Energy executive: Texas power plants turned off in crisis

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The recent blackouts that left 4 million Texas customers without electricity and heat during a deadly winter freeze also unplugged plants that could have generated more power, which was urgently needed as the state’s grid reached the breaking point, the head of a major energy corporation said Thursday.

Curtis Morgan, the CEO of Vistra Corp., told lawmakers at the outset of a public hearing on one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history that when officials from his company called utility providers, they were told they weren’t a priority.

“How can a power plant be at the bottom of the list of priorities?” Morgan said.

“You-know-what hit the fan, and everybody’s going, ‘You’re turning off my power plant?’” he said.

At least 40 people in Texas died as a result of the storm, and 10 days after the blackout started, more than 1 million people in the state were still under boil-water notices.

Lawmakers’ outrage fell heavily on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state’s grid. ERCOT has claimed that the scale of the forced blackouts — the largest in Texas history — averted an even more catastrophic failure that would have wiped out power to most of the state’s 30 million residents for months.

“Obviously what you did didn’t work,” said Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire of Houston, which had more than 1 million outages.

“It worked from keeping us (from) going into a blackout that we’d still be in today, that’s why we did it,” ERCOT president Bill Magness said. “Now it didn’t work for people’s lives, but it worked to preserve the integrity of the system.”

Among Vistra’s subsidiaries is, Luminant, which operates nearly two dozen plants across Texas. Morgan blamed outdated lists of critical infrastructure in Texas for darkening gas processers and production sites as grid managers began shutting off parts of the system.

Morgan didn’t say how many of the company’s plants were turned off or for how long, but he did say the company was within three minutes of power going offline at one nuclear plant, and that the main power grid in America’s energy capital was just moments away from total collapse Feb. 15.

“We came dangerously close to losing the entire electric system,” Morgan said.

Of Texas’ power generators that were not operational during the storm, Magness said the freeze was responsible 42% of the failures. A lack of fuel and equipment damage unrelated to the weather also contributed, but Magness said that for 38% of the plant outages, the problem remains unclear.

The outages lasted days for millions of Texas homes, and millions more lost water as water treatment plants shutdown and miles of pipes burst across the state. The toll of the storm included at least 15 hypothermia-related deaths around Houston, said Democratic state Rep. Ana Hernandez, vice chairwoman of the House State Affairs committee.

President Joe Biden is set to fly to Texas on Friday in what would be his first visit to a major disaster site since taking office.

Morgan accused ERCOT of a lack of “urgency” as the storm approached. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has laid much of the blame of ERCOT, which answers to a state utility commission that is led by Abbott appointees. At least six ERCOT board members, including the Chairwoman Sally Talberg, resigned this week ahead of the hearings.

A federal report after a 2011 deep freeze in Texas urged hardening electric generators against extreme cold, but neither the state’s Public Utility Commission nor ERCOT required plant owners to do anything more than file weatherization plans. There are no standards for what must be included in those plans.

The crisis has put Texas’ power and fossil fuel industry under heavy scrutiny from lawmakers who reap millions of dollars in unlimited political contributions from energy interests, more than any other sector.

Since 2017, Vistra Energy and its political action committee has donated more than $1.4 million to Texas politicians and groups associated with both political parties, according to state campaign finance records. Lawmakers also heard early Thursday from the top executive of NRG Energy, which has donated more than $405,000 since 2017, including $30,000 to Abbott.

A former U.S. Olympics gymnastics coach’s apparent suicide hours after being charged Thursday with crimes, including sexual assault, human trafficking and running a criminal enterprise is the latest fallout from the sexual abuse scandal involving former Michigan State University sports doctor Larry Nassar.

John Geddert died soon after he was accused of injuring people for years through forced labor and recruiting minors for forced labor, according to court documents.

Nassar was convicted on charges related to his serial molestation of young women and girls under the guise of medical treatment. Numerous people have been charged, fired or forced out of their jobs during the investigations into the once-renowned sports doctor. He was sentenced to decades in prison after hundreds of girls and women said he molested them, including while he worked for Michigan State and Indiana-based USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians.

A look at some of the individuals and organizations affected: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

— The U.S. Education Department fined Michigan State University $4.5 million in September 2019 for failing to respond to sexual assault complaints against Nassar. The same day, MSU President Samuel Stanley Jr. announced the resignation of Provost June Youatt, saying the investigation findings showed she and former President Lou Anna Simon “failed to take appropriate action on behalf of the university to address reports of inappropriate behavior and conduct.”

