Four out-of-state members of Texas' ERCOT board resign amid backlash



Four out-of-state board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state's power grid, have announced their resignations amid backlash over last week's widespread outages and criticism that several leaders of ERCOT do not even reside in the Lone Star State.

What are the details?

Last week, Texas state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed outrage over the revelation that five of the fifteen people serving on ERCOT's board do not live in the state, and therefore did not experience the power failures that left millions of Texans without heat or water.

In a letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas on Tuesday, ERCOT announced that four of their board members — including Chairwoman Sally Talberg and Vice Chairman Peter Cramton — will be stepping down following an ERCOT board meeting Wednesday morning.

According to the Texas Tribune, Talberg lives in Michigan and Cramton lives in Germany. The other two departing members, finance and audit chair Terry Bulger and human resources and governance committee chair Raymond Hepper, also live out of state.

ERCOT said last week it has pulled board members' biographical information from its website, allegedly due to harassment of members.

The resignations are set to occur the day before ERCOT officials are expected to testify before Texas lawmakers during hearings slated for Thursday regarding last week's power failures, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Texans are demanding answers from ERCOT, which manages roughly 90% of the state's electric load, after much of the state was left without power last week — some portions for days at a time — after a brutal winter storm hit the region. At least 30 citizens have reportedly died in connection to the outages, and sky-high electric bills have followed for residents with variable payment plans.

Axios reported that when the storm hit, ERCOT "began conducting power outages to balance the demand and supply of the grid."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called for ERCOT's leaders to resign last week, saying they failed to prepare despite advanced notice of the storm, and then failed to communicate to the public about what was occurring during the outages.

"This was a total failure by ERCOT," Abbott told KTRK-TV, explaining, "This is something I declared in advance... this is something that our team had been talking to them about in advance, knowing, in advance, the ultra-cold we were going to be dealing with."

"There seemed to be a lack of preparation, and making sure we did have access to back-up power in the event that the power generators were incapable of generating power, but all that aside .... they should be providing greater transparency," Abbott continued.

"They are a public entity," he added. "They deserve to tell you, as well as government leaders, exactly what is going and what is not going on and they are not stepping up and providing that level of transparency."

Parler CEO John Matze says he has been fired by board



Parler CEO John Matze has been fired by the company's board of directors according to an email he sent to employees of the firm, where he declared that the future of the de-platformed social media outlet "is no longer in my hands."

What are the details?

Fox Business obtained the memo, reporting that Matze explained, ""On January 29, 2021, the Parler board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as CEO of Parler. I did not participate in this decision."

He wrote further:

"Over the past few months, I've met constant resistance to my product vision, my strong belief in free speech and my view of how the Parler site should be managed. For example, I advocated for more product stability and what I believe is a more effective approach to content moderation. I have worked endless hours and fought constant battles to get the Parler site running but at this point, the future of Parler is no longer in my hands."

Matze said that he will take it easy for the next few weeks, and "after that, I'll be looking for new opportunities where my technical acumen, vision and the causes I am passionate about will be required and respected."

Conservative pundit Dan Bongino, who has an ownership stake in Parler, issued a video statement following the news of Matze's termination where he took issue with some of Matze's claims. Bongino confirmed that Matze had been let go, but said it was himself and "the other owners of the company" that had the "free speech vision." Bongino said that Matze's vision "was not ours."

What's the background?

Parler was founded in 2018, marketing itself as the free speech alternative to other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, both of which have ramped up their censorship in recent years. Conservatives flocked to the site in campaigns aimed at punishing existing platforms over accusations of big tech's political bias against the right.

Parler came under fire earlier this year after it did not follow suit as other social media sites issued crackdowns and even bans on President Donald Trump and several Trump advocates following the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Parler was hit with accusations that it did not have an adequate moderation policy, leading Apple to block the Parler app from iPhones, and Google to block the Parler app from Android phones. Amazon Web Services then pulled the plug on Parler's platform altogether by ending its hosting of the social media site's servers.