Latest News

April 14, 2021

The fight over who will pay for Texas blackouts gears up

The Washington Post
The price of electricity remained fixed at $9,000 until the morning of Feb. 19, 32 hours after ERCOT had lifted its last load-shedding order. That became […]
April 13, 2021

Power Scare Shows Texas Grid Still at Risk After Blackouts

Bloomberg
Texas faced a brief power-grid scare Tuesday night, less than 60 days after widespread blackouts left millions without light and heat for days during a deep […]
April 6, 2021

Natural gas producers hit the jackpot during the power outages, but they failed Texas

The Dallas Morning News
Millions of Texans went without electricity for days in the cold. Winter Storm Uri left 111 dead. Property damage totaled $130 billion. Yet, many natural gas […]
April 6, 2021

Warren Buffett’s Texas power plant scheme is expensive and ineffective

Longview News-Journal
This is a money grab that would re-regulate part of the Texas electrical system without addressing one of the key problems that triggered outages earlier this […]
April 6, 2021

Texas Policymakers Split On Electricity Repricing, Natural Gas Reforms In Aftermath Of Winter Storm

Texas Standard
The current market monitor says electricity prices were too high for too long during the storm, resulting in about $16 billion of overcharges in the final […]
April 3, 2021

Standing up to an energy giant: Kansas town claims BP gouged on gas in Feb. freeze

The Wichita Eagle
And it specifically says in the time of a disaster, you may not engage in, as a supplier, profiteering and price gouging.” That law basically limits […]
April 2, 2021

Natural Gas Producers Are Getting a Pass From the Lege After the Blackouts

Texas Monthly
…commissioners are allowed to earn income from the industry they regulate. In 2019, Craddick and her father, Representative Tom Craddick, a Republican from Midland, earned more […]
March 31, 2021

Texas Bill Would Require Pipelines to Winterize

Nearly half of Texas’s power-plant capacity went down in February after a severe winter storm froze equipment, halted gas supplies and triggered blackouts that left more […]
March 31, 2021

Analysis: After statewide power outages, Texas lawmakers reconsider an ounce of prevention

They left it to the Public Utility Commission and the Texas Railroad Commission, industry-friendly regulators who didn’t require the kinds of preparation that might have kept […]
March 29, 2021

Big Texas energy companies may become more powerful after historic winter storm

Melissa Smith lives in the Dallas area, and she’s a customer of TXU Energy, a Vistra subsidiary. After her home flooded, Smith asked her husband to […]
March 28, 2021

Why didn’t ERCOT put a stop to the massive electricity price spikes during the outages?

The Dallas Morning News
But power producers that had successfully served the ERCOT market throughout the emergency timeframe — having previously experienced windfall profitability as a result of supplying critically-needed […]
March 26, 2021

After slow start, Texas lawmakers pick up the pace on GOP priorities as legislative session passes halfway mark

Texas Tribune
Abbott’s agenda got a shakeup, though, following the winter storm that battered the state weeks after his State of the State speech, killing at least 111 […]
March 26, 2021

More information needed to learn from ERCOT February energy crisis: consultant

S&P Global
A less expensive and ultimately more effective way to prevent or reduce the likelihood of another such crisis would be to significantly increase spending on energy […]
March 24, 2021

Lawmakers need to stay focused on real reform after winter storm

Houston Chronicle
It’s all too easy to become cynical about the Texas Legislature. After all, the entire disaster unfolded in part because lawmakers basically ignored the recommendations made […]
March 24, 2021

Watch: U.S. House committee hearing on Texas’ massive power outages during deadly winter storm

The Texas Tribune
Policy observers blamed the power system failure on the legislators and state agencies, who they say did not properly heed the warnings of previous storms.
March 23, 2021

Texas-based natural gas company sends Shawnee Mission School District $1.6 million bill for February

KMBC News
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Monday that KCI’s gas bill for February increased to $2.4 million. The bill from the airport’s Texas-based gas provider was […]
March 23, 2021

CPS Energy sues 15 natural gas companies for ‘opportunistic price gouging’ during winter storm

San Antonio Current
“A good portion of that is because they did not deliver all of the gas that we’d asked for,” Gold-Williams told council members.  Here’s a full […]
March 23, 2021

‘Disaster should not be a jackpot,’ says San Antonio utility in lawsuit naming Energy Transfer, two others

The Dallas Morning News
“The aftermath of a declared statewide disaster should not be a ‘jackpot’ for gas sellers,” CPS said in a lawsuit against Energy Transfer obtained by Bloomberg.
March 23, 2021

TX House to take up power grid bills, but not Senate repricing bill

CBS Austin
Last week, this committee listened to testimony on SB 2142, which was the bill that would have required the PUC to force ERCOT to correct its […]
March 23, 2021

ChartWatch: Companies turn to debt markets, courts to address Texas freeze costs

S&P Global
“Imagine going to the gasoline pump during a natural disaster and seeing the price of a gallon of gas at about $348 or about $7,000 for […]