As Texans prepare for several days of freezing weather, the Texas Supreme Court is looking back to the arctic blast that swept the state in February 2021. The state’s highest court will decide whether loved ones of those killed and injured in power outages during the 2021 winter storm can sue utility distributors like Dallas-based Oncor. “The fact that the Supreme Court has agreed to grant review to actually consider the merits of this case is significant,” said appellate lawyer Chad Ruback. Ruback isn’t associated with the case. He said the Supreme Court is stepping in after a lower court allowed 200 lawsuits claiming gross negligence to move forward. In a petition filed in May, the companies argue they were simply following ERCOT’s orders to shed load to prevent the collapse of the power grid. They also pointed to past cases. “In the past, natural gas companies have been held not liable in situations similar to this. The generators, the companies that actually make the power, whether it’s solar generation, wind generation, coal generation, have been held not liable in winter storms, for example,” said Ruback. But Ann Saucer, a Dallas lawyer representing multiple plaintiffs in the case, said this time’s different. “This case is not about whether they followed ERCOT’s orders. They said they would roll blackouts for 45 minutes. So your power would go off for 45 minutes, and then it would come back on and someone else’s power would go out for 45 minutes. That’s what they said that they would do. That’s not what they did. That is not what they did. Some people never lost power, and some people lost power for so long for days that they froze to death,” said Saucer. Larry Taylor also represents people who’ve sued the distributors. “I have clients whose son died in the room next to theirs. In another case, a man walked in and found his own brother, frozen to death. These people deserve justice. They deserve the chance to put their case in front of their fellow Texans and be heard. The Supreme Court of Texas has the power to make that happen. My hope and prayer is that the court will do that. All we ask is for a chance to be heard. This is an issue affecting all Texans, both urban and rural,” said Taylor. Oncor released a statement to NBC DFW: “Oncor is confident that our actions during Winter Storm Uri were made to save the integrity of the Texas grid. The majority of these claims have been dismissed and we look forward to a full dismissal of all claims. Due to the ongoing nature of this litigation, we do not have further comment.” The court is expected to hold oral arguments at 9:00 a.m. on February 19. Ruback said a decision will likely take months and that a ruling could have a big impact, potentially on Texans’ wallets and on how distributors make decisions if the grid suffers again.