yeah, Individuals running companies need to face individual punishment when their companies commit crimes. Otherwise being caught and paying a fine is just a business expense, and all the crimes they don't get prosecuted for will easily make the occasional fine worthwhile. If the person in charge faces prison, that's a totally different calculation
I suspected this in 2021. As an electrician some of the claims they were making made no sense. Saying the electrical equipment could not handle the cold. Then jacking up the price by thousands of dollars per customer. Complete scam!
In all fairness an electrician is no more qualified to speak on matters of civil and petroleum engineering than a hairdresser is. I am an electrical engineer. I have no applied knowledge of the reliability of pneumatic valves at variable temperatures, atmospheric pressures, and dew points. My opinion would matter if the issue occurred at or downstream of the generator. That is not where the problem manifested.
@@zbubby1202the appeal to authority fallacy, often called the "expert fallacy" or appeal to exclusive expertise. In this case, someone might argue that you can't understand or criticize a particular idea or claim unless you're an expert in the field. This shuts down meaningful discussion and suggests that only those with specialized knowledge have the right to evaluate the claim. While expertise can provide valuable insight, it doesn't mean non-experts are incapable of understanding or questioning certain aspects. Dismissing an argument simply because the other person lacks specific credentials is often a way to avoid engaging with the actual evidence or reasoning. For example: "You haven't studied economics, so you can't possibly understand why this policy will work." This tactic assumes that specialized knowledge is a shield against scrutiny, which undermines healthy debate and critical thinking.
Remember when Enron was telling its power producers in California to go offline for maintenance so that they could jack up the prices due to an engineered shortage -- seems the Texas energy companies remembered!
Texas residents have been paying a surcharge since 2011 after the LAST major snow storm… This fee is called an “Upgrade Fee”. Every month, every resident, for 10 years… Where did that money go????
@@tetchuma Consumer protections in the States are State, not Federal. Texas has not "deregulated" its consumer protection laws -- what few it ever had -- rather, the Texas Railroad Commission, responsible for all trade in all forms statewide, whether livestock or electricity, and also responsible for creating all regulations that cover all commerce of any kind whatsoever, does not answer to the Governor nor to the State Legislature; instead, it is self-regulating, independently elected by the public via rotating seats with one seat up for election every two years, and it is also held responsible by judges; however, because it is State-wide, any suit brought against it must be accepted by the Supreme Court of the State of Texas, and because it is exclusive to the State of Texas, the Texas Railroad Commission cannot be sued outside of Texas. So the Texas Supreme Court is the one Stop shop. EDIT: Correction, since some legislated changes, sometimes there are two seats up for election, the added seats when the Commission went from three Seats to five.
Remember when they sold us on how "green" energy would be CHEAPER? TX is one of the largest producers of "green" energy, yet prices continue to go up. As a nation, we produce more green energy than ever before, yet energy prices are at 30+ year highs....We KNOW it's a scam!
On the part of the Pipeline Analytics Company which turns out to be .CirclesX LLC a SimpsX Technologies LLC / Texans Helping Texans . This appears to be a predatory l;aw firm that sues energy companies to generate $$$ for themselves.
@robd5254 Right, your theory is everyone that votes republican is guilty? So if they find Democrats guilty, we can charge everyone that voted democratic? Asinine !
@@choccolocco let me get this straight, you believe that oil and gas workers whose families and homes are in the same areas they are supplying purposely put themselves, their families and their homes in harms way just to go home to tragedy, busted pipes, and caved in ceilings after working 24hrs a day for 7 days straight in the freezing cold. Makes perfect sense. We appreciate you recognizing our sacrifice though.
@@marlboroman71818 The “workers”? No. Use your brain ffs. You, if you are one of these “workers”, should know full well how greedy your employers are, and you should also know that they’ll do just about anything to make more profit. Again, use your brain.
Wouldn’t surprise me. Remember Enron? Those assholes were laughing while people died. Until you start throwing these executives in jail for a long time, this kind of stuff will continue.
I'm an Australian engineer and you are not only 100% right but this same Enron scam is being played out across the world, but in a slightly different way over a much longer time period. What Enron basically did was "trip" one of their power stations or one of the generators in one of their power stations and cause a shortfall in supply that would cause the spot market for energy to spike for a few hours. So it was very short term AND THEY GOT CAUGHT DOING IT. What energy companies around the world have done is also create an energy shortfall but in a different way. Instead of turning of power stations they just didn't build any new ones to keep up with growth caused by population increase. It takes a couple of things to make happen. - Privatise the energy market if it already isn't. - Interfere with government energy policy via the consulting industry and think tanks. It doesn't matter what the policy is just make sure its impractical to build any new power stations. - Make sure NO ENGINEERS speak to the media and explain anything. Instead make sure the people who are in the media are ECONOMIC EXPERTS from the think tanks you sponsor. - Just wait and be patient for a few years while the population grows and consumes all of the available supply. Eventually that population growth will flip the energy supply markets from OVER capacity to UNDER capacity. The cost of energy production will remain static because you have locked in the long term fuel contracts and frozen wages. However the markets will fight over what's left and raise prices, which will steadily increase because population growth will drive demand higher and higher. That's basic Econ 101 - supply-demand economics. YES it takes longer than the Enron Scam but its 100% legal and once you flip the market form over to under supply the profit margins climb and climb and climb. And if you want to know more about this. This is just one of the things I will be discussing on the Steve Keen & Friends podcast this weekend that you can watch for free here on UA-cam.