— Lou Anna Simon: The university president and school alumna resigned in January 2018 amid growing pressure. She denied any cover-up by the university. She was later charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors, charges a judge dropped last May. She had been accused of lying during an interview when investigators were trying to determine how Nassar got away with sexual assault for so long.

The MSU governing board later hired former Michigan Gov. John Engler. He resigned amid fallout from remarks he made about some of Nassar’s victims. In May 2019, MSU named Dr. Samuel Stanley Jr., a medical researcher who had led Stony Brook University in New York for nearly a decade, as its president.

MSU has settled lawsuits totaling $500 million.

— Mark Hollis: The athletic director called his departure in 2018 a retirement, but he, too, had faced pressure to leave. — Kathie Klages: The former head gymnastics coach resigned in 2017 after she was suspended for defending Nassar over the years. Klages was charged with lying to investigators. She was convicted in February 2020 and sentenced in August to 90 days in jail. — Brooke Lemmen: The former school doctor resigned in 2017 after learning the university was considering firing her because she didn’t disclose that USA Gymnastics was investigating Nassar. A state investigation cleared her of any violations in 2018. — William Strampel: The former dean of the university’s College of Osteopathic Medicine was charged in March 2018 amid allegations that he failed to keep Nassar in line, groped female students and stored nude student selfies on his campus computer. Strampel retired as Michigan State was trying to fire him. He was found guilty in June 2019 of neglect of duty. He was sentenced in August 2019 to a year in jail. — Bob Noto: The university in February 2018 announced the departure of its longtime vice president for legal affairs. — The university agreed in August 2019 to resolve a federal civil-rights investigation related to Nassar.

USA GYMNASTICS — Rhonda Faehn: The former senior vice president of the organization was dismissed in January 2019 by the University of Michigan after working for just a few days as a coaching consultant for its women’s team. She was fired after an outcry over her hiring. — Valeri Liukin: The coordinator of the women’s national team for USA Gymnastics announced in February 2018 that he was stepping down. — USA Gymnastics said in January 2018 that its entire board of directors would resign, as requested by the U.S. Olympic Committee. The USOC then took steps to decertify the gymnastics organization that picks U.S. national teams, and USA Gymnastics filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. — Steve Penny: The former president and CEO of the organization resigned under pressure in March 2017. He was replaced by Kerry Perry. Penny has pleaded not guilty to a thirddegree felony alleging he ordered the removal of documents relating to Nassar from the Karolyi Ranch in Texas. — Less than a year after being hired as USA Gymnastics’ president and CEO, Perry resigned in September 2018 after the USOC questioned her ability to lead the scandal-rocked organization.

— Former California U.S. Rep. Mary Bono was hired in October 2018 as the interim president for USA Gymnastics only to resign four days later. Bono said she felt her affiliation with the embattled organization would be a “liability” after a social media post by Bono criticizing Nike and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick drew widespread scrutiny.

— Ron Galimore: The longtime USA Gymnastics chief operating officer resigned in November 2018 but denied any wrongdoing. The Indianapolis Star reported earlier that an attorney hired by USA Gymnastics directed Galimore to come up with a false excuse to explain Nassar’s absence at major gymnastic events in the summer of 2015.

— Li Li Leung in March became USA Gymnastics president and CEO. TWISTARS GYMNASTICS CLUB — John Geddert: The owner of the Michigan club died by apparent suicide Thursday after he was charged with crimes, including sexual assault, human trafficking and running a criminal enterprise. He was suspended in 2018 by USA Gymnastics and announced his retirement. He was the U.S. women’s coach at the 2012 Olympics. Geddert had said he had “zero knowledge” of Nassar’s crimes. KAROLYI RANCH — USA Gymnastics said in January 2018 that the Texas ranch where a number of gymnasts said Nassar abused them would no longer serve as the national training center. Owners Martha and Bela Karolyi have since sued the USOC and USA Gymnastics, . They also have been named in lawsuits.

U.S. OLYMPIC COMMITTEE — Scott Blackmun: The CEO resigned in February 2018, citing difficulties with prostate cancer and the federation’s need to move forward to deal with the sexual abuse scandal.

— Alan Ashley: The USOC fired the chief of sport performance in December 2018 in the wake of an independent report that said neither he nor Blackmun elevated concerns about the Nassar allegations when they were first reported to them.