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Texas power grid operator fires CEO after winter storm chaos
Houston (AFP) - The polar vortex storm that plunged Texas into chaos continues to reverberate through the state's power grid operator, which fired its CEO on the same day Congress launched an investigation into its failures. The staggering cost of last month's storm, which killed dozens, left millions without electricity and water, and caused billions of dollars in damage has prompted ratings agencies to downgrade the debt of Texas's electric utilities, at least one of which has already filed for bankruptcy. The board of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has become a prime targ...
AFP
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General Motors considering second US battery plant
New York (AFP) - General Motors on Thursday said it was considering building a second battery cell factory in the United States with South Korean partner LG, as the American auto giant shifts towards producing electric vehicles. GM and LG "are exploring the feasibility of constructing a second, state of the art battery cell manufacturing plant in the United States," a GM spokeswoman told AFP. "We hope to have a decision on the potential project in the first half of 2021." General Motors recently announced it would stop selling most of its diesel or gasoline cars by 2035, and last year unveile...
AFP
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Texas power grid operator fires CEO after storm chaos
Houston (AFP) - Texas' power grid operator has fired its president and CEO following last month's winter storm that left millions without electricity, media reports said. Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has under come fire from customers and politicians over its apparent failure to prepare for the cold weather and the enormous bills some customers have faced due to a massive spike in energy prices. President and CEO Bill Magness was fired late Wednesday after the ERCOT board held an emergency meeting and gave him 60 days' termination notice, CNN and other media reports said, citi...
AFP
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Texas utility files for bankruptcy after $2.1 bn power bill
Houston (AFP) - The largest electricity co-operative in Texas has filed for bankruptcy protection after it received a $2.1 billion bill from the state's grid operator following last month's winter storm that left millions without power. Bitterly cold weather in mid-February left millions without electricity across Texas as the Arctic conditions overwhelmed local utility companies ill-prepared for such weather. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, which supplies 16 co-op members serving more than 1.5 million Texans, said it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday after receiving "excessively hi...
AFP
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Bud Kennedy: In a state that once sang 'Freeze a Yankee,' the myth of an invincible Texas crumbles
Forty years ago, Texans felt so indestructible that we sang along when a Dallas radio station played “Freeze a Yankee”: Cut off the gas, turn off the oil And let ‘em all freeze and boil After the most costly storm in state history destroyed homes, businesses, cities and lives, songwriter Bob Arnold of Dallas said last week was “just completely embarrassing” for Texas. “Now the Yankees are not freezing — we are,” he said. Texas’ pinchpenny failure to prepare for decennial winter storms, along with state bureaucrats’ grossly lazy oversight of energy companies, put another giant dent in the myth ...
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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Anger over huge power bills in 'preventable' Texas weather crisis
Houston (AFP) - Millions of Texans were still without safe water on Sunday as officials fielded angry complaints over shockingly large power bills spawned by a cold weather crisis that Houston's mayor said was ultimately preventable. The frigid air mass that paralyzed parts of the southern and central United States early in the week claimed more than 70 lives, left millions temporarily without power and froze water lines. "All of what happened this week was foreseeable and preventable," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told CBS's "Face the Nation," saying it had long been clear that the independ...
AFP
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Texas restores power but still struggling with water
Houston (AFP) - Texas authorities have restored power statewide bringing relief after days of unprecedentedly frigid temperatures, but millions were still struggling Saturday without safe, drinkable water. "Due to lack of power, frozen pipes, high use at certain times, we've seen the number of systems go up that are reporting (water) issues," Toby Baker, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told reporters during a televised briefing. Water problems, he said, were impacting about 14.3 million residents out of a total population of around 29 million, as officials d...
AFP
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Texans queue for water as US counts cost of deadly winter storm
Houston (AFP) - Frustrated Texans queued for hours for safe drinking water Friday, after an unprecedented and deadly "polar plunge" burst pipes and left millions in the US state shivering without power or clean water for days. The extreme winter weather system wreaked havoc across much of the southern and central United States this week, reportedly killing at least 40 people and igniting anger in Texas as authorities scrambled to turn the lights back on. Houston resident Percy McGee rated his frustration level at "number 10" as he waited his turn at the city's Delmar Stadium, now a mass bottl...
AFP
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Behind the power crisis in petroleum center Texas
New York (AFP) - Some 2.7 million households in Texas were still without power as of Wednesday morning in the wake of extremely cold weather buffeting the region. But while the unusual Arctic air mass has lashed numerous states with snow and sleet with more on the way Thursday, Texas, the heart of the country's oil industry, has seen the worst of the power outages. Why is Texas suffering an electricity crisis?The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates much of the state's power grid, underestimated the surge in demand caused by the unusually cold weather and used planned ...
AFP
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Texas made few power reforms despite warnings. 'An incredibly dangerous situation'
FORT WORTH, Texas — Over a couple frigid days in February, as demand for power soared, generators across Texas tripped up and failed to operate in wintry conditions. Long outages ensued across the state, and millions of Texans were left without power. Even more wondered how something like this could happen here. "You would have never thought you would see the day in the energy capital of the world," said one oil company CEO. Plenty of sentences like those have been written in the last 48 hours, but everything described above is actually from 2011. Yes, Texas has been here before. Although temp...
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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