DALLAS — While Congressman Greg Casar, D-Austin, has always argued his “Connect the Grid Act” would ensure reliability and reasonable rates for Texas consumers, he now has a major study to support his claims.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, discovered that connecting the Texas power grid to the rest of the country would have prevented up to 80% of the blackouts that occurred during the devastating Winter Storm Uri in 2021.
“Of course, we need new power plants. Of course, we need to weatherize and improve our existing grid. But by doing just one thing, connecting our infrastructure to the rest of the country’s infrastructure would solve an enormous part of the problem,” Congressman Casar told us on Inside Texas Politics.
After studying Congressman Casar’s legislation, MIT released a research brief that focused on four key areas: transmission requirements, how the grid would handle extreme weather events, cost savings and climate benefits.
In addition to fewer blackouts and increased grid reliability during extreme weather events, MIT researchers say the Connect the Grid Act would also save between $901 Million and $1.24 Billion annually.
In terms of climate benefit, the researchers say the legislation would lead to substantial reductions in CO2 emissions.
Congressman Casar says he’s ready to work, and even compromise, with Republicans to get his legislation passed, which he also calls a free market bill.
“It’s saying that we should be able to import and export power and electricity in and out of the state just like we do oil and gas,” the Democrat said.