Here is an example of the judiciary's power to interpret the law when a case is brought to it by people impacted by that law. It also raises questions about the consequences of partisan judicial elections.
For background:
- 2021 Texas power crisis.
- Texas Courts of Appeals.
- Texas First Court of Appeals.
- Legal Liability.
- Legal Immunity.
- Lawsuits.
- Wholesale Power Generators.
- Electricity Retailing.
- Deregulation of the Texas electricity market.
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- Click here for the story.
Almost three years since the deadly Texas blackout of 2021, a panel of judges from the First Court of Appeals in Houston has ruled that big power companies cannot be held liable for failure to provide electricity during the crisis. The reason is Texas’ deregulated energy market.
In February of 2021, a massive cold front descended on Texas, bringing days of ice and snow. The weather increased energy demand and reduced supply by freezing up power generators and the state’s natural gas supply chain. This led to a blackout that left millions of Texans without energy for nearly a week.
The state has said almost 250 people died because of the winter storm and blackout, but some analysts call that a serious undercount.
Within days of the storm, Texans affected by the failure of the energy system began filing lawsuits. Some of those suits were brought against power generators whose plants had stopped working in the storm or had run out of fuel to generate electricity.
After years of legal process, a three-judge panel convened to decide on the merits of those lawsuits.
This week, Chief Justice Terry Adams issued the unanimous opinion of that panel that “Texas does not currently recognize a legal duty owed by wholesale power generators to retail customers to provide continuous electricity to the electric grid, and ultimately to the retail customers.”
The opinion states that big power generators “are now statutorily precluded by the legislature from having any direct relationship with retail customers of electricity.”
