Thread by @HoustonChron

EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of the winter weather set to grip Texas later this week, the state’s gas regulator says 98% of facilities are winterized.

But inspectors say that data is flawed.
✏️@shelbywebb
📷@Bloomberg
➡️houstonchronicle.com/business/energ…

@shelbywebb @Bloomberg At a Tuesday press conference, @JimWright4Texas repeated a claim the @txrrc has made for weeks: Inspections found that 98% of 4,000 natural gas facilities - helping to generate electricity for 26M customers on Texas’ power grid - have been winterized. houstonchronicle.com/business/energ…

But the results of those inspections - obtained by the @HoustonChron - raise doubts that Texas' natural gas infrastructure is as prepared as state officials would have residents believe. houstonchronicle.com/business/energ…

Data from the inspections of 3,663 oil and gas sites found that only 41% had successfully tested their weatherized equipment or procedures.

Operators at nearly 11% of them said their winterization efforts didn’t work or that they simply didn’t know. houstonchronicle.com/business/energ…

And only about 9.5% of the site operators said they had asked @ERCOT_ISO, Texas' grid manager, to be considered as critical infrastructure, which would ensure they maintain power during blackouts. houstonchronicle.com/business/energ…

Inspectors themselves, however, have raised questions about the validity of the data. One inspector wrote in his comments that “Most answers are actually not applicable.” houstonchronicle.com/business/energ…

Natural gas generators produced about 42% of the power managed by ERCOT last year. But when the #TexasFreeze hit last February, most of the power lost to disruptions came from those generators. houstonchronicle.com/business/energ…

Ed Hirs, an energy fellow for @UHouston, said the inspections may not have been thorough. He said much of the data collected relied on natural gas producers and field workers to tell them that they had complied with new rules. houstonchronicle.com/business/energ…