Government Greg Abbott orders that natural gas producers do not have to export any supplies from the state until Sunday, thus diverting the gas to the ignited electricity grid in Texas.
“I issued an order earlier today … and require producers who ship outside of Texas to sell the gas to generators in Texas instead,” Abbott said of the Alternate State Operations Center in Austin. “It also increases the power that is produced and sent to homes here in Texas.”
Millions of Texans have been left without electricity since early Monday morning as the state saw a catastrophic failure of the power grid during this week’s severe winter weather and freezing point. About 2.7 million customers were not there by Wednesday morning, officials said.
Abbott said additional power is coming back throughout the day, mostly from nuclear and coal sources. Abbott said electricity had been restored in about 1.2 million households since midnight.
In a broad press briefing on the crisis, Abbott warned that Texas would probably only emerge from the ‘ultra-cold’ conditions on Saturday, and transportation would remain challenging until then.
He also urged homeowners to start contacting plumbers and insurance providers to address possible pipe spills that could flood homes. Abbott said he would loosen some licensing requirements for plumbers to meet the expected demand.
Officials also touched on federal aid to the state, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced earlier Wednesday that it was sending generators, water and blankets to Texas, and also plans to ship diesel.
Abbott spoke little about the Texas Electric Reliability Council, the agency responsible for maintaining the state’s power grid, a day after he struggled against the organization due to a lack of transparency and poor emergency response. Abbott made ERCOT reform a crucial priority item in the current legislative session on Tuesday and called on the agency’s leadership to resign for their response to the crisis.
At a news conference on Wednesday, ERCOT president and CEO Bill Magness did not directly respond to Abbott’s calls to resign, saying a review of who is to blame will be finalized “after we regain power. “
Both chambers of the state legislature plan to investigate the agency, while state representatives are only planning hearings next Thursday.
ERCOT refuses to give an estimate on when the power will be fully restored, saying the best case scenario will reduce power outages by an hour or less by Thursday. Officials are saving electricity in an effort to avoid a total network collapse that could destroy power for weeks.