Abbott Issues Disaster Order For 7 Counties

[#TexasPolitics365]

 
Governor Greg Abbott has issued a disaster declaration for seven Texas counties impacted by this week’s ice storm that caused widespread property damage, hazardous travel disruptions, and localized power outages that left over 200,000 without power 

The disaster declaration includes Denton, Hays, Henderson, Milam, Smith, Travis, and Williamson counties. Additional counties may be added to the declaration as damage assessments are completed.

(Full story HERE.)
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Austin City Councilor Takes Power Company To Task Over Outages

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Austin city councilor MacKenzie Kelly hold a news conference yesterday to take Austin Power to task for poor communications with their customers, as nearly 200,000 in Central Texas remain without power and heat after a severe ice storm. 

Specifically, Kelly, a Republican, said the lack of communications, and the slow repairs were unacceptable.

"With our current lack of power and for a city of this size, we deserve better." She called for power lines to be placed underground, something critics have said would cost billions of dollars and take decades to complete.

(Full story HERE.)
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O'Rourke Calls Abbott "Authoritarian" With "Fixation On Trans Kids"

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Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke characterized incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott as an 'authoritarian thug' with his 'own oligarch[s] here in the state of Texas' within the gas industry, at Saturday's SXSW music and media event in Austin.

During an hour-long interview, O'Rourke also accused the longtime Texas governor of overlooking sex-trafficked children in his state in favor of his 'crazed fixation' on transgender children. 

It was one of many attacks the failed former presidential candidate unleashed on Abbott. He also accused him of incompetence during last year's ice storm.

(Full story HERE.)
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Beto Attacks Abbott Over "#AbbottTax" Increases On utility Bills

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Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke is calling out Gov. Greg Abbott once more - saying in a Twitter video that the governor is leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for fixing the state’s energy grid.

“Many of you are already seeing rising utility bills,” O’Rourke says. “In fact, the average Texas household, by the end of this winter, will see an increase in their utility bills of between $20 and $50 per month going forward.”

On Saturday morning, Texas Democrats had the hashtag #AbbottTax trending on Twitter for Texas users.

For Democrats, last year's failure of the electric grid in Texas following record low temperatures and a massive ice storm, remains one of the few wedge issues they hope to use to pry Abbott out of the governor's mansion next November.

Republicans have responded to attacks that "nothing" has been done to address the problems of the grid by pointing to a series of reforms to the electric grid and electric grid management past by the legislature in the past year.

(Full story here.)
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Abbott Promises "Power Will Stay On" This Winter

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“I can guarantee the lights will stay on” in Texas this winter. Gov. Greg Abbott said, making the promise to a local TV station in Austin, after he was asked for his thoughts on the power grid following a devastating winter storm back in February.

Abbott is pointing to almost a dozen laws he signed that he says makes the power grid more effective. 

The Governor says he has personally talked to the Natural Gas Pipeline Transmitters and they are conducting winterization that most people do not know about. 

He also said the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is taking steps to be proactive instead of reactive.

(Full story here.)
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El Paso Billionaire Named New ERCOT Chairman

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An El Paso businessman, billionaire Paul Foster, has been named chairman of the new board for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas - ERCOT.

He is one of the first two members of the new ERCOT board, which is being reformed after last winter's near collapse of the Texas power grid, which ERCOT manages.

Many legislators were surprised to learn after the ice storm that most of the board members did not reside in Texas, and had no connection to the state.

Six remaining ERCOT board positions are to be filled in the coming months, according to the announcement recently made by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which oversees ERCOT. 

(Full story here.)
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Class Action Suit Filed Against ERCOT Over Winter Storm Failures

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More than 270 Texans from across the state are suing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas for “negligent management” of the power grid during the February winter storm.

The February winter storm knocked out power for millions of Texans and kept them in single-digit temps and the dark for several days. Officials say generators not being properly weatherized for the plunging temperatures were the cause.

The lawsuit was filed Sept. 28 in Travis County District Court. It states each of the plaintiffs were among the Texans who lost power at their residence. 

In June, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law two bills focusing on an overhaul of ERCOT.

