Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke knocked out Gov. Greg Abbott (R) Sunday night after the state’s grid operator urged Texans to “voluntarily conserve electricity” during Monday’s statewide heat wave.
“The governor of the 9th largest economy on earth – the energy capital of the world – cannot guarantee the power will stay on tomorrow,” O’Rourke said in a tweet. “We need a change.”
A “conservation advisory” issued Monday by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said no major outages were expected, but people were asked to consider reducing their electricity use from 2 to 8 p.m. hours local time. ERCOT cited “record high demand for electricity” during the heat wave and weak wind to power turbines as “driving the need for this important customer action.”
ERCOT urged Texans to turn down their thermostats and refrain from using energy-consuming appliances or pool pumps during the six-hour period.
The grid operator made a similar request in May after six power plants shut down during a heat wave, The Texas Tribune reported.
“We can’t rely on the grid when it’s hot. We can’t rely on the grid when it’s cold. We can’t count on Greg Abbott. Time to kick him out and fix the web,” O’Rourke tweeted on Monday.
O’Rourke won the Texas Democratic primary in March and will face Abbott in the November general election. A recent poll by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin shows Abbott leading O’Rourke by 6 points.
The former congressman has repeatedly used the Lone Star State’s energy grid as a talking point on the campaign trail: In February, O’Rourke drove a truck around Texas to draw attention to grid issues.
And in 2021, he was a fierce critic of Abbott and other lawmakers over a major power outage that left thousands of Texans without power for days amid a massive winter storm.
“We now know that the Texas government’s repeated failure to modernize our energy systems killed over 700 Texans during February’s winter storm,” O’Rourke wrote at the time.
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Texas Democrat Julián Castro, who has been in the ring with O’Rourke as a 2020 presidential candidate, published a headline in the Dallas Morning News on Monday about preparing for blackouts in light of ERCOT’s appeal.
“Life in Texas these days. Thanks @GregAbbott_TX,” he wrote.
The Hill has reached out to Abbott’s office and ERCOT for comment on O’Rourke’s tweets.
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