houston off the grid?

Harris County politician powers push to switch Houston off ERCOT grid

Pioneering politico Adrian Garcia wants Houston out of ERCOT's jurisdiction.

Photo courtesy of County Commissioner Adrian Garcia

With the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) currently under intense scrutiny, a lawsuit, and now, sudden resignations, a Harris County politician is powering a major push to get his county off the grid.

Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia announced that he is asking the Commissioners Court to explore "what steps in regards to state statute and electricity infrastructure would need to be taken to remove Harris County from the service area of independent system operators that are primarily governed by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, such as the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)."

The agenda item review is scheduled for Friday, February 26, according to a press release.

This agenda item would ask the County Attorney’s Office what powers the Court or other county elected officials possess to place Harris County in the service area of an electric grid not primarily governed by state agencies, including the Public Utility Commission of Texas, according to Garcia’s office.

To expand on his argument and request, Garcia released the following statement:

In 2011, state officials promised to get to the bottom of why widespread power outages resulted from a hard freeze. No significant actions were taken. In 2013, much of Texas was introduced to then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, who was the first state officeholder to respond to the explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, TX.

No significant changes came from state action to further prevent a similar disaster from happening. In fact, as recently as January of 2020, in response to several plant explosions happening in a short period of time locally, Governor Abbott tweeted that ‘Texas will work with Houston and Harris County on strategies to reduce—and hopefully eliminate—them’. That also never happened.

I can’t speak for the other members of court, but I am concerned with the State’s leadership inability to keep promises they have made to their constituents during disasters. This agenda item is meant to explore how we in Harris County can take ownership of keeping residents safe, something the state has clearly shown it can’t be trusted to do itself.

For some perspective, Houston’s neighboring Liberty County is currently one of several in East Texas that are in the service area of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), Garcia’s office notes.

MISO is listed as an independent and regional transmission organization. In regards to jurisdiction, its regulation and oversight falls under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and is in the Eastern Interconnect grid.

CultureMap will update this story as it develops.

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SAFE SPACE

2 Houston neighbors ranked among the top 10 safest cities in Texas

Steve Francis home estate Memorial Villages

Photo by Kevin Ward

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Judging by the headlines, locals might think they're going to be accosted every time they leave home, but a new report says the Houston area is home to two of the safest cities in Texas. Home security review site SafeWise has ranked the communities of the Memorial Villages (No. 3) and Fulshear (No. 8) on its recent list of towns unburdened by crime worries.

For its 2026 report, SafeWise factored in FBI-reported property and violent crime data for 343 cities, then adjusted it for population in order to fairly compare metros to rural and suburban towns. Although the rankings do provide a snapshot, the site says “a number of factors, including local agency reporting practices, community resources, prevention efforts, and lived experience all influence how safe a place is (or is perceived to be).”

The rankings were released with SafeWise’s State of Safety survey, which found that perception didn’t always gel with reality. Although the statewide property crime rate of 23.4 incidents per 1,000 people is slightly higher than the national rate, Texas’ violent crime rate of 4.44 incidents per 1,000 people is consistent with the national average.

Still, Texans feel less safe than the average American. Only 49 percent of the survey’s respondents say they feel safe in the state compared to the national norm of 52 percent. 55 percent said they worry about their safety on a daily basis, a year-over-year increase from 52 percent. The data contrasts with first-hand reporting. For the second year in a row, Lone Star State participants said they have had few personal experiences with property crime and package theft.

Elsewhere in Texas, Fair Oaks Ranch was the only San Antonio area city to make it to the list, which favored towns of 30,000 residents or fewer. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan statistical area had the most ranked cities. The full top 10 includes:

No. 1 — Trophy Club (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 2 — Parker (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 3 — Memorial Villages (Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land)
No. 4 — Melissa (Dallas-Fort Worth)
No. 5 — Fair Oaks Ranch (San Antonio-New Braunfels)
No. 6 — Whitehouse (Tyler)
No. 7 — Murphy (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 8 — Fulshear (Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land)
No. 9 — Colleyville (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 10 — Lumberton (Beaumont-Port Arthur)

safety suburbs crime rankings

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SAFE SPACE

2 Houston neighbors ranked among the top 10 safest cities in Texas