evidence: When Hurricane Beryl swept through southeast Texas on July 8, its damaging 80-mile-per-hour winds took down thousands of trees and knocked out much of the electricity system. More than 2.6 million Texas power customers went without electricity for days in the summer heat. [...] Ed Hirs, an energy expert at the University of Houston, said the power outages during this storm are a product of extended neglect and underinvestment in grid infrastructure by the state and utilities. [...] After Winter Storm Uri in 2021, when nearly statewide power outages persisted for days the entire electricity grid nearly collapsed, lawmakers decided Texas needed more power to meet demand. They focused their efforts on securing power generation, or fuel that is then turned into electricity, through weatherizing existing facilities and allocating $5 billion to incentivize companies to build more gas-fueled power generators in the state.