For the Texas power industry, this has been a time of soul-searching angst. Three weeks ago, dozens of the state’s power generators failed in frigid weather, causing the worst blackouts in years and prompting multiple investigations. State lawmakers are demanding to know what went wrong.

“Eighty-two units going down is unacceptable,” State Senator Troy Fraser, Republican of Horseshoe Bay, said last week at a hearing in which lawmakers sharply questioned regulators and power companies.

The rotating blackouts, which hobbled the state for eight hours on Feb. 2, have called into question one of Texas’ most basic tenets: that this state does things better than anyone else. The crisis even forced Texas to import power from Mexico.

During the hearing, lawmakers pointed out that Northern states routinely deal with worse weather without the lights going out. Some of the newest coal plants belonging to one power company, Luminant, failed  prompting State Senator Mike Jackson, Republican of La Porte, to say, “The brand-new stuff ought to be the best.”