Representative James Talarico says the state government should have done a better job regulating ERCOT, the state's power grid.
Other states share grids while Texas has their own.
The Williamson county democrat says that's a problem. "I think there's a streak in our state policymaking of wanting to be independent, of wanting to be deregulated, of wanting to avoid federal interference. I think we're seeing the consequences of those decisions."
He says the state government has the ability to regulate ERCOT and our entire electric grid. "I think what you've seen is a trend of deregulation, under investment and neglect that has got us to this point."
He says ERCOT told him that this was a freak storm that couldn't have been anticipated. Talarico is the youngest member of the legislature and he counters this has happened twice in his lifetime, once in the year he was born, 1989 and again in 2011.
After those events, federal regulators made recommendations to Texas policy makers. "Telling them to we need to make sure we are winterizing our equipment, that we need to have better regulation of our energy markets. that we need to have a capacity market and join other states and make sure we are preparing for an event like this." He says those recommendations were ignored.
Talarico adds these extreme events will happen more frequently as the climate changes.