@@seanrhone5306 I disagree as to its nomous status. You should be held accountable for failing to hold those people accountable already. Why are we even having this discussion now instead of decades ago? Why are you dragging your feet?
We exposed the incompetence of a city engineer after they allowed a public hazard that landed us in the hospital. The city asked that we don't talk about it and the electrician tells me it's because we made someone more important than us look bad. How!? By doing or jobs? What is this apprenticeship trying to teach me!? What have I dedicated my life to!? Exposing bs we can't fix!? The electrician tells me if we grabbed that ground with our left hands we would of been electrocuted through the heart and they would of covered up why. Infuriates me to this day knowing what it's like to survive that kind of power flow through you. I've been wondering if it was intentional that they simply wanted to eliminate who could do the jobs... "We made some one important look bad'. What a bs excuse I learned from the countries top electrical apprenticeship program.
That's the funny thing about capitalism. It values business more than people. It's okay if people die as long as the money still flows. Somehow, most Americans think this is OK🤷♂️
Exactly, if they are going to treat business as people in every other aspect, they should do they same when it comes to the consequences. All too often they get a slap on the wrist and a fine that we the consumers end up paying for in the end anyways, and the company is then all clear to continue on doing the same thing over and over again. It has to stop, they need to be held accountable!
Just like Biden said there is no aid coming to the hurricane victims and it was "pre-planned". Now we find out all those billions of tax dollars and electrical transformers went to everyone but US citizens and FEMA is broke as another hurricane is forming.
@@Artcurus But ever since 2011 Texas residence have been paying an 'upgrade fee' supercharge, where has the money gone if it hasn't been for upgrading the power grid?
@@olorin1710Wrong, corrupt liberals tear down border walls, bankrupt small businesses, preach and criticize the rest of us about the environment even though they fly around in their private jets, take the credit for what conservatives say and do, have no legit or even decent policies about how to fix anything in this country! So try again liberal lunatic, nothing you said in your statement or argument makes any sense!🤣
Is there any investigative reporting, though? They're just discussing and reporting on the allegations in a lawsuit. That's a matter of public record, and I don't see that the reporters did any deep digging to uncover facts beyond the claims in the lawsuit. Of course you shouldn't trust people who are enriched when they can pick your pocket and get away with it, but that doesn't make the claims here the result of "investigative work".
_get themselves a meaningless Oopsie fine._ And give their CEOs huge bonuses for having to sit through phony interrogations with prosecutors, with both parties knowing that nobody will be brought to justice. Trump's Project 2025 is poised to make this corruption orders of magnitude worse, so buckle up, MAGA, and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
How can we follow this case? Or will this be the last we hear about it? The question at this point is what was done to mitigate the root cause and prevent this from happening in the future. If nothing measurable was done and ercot says that this won't happen again, someone needs to pay for what was done.
Even if the allegations in the lawsuit are eventually proven not 'true', the court MUST let this proceed just for the CRITCAL IMPORTANCE of presenting fact and truth about that entire horrible debacle ....and then Texas can move on.
I almost died. It was 23° in my house, ice on the floors, my dish soap froze. There was nothing rolling about those blackouts! My neighborhood would get power for EXACTLY thirty minutes a day, but which 30 minutes was anyone’s guess. I will never forget or forgive.
They were saying way back when it happened that it was deliberate negligence. The allegations were that the electric companies deliberately did not do maintenance in order to save money.
I'm an Australian engineer and you are not only 100% right but this same Enron scam is being played out across the world, but in a slightly different way over a much longer time period. What Enron basically did was "trip" one of their power stations or one of the generators in one of their power stations and cause a shortfall in supply that would cause the spot market for energy to spike for a few hours. So it was very short term AND THEY GOT CAUGHT DOING IT. What energy companies around the world have done is also create an energy shortfall but in a different way. Instead of turning of power stations they just didn't build any new ones to keep up with growth caused by population increase. It takes a couple of things to make happen. - Privatise the energy market if it already isn't. - Interfere with government energy policy via the consulting industry and think tanks. It doesn't matter what the policy is just make sure its impractical to build any new power stations. - Make sure NO ENGINEERS speak to the media and explain anything. Instead make sure the people who are in the media are ECONOMIC EXPERTS from the think tanks you sponsor. - Just wait and be patient for a few years while the population grows and consumes all of the available supply. Eventually that population growth will flip the energy supply markets from OVER capacity to UNDER capacity. The cost of energy production will remain static because you have locked in the long term fuel contracts and frozen wages. However the markets will fight over what's left and raise prices, which will steadily increase because population growth will drive demand higher and higher. That's basic Econ 101 - supply-demand economics. YES it takes longer than the Enron Scam but its 100% legal and once you flip the market form over to under supply the profit margins climb and climb and climb. And if you want to know more about this. This is just one of the things I will be discussing on the Steve Keen & Friends podcast this weekend that you can watch for free here on UA-cam.
Yep, not necessarily preplanned but when the power companies started shedding load, the first loads shed were to the gas processing plants and oil fields in West Texas. They shut off their own fuel supply. The "Grid" was fine. The problem was with the electric power generators.
