The organization responsible for managing the flow of electricity from producers to 26 million Texas customers removed the names of its board members from its website. The removal follows threats against the leadership of the organization.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) removed the names of its Board of Directors from its website, according to a report from KTRK ABC13 in Houston. A spokesman for the group said the removal is due to threats being received from board members and senior leadership.
KTRK reported ERCOT removed the names and replaced them with the term, “Vacant.” Officials responded and said no one has resigned from the organization. They just took the names down because of threats over the anger about widespread long-lasting power outages during the historic winter storm.
At the peak, more than 4 million Texans lost electricity during the storm. Some outages lasted for days. According to PowerOutage.us, there are currently nearly 2.4 million Texas power outages. That represents nearly 10 percent of ERCOT’s 26 million customers statewide.
ABC13’s Gina Gaston asked Texas Governor Greg Abbott if ERCOT leaders should resign following the state’s failure to maintain a reliable electrical grid.
“Yes,” Governor Abbott responded.
“There seemed to be a lack of preparation, and making sure we did have access to back-up power in the event that the power generators were incapable of generating power, but all that aside …. they should be providing greater transparency,” Abbott expounded. He said the ERCOT leaders are not being transparent enough in letting people know what is going on.
Bill Magness, ERCOT’s president and CEO, and Dan Woodfin, senior director of systems operations responded to the resignation call saying their priority is focused on getting power back on.
Earlier on Wednesday, Magness and Woodfin told the Dallas Morning News they could not predict when the power grid would return to normal operations. For now, he said they are trying to “make sure we are not going to end up with Texas in a blackout.” He said an uncontrolled blackout could leave some customers without power for a month.
On Tuesday, Governor Abbott designated ERCOT reform as an “Emergency Item” for the legislative session which began in January. , Breitbart Texas reported. The designation allows the Legislature to prioritize legislation and investigative hearings on ERCOT and the failure to prepare for this storm.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, Parler @BobPrice, and Facebook.