Texas Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) power suppliers and Entergy Corporation have been hit by a $ 100 million lawsuit accusing them of gross negligence in the death of a child whose family suspects hypothermia when they use electricity and lost heat in their mobile home during a historic cold snap.
The mother of 11-year-old Cristian Pineda filed the wrongful death lawsuit with the Jefferson County district court, claiming that the energy giants are “ putting profits before people’s well-being ” by ignoring previous recommendations to winterize the power grid, that had an epic failure lately, leaving more than 4 million customers without heat and electricity as temperatures dropped to single digits in some parts of the state.
“ Despite being aware of the bad weather forecast at least a week in advance, and knowing that the system had not been prepared for over a decade, ERCOT and Entergy did not take any preventive action that could have made the crisis turn away. unprepared to face the current crisis, “the lawsuit states.
Cristian died Tuesday in his family’s mobile home in the Houston suburb of Conroe, while sharing a bed with his 3-year-old brother under a pile of blankets in an attempt to keep warm, the lawsuit said.
The sixth grader, who migrated to the United States with his family two years ago, was a healthy boy who played in the snow for the first time in his life the day before his death, his mother, Maria Pineda, told Houston. Chronicle.
Maria Pineda discovered that her son was unresponsive the next day and called 911 while attempting CPR, according to the lawsuit.
While the Pineda family claims the child was froze to death, the official cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy, Conroe police said.
Entergy issued a statement to the Houston ABC station KTRK, saying, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of life in our community. We cannot comment due to pending lawsuits.”
ERCOT, which operates the power grid for more than 25 million customers, said in a statement that it had not yet reviewed the lawsuit, but “will respond accordingly once we do.”
“Our thoughts are with all Texans suffering and suffering from the past week,” the ERCOT statement continued.
Entergy – which supplies electricity to customers in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi – has released a statement saying, “We cannot comment due to pending lawsuits.”
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of life in our community,” the utility wrote.
ERCOT officials said it initiated an emergency power outage on Feb. 15 after a snowstorm covered much of Texas and temperatures dropped below freezing. The agency said it has taken drastic steps to prevent a catastrophic power outage statewide.
“With approximately 46% of residential electricity production going offline last Monday morning, we are confident that our grid operators have made the right choice to avoid a statewide power outage,” ERCOT said in its statement.
But the lawsuit – filed on behalf of Maria Pineda and Cristian Pineda’s estate by attorney Anthony Buzbee – alleges that the power was turned off for “those most vulnerable to the cold.”
“That’s why there were images of empty office buildings in downtown Houston with power, but Pineda’s mobile home park was out of power,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit blamed ERCOT for misleading customers by assuring them that the ongoing power outage would be temporary.
Instead, the power cuts lasted for days. As plaintiffs were not adequately informed of the duration of the power outage, they were unable to properly prepare for the lack of power or leave the area. Accurate information would preserve Cristian’s young life. Pineda may have rescued, ”the lawsuit said.
The Pinedas were without power and heat for two days, during which time the temperatures in their area plummeted to 10 degrees, the lawsuit says.
Rather than informing customers, like the Pinedas, that the rolling blackouts would last longer, ERCOT sent messages on social media noting customers to do laundry on Valentine’s Day and to “ use the expensive new appliances you bought during the pandemic. and only used once, “said the lawsuit, which featured an image from ERCOT’s social media post on Valentine’s Day
The lawsuit also noted that following a severe winter storm in 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation issued a report informing ERCOT that “additional winterizing of Texas power infrastructure was necessary.”
A large number of units that tripped or failed to start during the 2011 storm showed that “the generators did not adequately anticipate the full impact of the prolonged cold weather and high winds,” the report cited in the lawsuit said.
“ Despite being aware of the bad weather forecast at least a week in advance, and knowing that the system had not been prepared for over a decade, ERCOT and Entergy did not take any preventive action that could have made the crisis. turn away. unprepared to face the current crisis, ”the lawsuit said.
Because the ERCOT system does not cross state lines, the agency is not subject to federal regulation or oversight, according to the lawsuit.
The recommendations were voluntary at the time, but will become mandatory at the end of next year. In an interview with KTRK last week, an ERCOT official seemed to suggest that at least some of the recommendations were followed up. “In 2018 it was just as cold, just as windy, and we had very few production plants offline,” Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior operations director, told KTRK. “It turned out that those best practices and what the generators did in that regard worked.”
“Rather than investing in infrastructure to prepare for the well-known winter storms that would most certainly come and potentially leave people vulnerable without power, the providers chose to turn profit over people’s well-being, and ERCOT allowed them do this ”states.