@@Artcurus Very few did. I work for a pipeline company. We receive the bulk of our gas from gas processing plants. Their power was shut off and we lost our supply. We had to depend on what we had in storage.
@paulkurilecz4209 Read my former post more carefully. Oilfield blogs were talking about the ice clots. Parts of West Texas did not lose power, ironically parts of the city of Crane didn't. The first load sheds were heavy industrial, though by Feb 14, most had already shut down. It makes no sense for Oilfield infrastructure for load shedding when, in this case, it was vital to keep things going. They would been prioritized. Around 2am, on Feb 14, too many power gens had tripped offline because of lack of fuel. The load quickly outstripped the available supply, causing the grid to get dangerously unstable. Everything on the grid depends on a resonate frequency, EVERYTHING, and that frequency cannot vary by as little as 1%. If it does, very bad things happen, like pole transformers catching fire. Residential load shedding began at 3am on Feb 14. and was done to protect the grid.
@@paulkurilecz4209 The power gens were not fine. Read my other post more carefully. You could observe in real time what was happening as the power gens started shutting down because of lack of fuel, and the avilable supply dropped. The demand outstripped the supply and caused the grid to become unstable. The grid runs on a resonate frequency, that frequency cannot vary by more than 1% or very bad things happen. The recovery would taken months and ERCOT had to do what they do had to to stop that happening. By Feb 14, most major industries had already shut down voluntarily. Oil field equipment such those compressors would not have been included because they are major infrastructure. The exception would have been pumpjacks. On Feb 14, by 2am, the supply of electricity reached critical levels, residential load shedding began at 3am.
@@paulkurilecz4209 sounds like people pushing for green energy were the problem then... shutting off the power to the gas power plants. Ercot to blame then?
Well, a lot of it had to do with green energy politics. Who does that? The state energy commissions made policies restricting nat. gas and oil, and unrealistically increasing wind and solar required sources. When a real TX winter hit, wind and solar couldn't provide what was needed. Politics at its finest.
@@betsybarnicle8016 Not true. Despite the Governor not ordering antifreeze for the blades on the turbines and blaming wind and solar they outperformed natural gas during the 21 storm. Bottom line is oil and natural gas write the laws in the state of Texas. So they wrote no penalty but instead rewards for losing power where they get paid more. They created every incentive for power failure. And Jerry Jones was caught toasting to the profit while Ted Cruz fled to Cancún and Texans froze to death.
This is what happens when utility companies aren't regulated by the federal government. People pay the price with their lives. Those who survive pay dearly out of pocket.
FERC is no savior. It just means that the federal government can send your power to another state when their need is deemed more important than your own. A big issue is the regulators lived out of state. You want real reform than put in a law stating that that all senior executives can be held criminally liable for negligent homocide. Funny how businesses reform when people can go to jail.
The political reality is voter suppression and rampant gerrymandering. We show up every election and vote against these crooks, but they make it harder for folks to vote every election, and they have been purging thousands of eligible voters in the last 8 years. There are more progressive folks here than radlibs in cushy blue states throwing peanuts from the gallery pontificate about. Classism at it's finest.
@@kiddaddbuddy the energy sector is massively regulated. If you meant government provided that’s a different argument. But energy is highly regulated even in TX.
@midcenturymoldy I remember him throwing his daughters under the bus when confronted about that trip. If my memory serves correctly, didn't he leave their family dog home alone in the house to possibly perrish in the cold?
You mean Texans can't go on vacations? You think Cruz could magically thaw out Texas? Thousands of Texans were on vacation during the big freeze. So it's their fault as well huh😐
Republicans privatized our electric grid in 1994. Preventive maintenance was ignored as was weatherization. (You've got to think of the shareholders, first - _not consumers_ ... 🥀
It wasn't privatized, it was "deregulated" . Before every electric provider only provided electricity to its local area. The regulation that you say is "privitaziation" Is Deregulation, It allowed customers to contract outside the local electric district to find lower rates, but also at the same time allowed energy generation companies to have 85% of the state to sell electricity to. In 1994, Texas' electric grid was still operating under a system where power was generated and consumed locally by the same utility. The state's electricity market was deregulated in two phases, with the wholesale generation market deregulated in 1995 and the rest of the sector deregulated in 1999. Here are some details about Texas' electric grid in 1994 and after: Deregulation The deregulation of the electricity market replaced the local system with one where retail providers contract with generators across the state. This allowed 85% of Texas power consumers to choose their electricity service from a variety of retail electric providers. Power grid independence Texas is the only state in the contiguous United States with its own power grid. Texas power companies chose to keep their operations within the state's borders to avoid federal regulation. Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) ERCOT manages the Texas Interconnection, where power generators participate in an energy-only electricity market.
@@markyperalez I'm a fifth generation Texan pardner. Speak for yourself, and vote against your own interests, but don't be surprised when this racist, xenophobic regime lets more Texans freeze their homes, or starts deporting citizens and permanent residents with surnames that aren't yt enough to pad those deportation & detention numbers for the MAGAt voter demographic.
