Obama phoned Pierson on Wednesday to thank her for her service, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
While Obama and his aides have expressed support for Pierson in recent days, Earnest said the president agreed to the change, and “concluded new leadership of that agency was required,”
Pierson “took responsibility for the shortcomings of the agency that she led, and she took responsibility for fixing them,” Earnest said. “That, quite simply, I think, is a testament to her professionalism and to her character.”
The moves came less than two weeks after a man scaled the White House fence and made his way into the executive mansion before being caught. In addition, it took days for the Secret Service to disclose that the man, who had a knife, made it as far as the East Room of the executive mansion before he was subdued.
Some blame a quasi-free-market in electricity for the collapse of the electrical grid in Texas, during a winter snow storm, mid-February, in which temperatures hovered at 0°F (or -18°C). The same people finger deregulation and isolation from the national and neighboring grids.
Opposing opinion has it that an excessive reliance on renewable energy sources, like wind turbines, was the culprit in a grid collapse that saw 40 percent of the power supply fail within hours of the storm, indirectly causing the death of about 60 Texans.
All agree that the oil-and-gas state enjoys both cheap natural gas and abundant wind power and that its