Suppose Texas Was the Pennsylvania Turnpike

Okay, just leave reality behind for a moment and suppose.

Here’s the parallels

Both are part of a national network, the turnpike of the interstate highway system and Texas part of the power grid. Or Texas used to be, before it got all uppity and independent.

Suppose the Penn Turnpike had no snowplows and a storm came whistling through the central to eastern United States. Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and New York are plowed off clean, but the highway is backed up 500 miles in both directions because no one can get through Pennsylvania.

That’s pretty much what happened to Texas

Once part of the national grid, Texas decided in 1999 to deregulate and jump off the national grid, handing over the state’s entire electricity delivery system to a market-based patchwork of private generators, transmission companies and energy retailers. Who needs snowplows in Texas?

No backup, but Texas is the Lone Star State and hasn’t needed backup since that embarrassing little event at the Alamo.

Why would they do t…