Millions of Texans went without power last month as the state’s electrical grid buckled under the strain from the prolonged cold front. Credit: Sanford Nowlin

A veteran Democratic operative’s tweet calling out Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s skewed spending priorities is going viral.

After Abbott said Wednesday that he’ll use $250 million in state funds for a border wall, Sawyer Hackett — a senior advisor to 2020 presidential candidate Julián Castro — pointed out that the state, meanwhile, “has spent $0 to help Texans pay the $18 [billion] surge in utility bills.”

That surge is the result of the February winter storm, which knocked the Texas power grid offline. Since then, utilities including San Antonio’s CPS Energy have said they’ll be forced to pass on billions in charges from the disaster to their customers.

So far, Hackett’s tweet has been reshared 23,000 times and liked more than 74,000.

While the GOP-led Texas Legislature passed a pair of laws during the most recent session meant to bolster the power grid, they failed to approve a cash credit that would help consumers stuck with sky-high bills from the blackout.

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This article appears in Jun 16-29, 2021.

Sanford Nowlin is editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Current. He holds degrees from Trinity University and the University of Texas at San Antonio, and his work has been featured in Salon, Alternet, Creative...