ERCOT leadership should resign after Texas power outages, Texas governor Abbott says
Gov. Greg Abbott thinks leaders of the nonprofit corporation that oversees the circulation of electricity across Texas should resign as widespread power outages continue in the state.
During an interview with a Houston television station, the Texas governor was asked directly whether he believes Electric Reliability Council of Texas leaders should leave their posts.
Abbott responded with a definitive “Yes.”
“This was a total failure by ERCOT,” he told KTRK. “ERCOT stands for Electric Reliability Council of Texas, and they showed that they are not reliable.”
Abbott did not specify which leaders should resign. His office did not return a request for comment on which ERCOT leader’s Abbott would like to see go.
Abbott’s resignation call comes after he made ERCOT reform an emergency item Tuesday for the Texas Legislature. Committees in the House and Senate are also expected to hold hearings on the outages.
Abbott maintained that the ultra cold temperatures was something ERCOT knew was coming.
“There seemed to be a lack of preparation in making sure that we did have access to backup power in the event that the power generators were incapable of generating power,” Abbott said.
Abbott also expressed disappointment in the nonprofit’s transparency.
“They are a public entity,” Abbott said. “They deserve to tell you, or they should be required to tell you, your viewers, as well as government leaders, exactly what is going on and what is not going on.”
ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness told reporters Tuesday before Abbott’s interview was aired that they would work with the state as lawmakers dig into questions about the outages and the state’s electric grid.
The Texas Democratic Party has said Abbott isn’t taking accountability for the recent days’ events and is shifting fault to other entities like ERCOT. Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement Tuesday that “the blame falls on Abbott.”
“A failure to plan for this winter storm and years of deregulation of our power system has led to this moment,” he said in a separate statement. “The people responsible for this must be held accountable. Greg Abbott must be held accountable for his lack of planning.”
Asked about the Abbott’s resignation call Wednesday, ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness defended its response to the winter weather and but did not directly address the governor’s remarks.
“Whatever the future holds, the priority for us now is to get the power back on,” Magness said.
He said it’s been a “terrible situation” that so many Texans have been without electricity and that an assessment of ERCOT’s response can be done after power is restored.
“I will say that the fundamental decision that was made in the middle of the night, 1 a.m. on Monday, to have the outages imposed was a wise decision by the operators that we have here,” Magness said. “If we had waited and not done outages, not reduced demand to reflect what was going on, on the overall system, we could have drifted toward a blackout.”
Magness acknowledged that some feel the state is already in a blackout, but it could have been much worse had operators not acted, he said.
“It’s not just outages,” he said. “You lose all electricity on a system, and it could take months, it could take longer, to rebuild that. And Texas would be in an indeterminately long-lasting situation without power, even more extensively than we are with these outages.”
ERCOT has worked to provide timely and transparent information to members of the public and public officials, Magness said.
“Maybe we’ve failed there, but we’ve endeavored to do that,” Magness said, adding that ERCOT notified providers they work with about the coming weather and have held news conferences and briefings with elected officials.
ERCOT’s board of directors have also come under scrutiny over where members reside. Five of the 15 members on the board, including its chair and vice chair, appear to live out of the state, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
“I think if folks want to look at how ERCOT’s run and who runs it, that obviously is part of the investigation of what we’re doing in the future,” Magness said. “All things are on the table, but I think there was no impact of the chair of the ERCOT board of directors on the weather or on the decisions we had to make to avoid a catastrophic blackout.”
A Dallas-Morning News reporter pointed out on Twitter Wednesday that the board member’s names no longer appear on ERCOT’s website. Instead the positions were listed as “vacant.”
A spokesperson said board members are still with ERCOT.
“We had to pull bios for the Executive Team and Board due to threats,” ERCOT spokesperson Leslie Sopko said in a text.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 8:23 PM.
