Over a year after the fatal winter storm that hit Texas last February, leaving hundreds of people dead, the question of accountability over the circumstances surrounding the failure of the state's power grid remains open. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke recently commented on the issue, alleging the blame lies with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
“He’s a thug, he’s an authoritarian,” O’Rourke recently told the Texas Tribune. “Not only could this guy, through his own incompetence, not keep the lights on in the energy capital of the planet last February, but when people like Kelcy Warren and other energy company CEOs made more than $11 billion in profit over five days — selling gas for 200 times the going rate — not only did he not claw back those illegal profits, not only was there no justice for more than 700 people who are paying now tens of billions of dollars cumulatively to pay for the property damage that the flooding caused in their homes, but he’s taking millions of dollars in payoffs from these same people.”
While Abbott’s team has dismissed O’Rourke’s comments as political rhetoric, Warren, who is chairman and CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, has gone as far as to file a lawsuit alleging defamation.
All told, as many as 702 died in the snowstorms that effectively shut down the state.
In February, the state’s power grid manager testified during court proceedings that it was upon Abbott’s request that he kept wholesale electricity prices high in the final hours of the storm, with all of it being part of a plan to prevent more rolling blackouts, and to further entice companies to keep producing power.
"She told me the governor had conveyed to her if we emerged from rotating outages, it was imperative they not resume," former Electric Reliability Council of Texas Chief Bill Magness testified of his conversations with former Public Utility Commission Chairperson DeAnn Walker. "We needed to do what we needed to do to make it happen.”
Earlier this year, the state experienced its first real bout of colder weather, sparking more questions about the reliability of the state’s energy grid and its readiness to handle inclement temperatures.
According to a report by S&P Global, natural gas production fell by 20% in the state's top energy-producing region. Bloomberg reports several companies admitted to equipment freezing up, with the amount of natural gas that was burned off or wasted totaling nearly 1 million cubic feet.
While Abbott has touted legislation that he signed into law last year designed to prevent future blackouts, the Texas Tribune reports the impact of these laws is unclear, as many of the reforms have not yet been fully implemented.