During Winter Storm Uri between February 12 and 19, 2021, an estimated 3.3 million Texans were without power. Governor Greg Abbott quickly designated ERCOT reform as an emergency item so that members of the Texas legislature could react to try and prevent massive blackouts from happening again.
Members of the legislature were quick to study the issue and file bills intending to prevent the massive outages experienced during the winter event from ever happening again.
House Republicans supported a package House bills to reform our statewide electrical system on March 31, 2021, including:
HB 10 – Reforms the membership composition of ERCOT by requiring board members to reside in Texas and creating 5 board positions to be appointed by the Governor, Lt. Governor, and Speaker, including one position that represents residential consumer interests
HB 11 – Requires ERCOT take measures to weatherize facilities in case of future extreme weather events
HB 12 – Authorizes the Texas Division of Emergency Management to study and implements a statewide disaster alert system in the event of widespread power outages
HB 13 – Creates the Texas Energy Disaster Reliability Council to ensure that an effective response is delivered in the event of a future “winter event”
HB 16 - Restricts the sale of wholesale indexed products by retail electric providers.
HB 17 – Ensures local governments do not pick generating “winners and losers” in the continued interest of grid fidelity
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