Thread by @Forrest4Trees

The @GregAbbott_TX conference has started. I'll tweet it out a bit. Live here: kxan.com/news/texas/gov…

@GregAbbott_TX Since midnight, 6K megawatts have been added to the Texas grid, enough for 1.2 million households. The nuclear power plant in Bay City will be stepping up tonight, adding 2k megawatts.

In addition, small natural gas generators are "currently going on and off" -- they should add additional generation. But there continue to be problems with natural gas and wind farms.

One problem is that natural gas is being shipped out of state. Abbott signed an order to sell gas to only Texas power generators.

The governor is wearing what you might call his first-responder jacket. DPS Director Steve McCraw is fully kitted out in his cop uniform.

Abbott has basically nothing to say, so far, about who is responsible for this unprecedented ongoing crisis. He's just mostly passing along weather reports and plans for the disaster response.

Provisional licensing for plumbers? I mean, that's great, but kinda small potatoes.

Seven million Texans under boil-water notices, a/t TCEQ chairman Toby Baker, who said it can take up to 24 hours to do the sampling needed to life a boil-water notice

*to lift

Baker hints that testing needed to lift boil-water notice could be bottlenecked b/c there are so many labs that can do the testing.

Abbott now taking questions from the press

(I couldn't hear the question but seems to be about Abbott blaming crisis on wind power)

Abbott: "Every source of power has been compromised." "If we relied solely on green energy that would be a challenge."

Abbott promises to "get to the root of any misstep that took place," briefly mentioning ERCOT but nothing particularly specific about who or what is responsible here.

Abbott says "I was asked a question on one TV show about renewable [sic] and I responded to that question."

Abbott throwing ERCOT under the bus, calling it "an independent private entity that candidly I have both investigated and prosecuted before as attorney general of Texas... it is something that needs to be looked at—it is kinda opaque the way that it runs, it is not transparent.”

Abbott claims that the 2011 cold spell/blackout lead to "changes" but doesn't say what they were. In fact, the PUC punted on reforms that would have created a capacity market to bolster reserves.

And that's it. Press conference over.