U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro demands Texas regulators explain power outages

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, penned a letter signed by eight other members of Texas’ congressional delegation demanding that the operator of the state’s power grid and the state regulatory body overseeing electrical utilities explain the outages that have left millions of Texans without power.

In the letter sent Tuesday, Castro — a San Antonio Democrat — raised concerns that the outages intended to spare the electrical grid are not being distributed equitably.

“The ongoing power outages across Texas are causing unacceptable hardship and suffering to millions of families, especially among the most vulnerable,” Castro wrote to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the Texas Public Utility Commission.

“I’m particularly concerned at reports that power outages are not distributed fairly. Texans need answers and expect accountability for exactly how this happened — and I will do my utmost in Congress to ensure this never happens again in Texas.”

The letter was also signed by U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett, Henry Cuellar, Filemon Vela, Lizzie Fletcher, Marc Veasey, Veronica Escobar, Sylvia Garcia, Vicente Gonzalez and Al Green. All are Democrats.

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