‘Our residents deserve answers’: 16 Texas mayors demand probe into power operator

AUSTIN – A handful of big city Texas mayors – including Austin’s Steve Adler – are urging state leaders to examine the policies and decisions that led to millions of Texans losing electrical power during last week’s winter storm.

In a letter addressed to the head of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, the mayors say state leaders must take action to prevent this type of disaster in the future and that the state electric grid’s processes and protocols “need a full public airing.”

“Perhaps no one is better equipped to communicate the devastating impacts of the storm on Texans than those of us at the local level, and we offer our cooperation and collaboration to find meaningful solutions,” the letter stated. “Our residents deserve answers – and they deserve reliable energy for their homes and businesses.”

The letter, dated Monday and published on Twitter by several mayors, comes as state lawmakers prepare for a series of hearings beginning Thursday to examine the power outages and ERCOT’S role in them them.

More than 4 million Texas homes lost power at the height of the storm early last week, according to poweroutages.us, which tracks power outages in the country. ERCOT said there was a near-collapse of the state grid when 185 power-generating plants failed at a time when shivering consumers were firing up their thermostats to stay warm.

About 220,000 Austin Energy customers lost power early in the week, which is about 40% of the utility’s customer base. By the weekend, power was restored throughout the city.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler was among 16 mayors of Texas cities who are calling for an investigation into the state’s power grid.

In total, 16 Texas mayors signed the letter to ERCOT President Bill Magness. Among them were Austin’s Adler, Houston Mayor Sylvester

Turner, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price. Other mayors who signed it are from Arlington, Plano, Sugar Land, Laredo, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Mcallen, Irving, Mckinney,

Galveston and Pharr.

“We are confident that you agree ERCOT’S deficiencies must be addressed, and we urge you to act as soon as possible,” the letter stated. “Texans are counting on their elected leadership to provide solutions.”