As the ERCOT hearings continue in the aftermath of last week's epic winter blast, one city that doesn't have to worry about it? That would El Paso, which pulled the plug on ERCOT years ago so they could operate their own power grid. And it paid off, as last week El Paso had no major issues while millions of Texans were without power and heat. Former Texas Land Manager Jerry Patterson told KTRH that while 85% of Texas is run by ERCOT, there are cities like El Paso that have opted to go solo. El Paso has an investor owned utility operation, simply known as El Paso electric. "We have deregulated our electric generation, we have not deregulated transmission and distribution. That is still regulated." So one might ask, if El Paso has no problems with their grid, can the rest of Texas start a new one? Well as Patterson points out, Texas already has it's own grid. Patterson says the grid is not the problem, "bottom line we need to winterize our gear, we need to make sure we have back up, and frankly coal is the best back up there is. Nuke went down, natural gas went down, wind went down, and we all went down." Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has brought up the idea of leaving ERCOT, but Patterson says "that would be hasty." Correction and change can't happen soon enough.