4 things we ve learned since February s deadly winter storm ksat.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ksat.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Bill Magness, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas CEO who was terminated by his board Wednesday, said he will not accept more than $800,000 in severance pay, according to an ERCOT spokesperson.
The board for the nonprofit entity that operates and manages the electricity grid that covers much of Texas voted Wednesday in favor of his 60-day termination notice.
Magness was terminated without cause, a spokesperson said. According to the terms of his employment contract, his severance pay would have been equivalent to one year of his current base salary, which is more than $800,000.
Both ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the regulatory body that oversees it, have been lambasted in recent weeks for failures in preparing for and responding to the winter storm that left millions of people in the dark for days and claimed the lives of dozens of Texans.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the main body that manages the state's primary electric grid, is being sued for ignoring repeated warnings regarding the vulnerabilities in [.]
Posted By Sanford Nowlin on Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 12:59 PM click to enlarge Courtesy of ERCOT
It’s a safe bet Bill Magness, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, may not have that job much longer.
In the wake of last week’s devastating statewide power outages, a bipartisan chorus of state lawmakers led by Gov. Greg Abbott is calling for his firing or resignation as head of the nonprofit that oversees the state electrical grid. Many, including the Republican governor, are calling for the ouster of ERCOT’s entire board for good measure.
But slathering blame for last week’s catastrophic outages solely on ERCOT is both misdirected and coming a decade too late, say critics familiar with the state’s power generating systems.