State Rep. Ryan Guillen discusses Texas' energy crisis

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas - Going forward, state Rep. Ryan Guillen wants to see hospitals and nursing homes given priority when power is switched off during extreme weather conditions.The Rio Grande City Democrat spoke about the deadly winter freeze during a roundtable discussion held at Starr County Memorial Hospital and organized by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar.The event was organized to discuss the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations in Starr County. However, Rep. Guillen said he also wanted to talk about the impact of the big freeze.“It is a huge crisis. You have got a lot of areas without water, too, because of the lack of power. The power generators were not prepared for this winter storm. They are the cause of the big loss of power,” Guillen said.“They prioritized hospitals. The hospitals are part of the water system and the water system does not have power. That is causing a problem. They are supposed to be prioritizing nursing homes. Some do (have power), some don’t.”Guillen added: “Imagine if… the power continues to go down, another storm coming behind it, you can imagine the terrible situation we would be in. Obviously, the generators need to do better on weatherizing their stuff. We have got to figure out how to make them do that.”Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.