Hearings seek cause of power outages

AUSTIN (AP) - Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said two state Senate committees will have hearings into why Texas experienced power outages last week and urged electric companies to prepare for more cold weather on Wednesday.

Dewhurst said 82 out of 550 power plants "went down principally due to a lack of adequate weatherization."

Tens of thousands of Texans across the state lost power as temperatures dipped into the teens.

Dewhurst assigned the natural resource committee and the business and commerce committee to hold hearings. Dewhurst was the acting governor last week when the state regulatory agency, ERCOT, ordered the outages to prevent a complete collapse of the grid.

The lieutenant governor said he was speaking to power generators, utilities and regulators to make sure there are no problems when cold weather returns Wednesday.