I’m not sure if you live here or not. Or how old you are. I’m 57 and have lived here my whole life. When I was a kid, we had would have very cold February’s every so many years. We never had black outs. This started when Obama passed restrictions on coal plants that forced them out of business. Now, Texas is down 6 or more coal plants that have been replaced with solar and windmills. Solar and windmills do not work well in cold weather. When you loose close to 30% of your power generation, well, people go without power. This is going to get worse before it gets better. Prepare accordingly.
@@seanmatal2383 didn’t say that didn’t contribute. But when you lose 6+ coal fired plants, that’s going an have an impact. Like I said, we didn’t have this problem when I was younger.
Most electric companies were public, built with public funds until politicians in the 1960's were bribed to "privatise utilities to save customers money" and our powerplants were sold to rich guys for pennies on the dollar. Power has become more expensive every year since our corrupt politicians sold us out.
There are three separate electric grids in America. The Eastern grid, Western grid and the Texas grid. Texas has their own grid because energy companies didn't want to follow all the regulations designed to encourage reliability that the two other girds were "unnecessarily burdened with".
Yep… and those of us who aren’t living paycheck-to-paycheck and can afford to protest get thrown in jail and/or beat up by the police at said protests. The deck is stacked against us. Always has been-always will be.
This was done in California years ago... And we allowed it to repeat itself. And then the State of Texas, pays the bad guys rather than let them go bankrupt or be hurt financially.
OMG, just no. The Feb 2021 fiasco was traced to two specific natural gas compressors in West Texas. One in Crane County and one in Crockett County just outside of Ozona. The control systems and support piping were never winterized, ice clots formed inside the pipes and the compressors shut down. There's pictures of these ice clots. As the supply of natural gas began to taper off, the power gens started shutting down one by one. This caused the supply of electricity to drop off and there was too much load, and the grid became unstable. The Texas government knew in 2012 this problem existed and tried to pass legislation to force the oil companies to winterized their equipment, but it deemed "too expensive" Legislation was passed in 2022 but Abbot was shoewered with cash to weaken it. The problem has not been fixed.
NO the Governor of Texas ONLY has any authority AFTER the Emergency is Declared. The authority you should be looking at is the Texas Railroad Commission!
When I was in my 20's, I thought we should rise up and overthrow a corrupt oligarchy and teachers said you have to vote, improve the system from within rather than tearing it down. They were wrong, but I am realising this when I am 67.
To litigate in a corrupted system (ERCOT and Texas Gov't) will take time, but must be done. This doesn't change my 'no-confidence' vote for the Texas gov't.
I walk down P&IDS. I am out of Colorado and Wyoming. Having walked down sites in Texas (in winter) I fully believe it was a winterization issue. Zero surprise from me during Texas's small taste of winter.
Creating artificial scarcity would force prices higher, for sure. And when there's a winter storm, where people are expecting to need the power to stay alive, it's not only irresponsible to limit supply, it's negligent at best. I would want discovery to find out who made the decision and charge them with negligent homicide of however many people died because of this price-gouging scheme.
I would venture the price gouging negotiations introduced delays. If the fuel purchase agreements are normal, not only are they mostly automated and ramped up for peak demand built on extreme temperature (high and low) AHEAD OF TIME, but also come with clauses as condition to approve vendors to not 'fix' or change prices just before these peak need periods. But if multiple cronies are negotiating their corrupt cuts and focus on that despite the advance weather warnings, they aren't focused on delivery in time for the storms or heat spells. If Abbott was a law abiding citizen, he wouldn't be protecting an openly corrupt AG. Merrick Garland won't go after Abbott because Abbott loves Netanyahu.
I don’t know if it was an inside job or not, but I am in an electric co-op, and I have had an electric bill as high as 900, and not less than 350 since then. And my co-op had to file bankruptcy for BILLIONS because of this.
Allegation? they were openly talking about it as it happened, it was on the news, prices skyrocketed and the gas companies made bank then permanently raised prices.
Greed, these people dont care what happens you. Your food, your homes your energy. THEY CARE NOTHING FOR YOU! THEY WANT MONEY. MONEY THEY USE TO LIVE ABOVE YOU. MONEY AND POWER ARE THEIR ONLY GOAL AND YOU AND YOURS, ARE JUST IN THE WAY. YOUR LIVES DONT MATTER WHEN IT COMES TO THEM AND THEIR MONEY. SICKENING.
Negligence of the possible outcomes of this predatory capitalism is criminal. If citizens united made corporations people, they should do the time just like a real person.
@@jbkibs We never had the shenanigans with excel energy in Minnesota, like the problems the power company in Texas frequently has. Would you consider that luck? Look at how the coal company greased the Governor of West Virginia. Several Governors. Republicans are in the pockets of the big oil, coal, and power companies like so many nickels and dimes.
Well this explanation certainly makes more sense than "oops our normally stable grid failed - guess we forgot to winter prep". This life long Texas resident is fed up with Abott, his cronies and all the back room deals! ENOUGH
@YourAlcoholicUncle 42 degrees during the day and 32 at night. No electricity, no gas, everything spoiled in the freezer, wife got frostbite. No fireplace because it’s gas which wasn’t available. Couldn’t flush because we’re on a septic tank and heads were frozen. My Mother got pneumonia.
People before profits. This needs to be in a harsh spotlight across the country and Texas needs to recognize it is part of America and support federal authority more.
