly turn to local, state, and federal governments to rescue us from the crisis at hand.  So, understanding how best to invest in the government’s ability to plan and respond to crises is important and how best to minimize future challenges.  

Using the pandemic crisis as a catalyst to change and improve the country while helping us recover is a  wise use of taxpayer dollars and will help the country emerge tronger than ever.  

Just my three cents at best.