Governor Abbott Signs Bills to Reform ERCOT and Weatherize the Power Grid

Texans will never forget the bitter cold and sky-high energy bills they endured after being left in the dark by the state's power grid and energy authorities back in February.

Since the disaster, there have been calls to hold those responsible accountable and to take steps to ensure that our state's electrical grid is more reliable during extreme cold and heat events.

Personally, I wasn't the victim of any power outages or water shortages like millions of other Texans were during that horrible snowstorm and bitter cold back in February.

I was one of the countless people who received an outrageously expensive energy bill, though.

I was charged almost $6,000 total over a 6-day span during the horrible weather from earlier this year from Energy Company Griddy.

Griddy is now contacting their former customers to file a claim as they are currently in bankruptcy because of the unexpected weather disaster.

According to a press release from the Office Of The Texas Governor, two bills signed into law Tuesday by Governor Greg Abbott may not be perfect, but they're a start.

Senate Bills 2 and 3 call for weatherizing energy facilities, inspections of those facilities, and steep fines for failure to comply. The bills also call for reforming the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), including a requirement that all ERCOT board members be residents of Texas.

Under the new law, Texans will also receive a Power Outage Alert when the power supply may be inadequate to meet demand, and state and electrical offices are supposed to beef up communications so they can work to get outages fixed more quickly.

Let's hope everyone involved takes this seriously and really learned a lesson from what happened in February. If not, we could see a repeat. If they think people are angry now, just wait.