I TOLD EVERYBODY THAT WAS PLANNED... SAME THING WITH THIS GEOENGINEERING WEATHER IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND THE PORT STRIKES.. EVERYTHING IS BEING DONE ON PURPOSE
Most likely, because we have a lot of bad eggs in society in this world, that have money and are in high positions of power and authority that they either don't deserve or didn't earn the hard working or honest way and now all citizens are suffering financially, physically, or emotionally because of all the rot and greed alone in this country!
How the FARK did 247 people die when a winter storm rolled through the “most modern” country in the world? It was barely below freezing…how bad is the housing in TX?
@@midcenturymoldyYou know what DOES work without electricity? Generators. Many have them up here (for sump pumps). Texas, not so much. I mean, it's a place where e EVERYTHING shuts down for less than ¼" of frost!
@@MomMom4CubsSo, people up north start dropping like flies when the temperature get over 85 degrees and they don’t have an AC blowing right in their face AND directly on their ass! 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Unless Executives go to prison nothing will change
They wont... they will get fat checks and Tax breaks.
yeah, Individuals running companies need to face individual punishment when their companies commit crimes. Otherwise being caught and paying a fine is just a business expense, and all the crimes they don't get prosecuted for will easily make the occasional fine worthwhile. If the person in charge faces prison, that's a totally different calculation
Ex-e-cuted
then nothing will change. we already know
First those who performed and paid for The Gain of function tests on COVID must go to prison for 6.7 million deaths
I suspected this in 2021. As an electrician some of the claims they were making made no sense. Saying the electrical equipment could not handle the cold. Then jacking up the price by thousands of dollars per customer. Complete scam!
In all fairness an electrician is no more qualified to speak on matters of civil and petroleum engineering than a hairdresser is. I am an electrical engineer. I have no applied knowledge of the reliability of pneumatic valves at variable temperatures, atmospheric pressures, and dew points. My opinion would matter if the issue occurred at or downstream of the generator. That is not where the problem manifested.
I remember a blackout around NYC & NJ that was later discovered to have been greed. Not during a cold spell though. Seems like it was in the '90s.
@@zbubby1202the appeal to authority fallacy, often called the "expert fallacy" or appeal to exclusive expertise. In this case, someone might argue that you can't understand or criticize a particular idea or claim unless you're an expert in the field. This shuts down meaningful discussion and suggests that only those with specialized knowledge have the right to evaluate the claim.
While expertise can provide valuable insight, it doesn't mean non-experts are incapable of understanding or questioning certain aspects. Dismissing an argument simply because the other person lacks specific credentials is often a way to avoid engaging with the actual evidence or reasoning.
For example:
"You haven't studied economics, so you can't possibly understand why this policy will work."
This tactic assumes that specialized knowledge is a shield against scrutiny, which undermines healthy debate and critical thinking.
@@harmonizedigital. Great post. Cheers!
@@zbubby1202 sounds like you like to fluff your ego zombie
So: who will be prosecuted? What’s that? No one? Yep.
Haitian migrants
Abbott won't let his buddies get prosecuted. They all made a shitload of money together. Then, they did it again.
Capitalism, baby.
This is Texas, so Abbot and Paxton likely were in on it.
Welcome to capitalism!
Remember when Enron was telling its power producers in California to go offline for maintenance so that they could jack up the prices due to an engineered shortage -- seems the Texas energy companies remembered!
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Enron, Duke Energy and, and the Republican Bush Administration.
Fun fact- Ken DeLay started in Texas.
@@michellelove9838 Enron was based in Texas.
Edison did it too In California at the same time . Greedy trick and CORPORATE SOCIALISM
Texas residents have been paying a surcharge since 2011 after the LAST major snow storm… This fee is called an “Upgrade Fee”.
Every month, every resident, for 10 years…
Where did that money go????
Damn good question. But since EPOC is under the Texas Railroad Commission, there's absolutely no way to ever find out.
@@davidgoodnow269
Maybe deregulation of consumer protections… was a bad idea?
@@tetchuma Consumer protections in the States are State, not Federal.
Texas has not "deregulated" its consumer protection laws -- what few it ever had -- rather, the Texas Railroad Commission, responsible for all trade in all forms statewide, whether livestock or electricity, and also responsible for creating all regulations that cover all commerce of any kind whatsoever, does not answer to the Governor nor to the State Legislature; instead, it is self-regulating, independently elected by the public via rotating seats with one seat up for election every two years, and it is also held responsible by judges; however, because it is State-wide, any suit brought against it must be accepted by the Supreme Court of the State of Texas, and because it is exclusive to the State of Texas, the Texas Railroad Commission cannot be sued outside of Texas. So the Texas Supreme Court is the one Stop shop.
EDIT: Correction, since some legislated changes, sometimes there are two seats up for election, the added seats when the Commission went from three Seats to five.
Remember when they sold us on how "green" energy would be CHEAPER? TX is one of the largest producers of "green" energy, yet prices continue to go up. As a nation, we produce more green energy than ever before, yet energy prices are at 30+ year highs....We KNOW it's a scam!
Shareholders in Texas Natural Gas drillers, producers, and distributors. Anyone but ratepayers.
Greed-driven murder. Nothing new here.
