[maxerickson]

Huh? The various law making entities in the US are not always making maximal use of their power, it doesn't make any sense to wave your hands in the air and say that they can only do the things they've already made laws for.

[chordalkeyboard]

Was King Canute making maximal use of his power when he ordered back the waves, or could he have deployed his army to the beach to reinforce his edicts?

[maxerickson]

I don't know, I wasn't there.

[chordalkeyboard]

It probably doesn’t matter because neither halting the tide nor producing heat in the winter are problems that are solved by authoritarian measures.

[VintageCool]

Require that the power companies in Texas winterize their equipment. Done.

The electric company in El Paso, which is not part of ERCOT, did spend heavily to winterize their equipment after the 2011 cold snap. El Paso did not suffer outages this year like the rest of Texas.

Producing heat in the winter is a solved problem. If power companies are not applying the known solutions to a recurring problem, then apply state force to require them to do so. Done.