“Members of our community died in this disaster, and millions of Texans languished without power and water while suffering billions in property damage,” Menefee said in a statement. “Harris County residents deserve to know what happened, who made which decisions, and whether this could have been avoided or mitigated.”
Menefee’s investigation will look to “identify all responsible parties” for the state’s power crisis, with a particular focus on the Public Utility Commission (which oversees ERCOT), ERCOT itself and Texas’ independent power generators. He cited warnings from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the Texas power grid “was underprepared for hard freeze events” after a smaller wave of winter blackouts back in 2011,
A spokesperson tells ABC13 the board and senior leaders were getting threats because of the anger over the widespread power outages. ERCOT removed the names to avoid that. No one on the board of directors has resigned.