On the part of the Pipeline Analytics Company which turns out to be .CirclesX LLC a SimpsX Technologies LLC / Texans Helping Texans . This appears to be a predatory l;aw firm that sues energy companies to generate $$$ for themselves.
And the "authorities" doing nothing - it's just business - _also_ nothing new...
Its "the American way"
@@ninehundreddollarluxuryyac5958 bs
it was murder.
People died, pets, livestock and wildlife. Along with price increases etc.
5 days without phones, power, and frozen pipes that busted. It was horrible
Republikkkns made lots of money, and increased prices!
Worse. My city didn't have clean drinking water for more than a week. (Water treatment plants require electricity to function!)
@@robd5254 I don't recall making any money.
@jeanniestegner9915 sorry your the donor to billionaires!
@robd5254 Right, your theory is everyone that votes republican is guilty?
So if they find Democrats guilty, we can charge everyone that voted democratic? Asinine !
This is what big companies do. Whenever there’s a crisis, they find a way to rip people off and blame it on the crisis.
Or they simply manufacture said “crisis” in order to price gouge…
That is what happen to the nation inflation. It was cause by greediflation
sometimes they even create the crisis so they can rip people off.
@@choccolocco let me get this straight, you believe that oil and gas workers whose families and homes are in the same areas they are supplying purposely put themselves, their families and their homes in harms way just to go home to tragedy, busted pipes, and caved in ceilings after working 24hrs a day for 7 days straight in the freezing cold. Makes perfect sense. We appreciate you recognizing our sacrifice though.
@@marlboroman71818
The “workers”? No. Use your brain ffs. You, if you are one of these “workers”, should know full well how greedy your employers are, and you should also know that they’ll do just about anything to make more profit.
Again, use your brain.
Wouldn’t surprise me. Remember Enron? Those assholes were laughing while people died. Until you start throwing these executives in jail for a long time, this kind of stuff will continue.
I'm an Australian engineer and you are not only 100% right but this same Enron scam is being played out across the world, but in a slightly different way over a much longer time period.
What Enron basically did was "trip" one of their power stations or one of the generators in one of their power stations and cause a shortfall in supply that would cause the spot market for energy to spike for a few hours. So it was very short term AND THEY GOT CAUGHT DOING IT.
What energy companies around the world have done is also create an energy shortfall but in a different way. Instead of turning of power stations they just didn't build any new ones to keep up with growth caused by population increase. It takes a couple of things to make happen.
- Privatise the energy market if it already isn't.
- Interfere with government energy policy via the consulting industry and think tanks. It doesn't matter what the policy is just make sure its impractical to build any new power stations.
- Make sure NO ENGINEERS speak to the media and explain anything. Instead make sure the people who are in the media are ECONOMIC EXPERTS from the think tanks you sponsor.
- Just wait and be patient for a few years while the population grows and consumes all of the available supply. Eventually that population growth will flip the energy supply markets from OVER capacity to UNDER capacity. The cost of energy production will remain static because you have locked in the long term fuel contracts and frozen wages. However the markets will fight over what's left and raise prices, which will steadily increase because population growth will drive demand higher and higher. That's basic Econ 101 - supply-demand economics.
YES it takes longer than the Enron Scam but its 100% legal and once you flip the market form over to under supply the profit margins climb and climb and climb.
And if you want to know more about this. This is just one of the things I will be discussing on the Steve Keen & Friends podcast this weekend that you can watch for free here on UA-cam.
Just like Big Pharma
Enron execs did go to prison. Skilling served 12 years. Others served 5 years. Makes no difference.
Um, there is no "time line" on bringing charges for murder!
When it’s a corporation there is no charges for murder
@@tvviewer4500 Corporations are not autonomous entities, they are run by people. Those people should be held accountable.
@@seanrhone5306 I disagree as to its nomous status. You should be held accountable for failing to hold those people accountable already. Why are we even having this discussion now instead of decades ago? Why are you dragging your feet?
We exposed the incompetence of a city engineer after they allowed a public hazard that landed us in the hospital.
The city asked that we don't talk about it and the electrician tells me it's because we made someone more important than us look bad.
How!? By doing or jobs?
What is this apprenticeship trying to teach me!?
What have I dedicated my life to!?
Exposing bs we can't fix!?
The electrician tells me if we grabbed that ground with our left hands we would of been electrocuted through the heart and they would of covered up why.
Infuriates me to this day knowing what it's like to survive that kind of power flow through you.
I've been wondering if it was intentional that they simply wanted to eliminate who could do the jobs...
"We made some one important look bad'.
What a bs excuse I learned from the countries top electrical apprenticeship program.
@hattielankford4775 so they just will leave the country?
Enron did this to California.
Enron helped design the Texas electricity market rules and structure.
I remember when
With assistance from President Bush & team.
There's three main sections of the natoinal grid. Texas disconnected from the main US grid because they did not want federal regulations.
You are the modern face of the Dunning Kruger effect
So someone is going to jail for manslaughter right or because the companies are rich they just get to pay money.
It would be higher than manslaughter
Speaking the truth.
That's the funny thing about capitalism. It values business more than people. It's okay if people die as long as the money still flows. Somehow, most Americans think this is OK🤷♂️
They will say it’s the cost of doing business
Exactly, if they are going to treat business as people in every other aspect, they should do they same when it comes to the consequences. All too often they get a slap on the wrist and a fine that we the consumers end up paying for in the end anyways, and the company is then all clear to continue on doing the same thing over and over again. It has to stop, they need to be held accountable!
