Rolling blackouts in Texas have put the importance of oil pipelines into perspective, business executives say. Ryan Palazzo, a former chief operating officer of a pipeline construction company and a resident of Houston, received text messages on Feb. 15 about rolling blackouts to protect the state’s electricity grid, which was strained by a massive winter storm that brought record-low temperatures and heavy snow. Millions have been affected since. “It’s not because there’s not enough natural gas. It’s because of the switch to renewables. They’re not able to, in the short term, keep the grid stable. It’s unfortunate, but energy is essential to everything that we do,” said Palazzo, who was laid off in November, right after the election. Following the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline in July 2020, the owner of his company had a strong sense that the Keystone XL (KXL) project would be canceled as well …