One reformed the ERCOT board, and the other requires electricity providers operating on the Texas grid to weatherize equipment and improve communication with customers during outages.

(Full story here.)
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Legislators Passed Sweeping Overhaul Of State's Energy Grid

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The Texas House and Senate have approved sweeping legislation to overhaul the state’s power grid following the disastrous and deadly winter storm in February that left more than 4.8 million homes and businesses without electricity for days. More than 100 people died.

Texas lawmakers approved a bill to require power generation companies to better prepare their facilities to withstand extreme weather, among several other measures.

(Full story here.)
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Bill Banning Wholesale Electricity Price Hikes Goes To Gov. Abbott's Desk

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House Bill 16 would not allow residential or small-business electricity customers in Texas to sign up for electricity plans where wholesale prices for power are passed to customers. 

It is headed to Gov. Abbott's desk for his signature after it was approved by the Texas House this past week.

Those plans include the kind that caused February power bills to skyrocket for several customers of Griddy Energy and other companies. Some customers reported bills over $15,000.

(Full story here)
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#Texas AG Paxton Says Former Griddy Customers Off The Hook For Outrageous Bills

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Griddy Energy customers are off the hook for their outrageous electric bills for February, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The attorney general’s office sued Griddy under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act on behalf of 24,000 customers who have a cumulative $29.1 million in unpaid electric bills from the week of freezing temperatures in Texas last month.

The action Paxton took was to release Griddy’s former customers from Griddy’s bankruptcy, which it filed for Monday in Houston. Texas won’t move forward with its state court lawsuit and investigation, and “Griddy will work with it in good faith to resolve these matters,” the attorney general said.

(Full story here.)

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#Texas House Speaker Unveils Bills To Prevent Repeat Of Power Failures

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Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan announced a package of legislation Monday aimed at preventing a repeat of the deadly electricity crisis that left millions of Texans suffering in a winter storm.

The plan includes legislation that would require electric generating facilities to be weatherized against a wider range of severe weather events, reported NBC Channel 5, Dallas-Fort Worth.

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Resident Files $1Billion Class-Action Lawsuit After Getting $9,300 Electric Bill

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A $1 billion class-action lawsuit has been filed against Texas wholesale electricity retailer Griddy Energy for allegedly charging exorbitant prices during last week's historic storm that left millions powerless in the freezing cold, reports ABC News.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Chambers County resident Lisa Khoury in Harris County on Monday, who claimed her electricity bill soared to $9,340 the week of the storm. According to the lawsuit, her average monthly bills typically range from $200 to $250.

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Sen. Cruz Says Wife Heidi "Pretty Pissed" Texts With Neighbors Made Public

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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) on Tuesday said that his wife, Heidi Cruz, was "pretty pissed," over group text messages leaked to The New York Times last week that showed she invited friends and neighbors to join their trip to Mexico as their home state was battered by an extreme winter storm., reported the Hill.

In an interview on Josh Holmes's conservative "Ruthless" podcast, the GOP senator said that his wife was recently at a neighbor's house "walking through the messages." 

The Texas senator said there were "folks on our street who put up Beto signs, which I thought was a little rude," after his return home, referring to his 2018 Senate race against former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D).

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Breaking: ERCOT Board Resigns

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Four board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the entity that manages and operates the electricity grid that covers much of Texas, will resign on Wednesday, according to a notice to the Public Utility Commission.

All four of the members who are resigning live out of state.

Sally Talberg, board chair; Peter Cramton, vice chair; Terry Bulger, finance and audit chair; and Raymond Hepper, human resources and governance committee chair, will resign at the end of the ERCOT board meeting Wednesday morning, according to the notice.

The board members had been under intense criticism this past week for their handling of the massive power outages that resulted from the ice storm and extremely cold weather Texas experienced.

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Abbott, Legislators Meet Over Energy Bill Price Spike

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Gov. Greg Abbott today convened a meeting with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Speaker Dade Phelan, and members of the Legislature to discuss the spike in energy bills affecting many Texans following the recent power outages throughout the state.

“We have a responsibility to protect Texans from spikes in their energy bills that are a result of the severe winter weather and power outages,” said Governor Abbott.

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