Texas House Takes Modest Steps to Avoid Another Winter Blackout

February's winter storm shut off electricity to millions of residents, which led to water outages affecting even more millions of Texans, contributing to at least 151 deaths

By Robert T. Garrett and Morgan O'Hanlon | The Dallas Morning News • Published May 23, 2021 • Updated on May 23, 2021 at 10:10 pm

The Texas House late Sunday tentatively approved the session’s main two winter storm bills, which would revamp management of the electric grid and seek to avoid a repeat of February’s disastrous outages by requiring weatherization and improving communications.

But weatherization of natural gas wells, processing plants and pipelines only would be demanded if they wind up on an “electricity supply chain map” required by the omnibus power bill, Senate Bill 2.

On Sunday, House GOP leaders rebuffed Democrats’ attempts to accelerate a timeline for gas industry facilities on the map to be weatherized and to stiffen penalties if they don’t.