2021
Feb. 12 — Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of emergency a day ahead of Winter Storm Uri’s arrival.
Feb. 13-17 — The storm hit Texas.
Feb. 16 — The first storm-related lawsuit, Donald McCarley v. Electric Reliability Council of Texas, was filed in Nueces County for personal injury due to loss of power.
Feb. 22 — Three wrongful death lawsuits were filed in Harris County. The victims of hypothermia included 11-year-old Christian Pavon of Conroe, and 95-year-old Doyle Aron Austin of Houston.
March 1 — Brazos Electric Power filed for bankruptcy.
March 9 — Just Energy filed for bankruptcy.
March 15 — Retail power company Griddy Energy filed for bankruptcy.
May 1 — Court records show that more than 100 lawsuits representing more than 1,500 alleged victims had been filed in Dallas, Travis and Harris counties over Winter Storm Uri-related injuries.
June 2 — Dallas-based Luminant filed a brief in the Austin Court of Appeals challenging the legal authority of the Public Utility Commission of Texas to artificially reprice electric rates during Winter Storm Uri to $9,000 per megawatt-hour, or 650 percent higher than normal, which cost the company $2.9 billion.
June 30 — The Texas Supreme Court appointed Harris County Judge Sylvia Matthews to be the multidistrict litigation judge and ordered all Winter Storm Uri-related lawsuits filed in Texas state courts to be transferred to her docket.
Aug. 30 — Six months after suing Griddy, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a settlement that released about 24,000 consumers from paying outstanding bills owed to the bankrupt utility.
Dec. 28 — 131 insurance companies sued the Texas power grid operator and several power-generating companies in Travis County over losses suffered from Winter Storm Uri, which resulted in more than 500,000 insurance claims and approximately $10.3 billion in insured losses.
2022
April 12 — The Ector County Energy Center filed for bankruptcy, citing $400 million in losses during Winter Storm Uri and lawsuits filed by its customers seeking $400 million in damages.
2023
Jan. 26 — Judge Matthews dismissed lawsuits brought by hundreds of plaintiffs against 60 natural gas companies, including Anadarko, Apache, Atmos, Comstock, El Paso, Energy Transfer, Kinder Morgan and XTO, ruling that the gas companies would not have to stand trial for any damage or deaths caused by power outages during Winter Storm Uri because any conduct by those companies was too remote to have caused the damages claimed in the lawsuits.
Feb. 9 — CirclesX Recovery, an energy trader that represents thousands of Texas energy customers, filed a lawsuit in Harris County claiming that large energy companies and financial institutions, including Energy Transfer, Kinder Morgan, BP, Conoco Phillips and CenterPoint Energy, engaged in an Enron-style scheme to cut off gas production or divert supplies into storage days ahead of freezing temperatures that would eventually cripple the Texas power grid.
March 17 — The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled in favor of Luminant and other power providers that the Texas PUC’s decision to raise electric rates to $9,000 per megawatt-hour during Winter Storm Uri was illegal. The ruling was a multibillion-dollar defeat for Calpine Corporation, Talen Energy, TexGen Power and other power generators who sold the electricity at the $9,000 rate.
June 23 — The Texas Supreme Court ruled that ERCOT is a government agency and is entitled to sovereign immunity from civil lawsuits, which ended thousands of personal injury, wrongful death and property damage claims filed against the entity.
Dec. 14 — The First Court of Appeals in Houston handed large power generators in Texas, including Luminant, NRG, Calpine, Exelon and Sempra Energy, a huge, multibillion-dollar defense victory by ruling that wrongful death, personal injury and property damage cases against the generators by victims of Winter Storm Uri have “no basis in law or fact.”
2024
April 2 — The Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston ruled that 20,000 plaintiffs in wrongful death, personal injury and other Winter Storm Uri-related lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages from Texas electric transmission and distribution utilities that provide power via wires connected to people’s homes — CenterPoint Energy, Oncor Electric Delivery and American Electric Power— may move forward to trial on allegations of gross negligence and intentional misconduct.
June 14 — The Texas Supreme Court reversed the Austin Court of Appeals’ decision that the PUC violated state law.
Nov. 6 — Judge dismissed CirclesX lawsuit claiming market manipulation.
Dec. 6 — CirclesX filed notice of appealed. Case assigned to the First Court of Appeals in Houston.
Dec. 23 — The Texas Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by Texas electric transmission and distribution utilities that the Houston Court of Appeals erred in allowing lawsuits for wrongful death, personal injury and other Winter Storm Uri-related injuries to go to trial against companies such as CenterPoint Energy, Oncor Electric Delivery and American Electric Power. Oral arguments are set for Feb. 19.
2025
Jan. 9 — Oklahoma’s attorney general sued 17 natural gas providers, including Symmetry Energy Solutions, Enable Midstream Partners, Constellation NewEnergy-Gas Division, BP Energy, Chevron U.S.A., Macquarie Energy, NextEra Energy Marketing and Southwest Energy, on allegations of market manipulation and violating the state’s antitrust and consumer protection laws.
Feb. 4 — Lawyers for 15,000 individuals and businesses filed a petition for writ of mandamus with the Texas Supreme Court seeking to reverse the Dec. 21 decision by the First Court of Appeals in Houston dismissing the wrongful death, personal injury and property damage cases against power generators.