Texas Standard: Corporations Can Turn Off Electricity For Past-Due Bills Starting Tuesday In Texas
June 29 — The decision is expected to disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous and Latinx people, as well as seniors living on fixed incomes.
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Texas Climate News: Two national polls find declining Republican support for renewable energy
June 30 — Historically, Republicans have voiced more support for renewables than concern about climate change. But their enthusiasm for clean energy appears to be eroding in another possible sign of partisan polarization.
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KHOU 11: ERCOT ordered to release summer outage data sooner
July 1 — The Public Utility Commission of Texas issued an order that said instead of waiting two months, ERCOT has to put outage data out within three days.
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San Antonio Express-News (Commentary): Transparency should apply to ERCOT, too
June 30 — Millions of Texans were left in the dark in February, and hundreds — estimates range from 151 to 700 — lost their lives during Winter Storm Uri’s frigid temperatures in a statewide power grid failure that later charged utility companies an extra $16 billion.
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Denton Record-Chronicle: Denton’s court battle against ERCOT may be over
June 29 — A Travis County judge dismissed Denton’s lawsuit that claimed ERCOT was using uplift — a mechanism by which it “spreads the cost” of municipalities unable to pay exorbitant energy bills onto other municipalities, including Denton. For example, a city unable to pay part or all of its energy bill to ERCOT because of the sky-high costs imposed during February’s winter storm would have its debt pushed onto other cities.
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Texas Tribune: ERCOT Will Have To Release Information About Power Plant Outages Quicker — But It May Not Detail What Causes Them
June 25 — The Public Utility Commission said the state’s main power grid operator will have three days — instead of 60 — to release some information about power plant outages. But that may not include why the electricity generators were offline.
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S&P Global: Reports blame regulators, gas generation for Texas’ mid-February storm blackouts
June 25 — New reports blame Texas’ mid-February energy emergency on the state’s energy regulatory structure and gas-fired generation, and less than a third of Texans think state government “will adequately tackle issues” related to the deadly winter storm, which left about 4 million customers without power, some for several days.
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Weatherford Democrat: Council denies zoning change for Oncor substation
June 24 — Property owner Lumar Development had originally requested a zoning change for the land, located at 3009 E. Bankhead Drive, from the existing Planned Development that was originally for a multi-family use to C1 General Commercial for the electrical substation, known as Bell Mountain.
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Texas Tribune: Some Texas power plants unexpectedly went offline last week. The grid operator says it still doesn’t know why
June 24 — Last Monday, Texas’ main power grid operator asked Texans, mid-heat wave, to turn their thermostats to 78 degrees during the afternoon and evening for the week to reduce electricity demand on the grid after 12,000 megawatts of power generation unexpectedly went offline — enough to power 2.4 million homes on a hot summer day.
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San Antonio Report: What to expect from a report on how San Antonio handled the February power crisis
June 24 –A report on how San Antonio’s utilities coped with a historic cold-weather crisis in February won’t likely bring major revelations, its authors say. But the document will expose new details about the storm that left hundreds of thousands without power, many for multiple days.
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Dallas Observer: Last Week’s Energy Shortage Unlikely to Alter Governor Race
June 24 — Abbott serves as a go-to punching bag for many constituents still shell-shocked from February’s winter storm, which plunged millions into darkness amid rolling blackouts and power outages. Although the state’s death tally initially hovered around 150, Buzzfeed analysts later estimated 700 Texans perished during the disaster.