1of3In spite of the heat advisory, electrical linemen are working countless hours all over Southeast Texas to get the power back on, like these men working near the Port Neches city limits along FM 366 on Tuesday afternoon. Photo made on September 1, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The EnterpriseFran Ruchalski, The Enterprise / The Enterprise

Vehicles are back up on Research Forest Drive near I-45 after power to many of the area's traffic lights went out in addition to homes and businesses, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020. More than 100,000 customers lost power as of Thursday afternoon as Entergy-Texas began rolling power outages for its Texas customers after extensive damage to the company's transmission system caused by Hurricane Laura. — 2of3Vehicles are back up on Research Forest Drive near I-45 after power to many of the area’s traffic lights went out in addition to homes and businesses, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020. More than 100,000 customers lost power as of Thursday afternoon as Entergy-Texas began rolling power outages for its Texas customers after extensive damage to the company’s transmission system caused by Hurricane Laura.Jason Fochtman, Staff photographer / Houston Chronicle

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If there’s anything worse than shivering through the February freeze in darkened, powerless homes, it would be paying for the oversight that caused it even though it wasn’t your responsibility. Unfortunately, that is what Texas consumers are looking at - unless lawmakers step up and put this burden where it belongs. Those two sources are utility companies, and to a lesser extent, the state’s Rainy Day Fund.

In the regular legislative session that ended in May, lawmakers properly required weatherization upgrades for power plants - but didn’t decide who should pay for it. Most electricity providers plan to shift those costs to consumers in the form of billions of dollars in higher natural gas and electric bills for decades.

That’s not fair, especially since most utility companies made good profits in the past decade - in part because they didn’t spend as much as necessary on winterizing their plants. A few utilities did make this investment but are now being penalized for their precautions because other companies that didn’t are getting subsidies now to cover this expense.

“Here we go again,” said Tim Morstad, associate state director of AARP Texas. “Private power companies that pocket profits during good times now seek to pad a fee onto ratepayer bills to pay for improvements they should have made long ago.”

Since Gov. Greg Abbott is apparently going to be calling several special legislative sessions in the coming months, especially in view of the Democratic Party walkout in the current one, he could easily add this topic to a future agenda.

In addition to requiring utility companies to paying more of these costs, the Legislature should tap into some of the Rainy Day Fund for this expense. It’s currently more than $11 billion, and with the oil and gas industry stabilizing this year, its short-term future looks good. Lawmakers have been good about not raiding this nest egg for routine expenses, but special occasions like this call for special measures. They could allocate $1 billion or $2 billion from this fund and it would still be in excellent shape. Sitting on a huge balance while consumers need help now makes little sense.

As the reality of climate change settles over Texas and the nation, weather extremes are probably going to become more common in future years. That means some colder weather in winters - like what we saw in February - and even longer and hotter summers, which are already challenging enough in Texas.

Most consumers will be struggling to pay these higher heating and cooling costs. If they have to bear the extra burden of weatherizing power plants, their bills could be more than they can handle. The Legislature can lessen that burden - but it must act soon.