IN A FLASH

Texas Was Seconds Away From Going Dark for Months, Says Energy Official

The top official responsible for the state’s electricity supply has defended himself, claiming his operators prevented a much more severe problem.

Texas was seconds away from a catastrophic power-grid failure that could have left millions of people without energy for months, according to the top official responsible for the state’s electricity supply. Bill Magness is the president of ERCOT—the nonprofit that has come under severe criticism this week for implementing rolling blackouts that left millions without power. But Magness has now defended himself, telling the Texas Tribune that his grid operators’ snap decision to introduce rolling blackouts prevented the entire grid from failing. “It needed to be addressed immediately,” said Magness. “It was seconds and minutes [from possible failure] given the amount of generation that was coming off the system.” Magness said that, if operators hadn’t made the call, then the resulting blackouts “could have occurred for months,” and left Texas in an “indeterminately long” crisis. Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott has reportedly called on Texas lawmakers to mandate that power plants be better prepared for extreme cold in the future.