Winter Storms Clobber Texas Small Businesses Unduly

The failure of an ideology that doesn’t govern for the people?

The latest data from the US Census Bureau Pulse survey* show that Texas small businesses were disproportionately hurt by the winter storms of February. The first wave of data from Phase 4 of the Small Business Pulse Survey arrived on February 25th – clearly showing the significant impact recent winter storms had on Texas.

There were, however, no questions about their impact on Cancun Ted Cruz’s taxpayer-funded vacation that was widely documented in the media. Consider that while  Pulse was designed to measure changing business conditions during the coronavirus pandemic, the SBPS also captures the impact of natural disasters on small business. The picture above documents the damage Texas Governments did to their own small businesses by letting big oil have its cheaper non-regulated way. Consider Houston – roughly 4,000 energy companies, are based there. A dozen of those companies are in the Fortune 500. Carbon fuel firms are like dinosaurs – doomed. The future is green energy supported by a national strategy and a national grid. Millions of jobs are at stake.

* Census Bureau Pulse survey

SBPS complements existing Census Bureau data collections by providing high-frequency, detailed information on the challenges that small businesses (those with 1-499 employees) are facing during the pandemic. The survey also includes information on small business operations, requests and receipt of assistance, capital expenditures and expectations for recovery.

SBPS has been conducted in 9-week phases: Phase 1 started in late April 2020; Phase 2 began in August; and Phase 3 started in November. In the first week of Phase 4, the survey was sent to approximately 100,000 businesses and about 25,000 responded. Data are available by sector, state and for the 50 most populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in addition to Puerto Rico, as well as sub-sector, state by sector and by employee size class.

Survey results provide local, state and federal officials essential up-to-date data to help them make informed policy decisions. The information also aids businesses in making economic decisions and assists researchers studying the economic effects of the pandemic.