Texas Monthly: Natural Gas Producers Are Getting a Pass From the Lege After the Blackouts

April 2 — Christi Craddick sat in her Austin office March 24, facing more than a dozen congressmen via livestream. The members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee were eager to learn what had gone so wrong in Texas that the electric grid had failed, leaving 4.5 million households and businesses without power, during the February winter storm that other states weathered with little disruption. Her voice as steady as a freight train, the chairman of the Railroad Commission, which regulates the Texas oil and gas industry, steadfastly pointed her finger elsewhere: production of natural gas, which was used to generate more than half the electricity used in Texas last year, struggled during the storm because producers fell victim to regulators’ decisions to order blackouts across the state. “The oil fields simply cannot run without power, making energy the best winterization tool,” she said.

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