And water systems serving a majority of the state’s 254 counties continued to be disrupted, meaning millions of people remained without running water or under notices to boil their tap water, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said. Greg Abbott also convened a meeting of legislators on Saturday to discuss complaints about gigantic electric bills from some consumers. The state’s power plants were not ready for the freezing conditions. The problem worsened as people turned up the heat, further increasing the demand for natural gas and contributing to the shortages at power plants that use the gas to produce electricity. High gas prices made the problem even worse as operators who could not make a profit took their plants offline.

Source: New York Times February 20, 2021 20:18 UTC