DALLAS (1080 KRLD)- Dallas County commissioners have adopted a resolution asking state lawmakers to strengthen the electric grid. The commissioners court voted on the resolution Tuesday.
"The reality is there was a great amount of suffering, and it was completely predictable," says Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
The resolution "strongly requests" the state take steps to require the electric grid and producers to meet "modernization and weatherization minimum standards." The resolution says those standards should be set to ensure the system can continue working in temperatures at least ten percent "worse than our worst known cold and hot outages."
Jenkins also proposed an amendment to ask the state to ban electric plans with variable rates.
"Most states ban variable plans," he says. "What we do is we have variable plans that allow people, without knowing it, to gamble on their power."
Jenkins says Griddy Energy, which was forced by ERCOT to stop operating in Texas, may have drawn attention, but he says other people are hurt by variable rates.
"A lot of the people who got hit by these high plans didn't even get tricked into choosing them," he says. "Their plan just lapsed, and they got put in there."
The resolution passed 4-1. Only Commissioner J.J. Koch voted against the measure.
"There are a considerable amount of mistakes and great misunderstandings regarding how these events unfolded and, actually, how our system works here in Texas," he says.
Koch says the resolution should only have dealt with making sure electric providers are prepared for winter conditions.
"That's the huge thing missing here, really, what's terribly unfortunate," Koch said. "This is, kind of, the standard cheap shot from you to our state government."
He plans a town hall meeting later this week.
The resolution also asked the state to provide "adequate and substantial relief to Texans suffering from high energy bills."
