While testifying in a bankruptcy trial for a Texas electric co-op, the state’s former grid manager said Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive led them to keep power price points high during last year’s winter’s storm, according to a Houston Chronicle report.
Though power plants were beginning to recover in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri, then-Public Utility Commission Chair DeAnn Walker told ex-ERCOT CEO Bill Magness that Abbott “wanted them to do whatever necessary to prevent further rotating blackouts,” he testified, according to the report.
That led ERCOT to keep energy prices at the maximum of $9,000 per megawatt hour, resulting in billions of dollars in profit for power generators in the market.
Magness still defended the decision, according to the report, saying that the power grid was still vulnerable around that time, and that some power generators that came back online were still going offline intermittently.
Abbott denied any responsibility for the decision to keep energy prices high.
“As Texans would expect, Governor Abbott instructed everyone involved that they must do what was needed to keep the power on and to prevent the loss of life,” Abbott’s spokesperson told the Houston Chronicle in an email Wednesday. “This is the same instruction Governor Abbott gave to the PUC and ERCOT (during a cold snap) earlier this year: Do what needs to be done to keep the power on.”
The energy price hike is a central part of the bankruptcy trial of Brazos Electric. Attorneys for the co-op argued that the price hike was reckless and led to a massive $1.9 billion power bill that caused the company to seek bankruptcy.
The testimony may affect Abbott’s political standing ahead of the 2022 elections.
Beto O’Rourke, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor, seized on the news Wednesday.
“Abbott screwed us, and he’ll continue to screw us until we vote him out,” O’Rourke said on Twitter.
O’Rourke has also previously pointed out how energy executives who have profited off the winter storm have donated millions to Abbott’s campaign, like energy tycoon Kelcy Warren.
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