4 board members of Texas power grid operator ERCOT resign
23 February 2021
Four members of Texas' power grid operator resigned from their posts Tuesday after a winter storm led millions of homes to lose power across the state last week, according to a public filing.
Why it matters: Their resignations come days after Texas' public utility commission launched a probe to discover the "factors that combined with the devastating winter weather to disrupt the flow of power," throughout the state.
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) Chair Sally Talberg resigned along with Vice Chair Peter Cramton and board members Raymond Hepper and Terry Bulger.
- During the storm, ERCOT, which manages the flow of electric power in the state and is separate from the federal power grid, began conducting power outages to balance the demand and supply of the grid.
- In the aftermath, wholesale power prices rose from roughly $50 per megawatt hour to $9,000, WFAA reports — noting some Texans faced bills of up to $17,000 so far this month.
- ERCOT said last week that the grid almost suffered a catastrophic failure that could have caused uncontrolled blackouts leaving residents without power for months.
The big picture:Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton formally demanded copies of communications and other documents from ERCOT and Texas power companies related to the winter storm, Axios' Ben Geman reports.
- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called for an investigation into ERCOT on Tuesday and called the expensive energy bills "unacceptable."
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.