Representative Slaton Statement on ERCOT and Texas Power Outages

ROYSE CITY, TEXAS - Over the course of the last several days, we have seen a once in a century winter storm that has affected every county and every Texan in the State. The extreme cold, freezing rain, snow and ice has caused unprecedented power outages affecting millions of Texans and created extremely dangerous

road conditions.
“The first thing we must all keep in mind is doing all we can to help one another while staying safe ourselves.
We must all do our due diligence as good neighbors and Texans to help those around us. Many are still without power and heat, and many are losing access to water as well. There are several warming shelters that have opened up across House District 2. If we can safely help someone get warm or get food or water, I encourage all of us to do what we can in our charity.”
As the weather returns to normal, the next step will be ensuring that something like this never happens again.
Power is an absolute essential, and the reliability of that power must be a priority when building or strengthening our power infrastructure. The Electric Reliability Counsel of Texas (ERCOT) and the Public
Utility Commission must be the first two entities looked at to determine what went wrong.
“The last few days have shown that the time for protecting and strengthening the Texas power grid from outages, attacks and weather, was yesterday. Not only that, but we now know for certain that when power to heat our homes is needed the most, so called “green energy” fails us. Frozen windmills are the antithesis to reliable energy, and Texas must stop subsidizing leftist fantasies.”
Governor Abbott has added ERCOT reform as a legislative emergency item, and the House State Affairs and Energy Resources Committees will be holding hearings on February 25th to begin the process of unraveling the failings that have caused so many Texans to needlessly suffer. What is abundantly clear, however, is that the Legislature and appointed officials must do more than just discuss the problem, we must act now to secure our power grid so this never happens again.