We watched the companies prepare and winterize several months before this happened....it was premeditated.
Yay capitalism, right? Somebody made a lot of money, and those who passed were commies.
No, they did not prepare and the problem is not fixed.
Just like Biden said there is no aid coming to the hurricane victims and it was "pre-planned". Now we find out all those billions of tax dollars and electrical transformers went to everyone but US citizens and FEMA is broke as another hurricane is forming.
@@Artcurus But ever since 2011 Texas residence have been paying an 'upgrade fee' supercharge, where has the money gone if it hasn't been for upgrading the power grid?
Something was very suspicious about this outage.
Prison time for all involved
That is pure evil.
Pure conservative
@olorin1710 And people like you are why nothing will ever change 🤦🏿♂️
@@sourdiesel2314 conservatives prevent change. 🤣 do better
Pure Texas.
@@olorin1710Wrong, corrupt liberals tear down border walls, bankrupt small businesses, preach and criticize the rest of us about the environment even though they fly around in their private jets, take the credit for what conservatives say and do, have no legit or even decent policies about how to fix anything in this country! So try again liberal lunatic, nothing you said in your statement or argument makes any sense!🤣
Excellent investigative work and thanks for reporting to public. Don’t trust private business and neither Abbott. Greed and still gouging Texans
Is there any investigative reporting, though? They're just discussing and reporting on the allegations in a lawsuit. That's a matter of public record, and I don't see that the reporters did any deep digging to uncover facts beyond the claims in the lawsuit. Of course you shouldn't trust people who are enriched when they can pick your pocket and get away with it, but that doesn't make the claims here the result of "investigative work".
Your support for illegal immigration is duly noted! Go back to New York!
How is Abbot at fault?
Legislation was passed in 2022 to address the original problem. The oil company showered Abbot with cash to weaken ir.
@@waskerbasket9601follow the money.
This will all end up costing taxpayers millions in legal fees while the energy companies cry, “oopsie” and get themselves a meaningless oopsie fine.
_get themselves a meaningless Oopsie fine._
And give their CEOs huge bonuses for having to sit through phony interrogations with prosecutors, with both parties knowing that nobody will be brought to justice.
Trump's Project 2025 is poised to make this corruption orders of magnitude worse, so buckle up, MAGA, and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
“Oopsie fine”. My new favorite descriptive phrase.
@YourAlcoholicUncle explain
@YourAlcoholicUncleSo you think federal aid should only go to states that vote the way you like? How maga of you.
Texas has its own state run electrical grid run by ERCOT and is not linked in with the national grid like every other mainland state.
How can we follow this case? Or will this be the last we hear about it? The question at this point is what was done to mitigate the root cause and prevent this from happening in the future. If nothing measurable was done and ercot says that this won't happen again, someone needs to pay for what was done.
Okay, people died but the important thing to remember is rich people got "a little" richer in the process.
That's all that really matters.
(Sarcasm)
The American Way
paranoid conspiracy theory 🤡🤡🤡
Even if the allegations in the lawsuit are eventually proven not 'true', the court MUST let this proceed just for the CRITCAL IMPORTANCE of presenting fact and truth about that entire horrible debacle ....and then Texas can move on.
They DIED. We all almost LITERALLY DIED. I lived like this for 7 DAYS. FREEZING TO DEATH.
I hear they only shut off the democrat neighborhoods.
@@smokingjoe9864 I lived in college station, Texas during this time.
@@smokingjoe9864 I don’t know how much more republican you can get.
I almost died. It was 23° in my house, ice on the floors, my dish soap froze. There was nothing rolling about those blackouts! My neighborhood would get power for EXACTLY thirty minutes a day, but which 30 minutes was anyone’s guess. I will never forget or forgive.
Sorry to hear that. I felt so bad when I heard when it was happening. I started getting ready in case that happens in Bay Area.
It’s too late for what? Is there a statute of limitations on murder??
They were saying way back when it happened that it was deliberate negligence. The allegations were that the electric companies deliberately did not do maintenance in order to save money.
Like Maui, right?
This sounds like a repeat of Enron
I'm an Australian engineer and you are not only 100% right but this same Enron scam is being played out across the world, but in a slightly different way over a much longer time period.
What Enron basically did was "trip" one of their power stations or one of the generators in one of their power stations and cause a shortfall in supply that would cause the spot market for energy to spike for a few hours. So it was very short term AND THEY GOT CAUGHT DOING IT.
What energy companies around the world have done is also create an energy shortfall but in a different way. Instead of turning of power stations they just didn't build any new ones to keep up with growth caused by population increase. It takes a couple of things to make happen.
- Privatise the energy market if it already isn't.
- Interfere with government energy policy via the consulting industry and think tanks. It doesn't matter what the policy is just make sure its impractical to build any new power stations.
- Make sure NO ENGINEERS speak to the media and explain anything. Instead make sure the people who are in the media are ECONOMIC EXPERTS from the think tanks you sponsor.
