Governor Abbott Should Add Deadlines for Winter Storm Preparation, Stronger Penalties to Special Session CallPress Release | Jun 07, 2021

Ahead of an expected call for at least one special Texas legislative session, Commission Shift Executive Director Virginia Palacios issued the following statement:

“Texas lawmakers wasted their chance in the regular session to do anything to meaningfully prevent a repeat of the devastating winter power outages that killed as many as 700 Texans and cost our state billions of dollars.

“In a special session, the legislature should set firm deadlines for energy facilities to winterize and assure that penalties would exceed the cost of winterization measures.

“The aftermath of this session is that everyday Texans will continue to pay for higher electricity bills and storm damages, while the legislature went out of its way to protect the gas industry from having to pay upfront to prevent the next power outage. Texans are watching to see if lawmakers adopt reforms that prevent tragedies like the winter blackouts from happening again.”

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