Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it -- including, for now, the Texas Public Utility Commission.

The commission on Feb. 4 rejected a proposal to establish a statewide weather-tracking network financed by a fee levied on the state's electric utilities, which would be expected to pass the charges on to customers. The proposal, dubbed MesoNet, calls for the creation of up to 600 monitoring stations that would track a variety of weather conditions, including soil temperature and wind velocity. The stations would be placed next to existing electric-utility substations.

Advocates of the plan, led by the Lower Colorado River Authority, say the network would bring much-needed weather information to Texas, which has only about 50 weather stations, all maintained by federal agencies. Colorado River Authority officials say everyone from farmers to utility companies would benefit from sophisticated weather data.

All that tracking isn't cheap: The river authority estimates the hardware and installation and other setup costs at $71.5 million [Sickler: really $48.5M or $9.7M/yr] over five years, with $8 million more a year needed to operate the system. The network would be run by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, possibly in conjunction with two state universities, Texas A&M in College Station and Texas Tech in Lubbock.

Utilities, however, weren't excited about the plan. A Texas Utilities Electric Co. spokesman says the company opposes the plan, at least until the Legislature decides whether, and how, the electric industry should be restructured. Besides, TU is satisfied with the weather-tracking services it already purchases, the spokesman says.

The MesoNet isn't quite dead, however. State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, a San Antonio Republican, says he will work to resubmit the network plan to the commission before looking at the "remote" possibility of state funding. "This will save us lives as well as property," he says.

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