- Just wait and be patient for a few years while the population grows and consumes all of the available supply. Eventually that population growth will flip the energy supply markets from OVER capacity to UNDER capacity. The cost of energy production will remain static because you have locked in the long term fuel contracts and frozen wages. However the markets will fight over what's left and raise prices, which will steadily increase because population growth will drive demand higher and higher. That's basic Econ 101 - supply-demand economics.
YES it takes longer than the Enron Scam but its 100% legal and once you flip the market form over to under supply the profit margins climb and climb and climb.
And if you want to know more about this. This is just one of the things I will be discussing on the Steve Keen & Friends podcast this weekend that you can watch for free here on UA-cam.
Yep, not necessarily preplanned but when the power companies started shedding load, the first loads shed were to the gas processing plants and oil fields in West Texas. They shut off their own fuel supply. The "Grid" was fine. The problem was with the electric power generators.
No the gas lines froze.
@@Artcurus Very few did. I work for a pipeline company. We receive the bulk of our gas from gas processing plants. Their power was shut off and we lost our supply. We had to depend on what we had in storage.
@paulkurilecz4209 Read my former post more carefully. Oilfield blogs were talking about the ice clots. Parts of West Texas did not lose power, ironically parts of the city of Crane didn't. The first load sheds were heavy industrial, though by Feb 14, most had already shut down. It makes no sense for Oilfield infrastructure for load shedding when, in this case, it was vital to keep things going. They would been prioritized. Around 2am, on Feb 14, too many power gens had tripped offline because of lack of fuel. The load quickly outstripped the available supply, causing the grid to get dangerously unstable. Everything on the grid depends on a resonate frequency, EVERYTHING, and that frequency cannot vary by as little as 1%. If it does, very bad things happen, like pole transformers catching fire. Residential load shedding began at 3am on Feb 14. and was done to protect the grid.
@@paulkurilecz4209 The power gens were not fine. Read my other post more carefully. You could observe in real time what was happening as the power gens started shutting down because of lack of fuel, and the avilable supply dropped. The demand outstripped the supply and caused the grid to become unstable. The grid runs on a resonate frequency, that frequency cannot vary by more than 1% or very bad things happen. The recovery would taken months and ERCOT had to do what they do had to to stop that happening. By Feb 14, most major industries had already shut down voluntarily. Oil field equipment such those compressors would not have been included because they are major infrastructure. The exception would have been pumpjacks. On Feb 14, by 2am, the supply of electricity reached critical levels, residential load shedding began at 3am.
@@paulkurilecz4209 sounds like people pushing for green energy were the problem then... shutting off the power to the gas power plants. Ercot to blame then?
Vulture Capitalism in the energy industry
Texas doesn’t have capitalism governing the electric grid sector. There’s a monopoly. Corporate communist I would call it!
Well, a lot of it had to do with green energy politics. Who does that? The state energy commissions made policies restricting nat. gas and oil, and unrealistically increasing wind and solar required sources. When a real TX winter hit, wind and solar couldn't provide what was needed. Politics at its finest.
@@betsybarnicle8016 Not true. Despite the Governor not ordering antifreeze for the blades on the turbines and blaming wind and solar they outperformed natural gas during the 21 storm. Bottom line is oil and natural gas write the laws in the state of Texas. So they wrote no penalty but instead rewards for losing power where they get paid more. They created every incentive for power failure. And Jerry Jones was caught toasting to the profit while Ted Cruz fled to Cancún and Texans froze to death.
Be fair communist
Your butthead unions tried to hold the country hostage. They will be replaced w robots hooefully
It would have been a lot less bad had the governor not sued the EPA to stop them from forcing the winterization of the gas fired power plants.
Similar to the Enron artificial electricity shortages in Cali
This is what happens when utility companies aren't regulated by the federal government. People pay the price with their lives. Those who survive pay dearly out of pocket.
The federal govt has a more abysmal track record. They aren’t protecting your safety or interests any better.
FERC is no savior. It just means that the federal government can send your power to another state when their need is deemed more important than your own. A big issue is the regulators lived out of state.
You want real reform than put in a law stating that that all senior executives can be held criminally liable for negligent homocide. Funny how businesses reform when people can go to jail.
People killing deregulation
Not people..Republucans
@@ukestudio3002 my comment was a play on the Republican trope "job killing regulations".
When are you people going to learn how to vote in your own interests.
😂😂😂😂 everything is bigger in Texas; including the stupidity!!!!
So you’re maga? I mean, trump was YOUR president for four years, why would you vote against your own interests like that? Kick rocks.
@@surewhatever8843elaborate.
The political reality is voter suppression and rampant gerrymandering. We show up every election and vote against these crooks, but they make it harder for folks to vote every election, and they have been purging thousands of eligible voters in the last 8 years. There are more progressive folks here than radlibs in cushy blue states throwing peanuts from the gallery pontificate about. Classism at it's finest.
When people stop thinking "it could never happen to me" because then they get obsessed with "getting theirs" instead of safety
No kidding! I’m glad someone has the receipts. The people in charge at that time need to be held responsible
This is why some stuff shouldn't be privatized.
Nonsense. Govt does no better.
Energy would be more expensive if the government regulated it
@@kiddaddbuddy the energy sector is massively regulated. If you meant government provided that’s a different argument. But energy is highly regulated even in TX.
Ted Cruz will get to the bottom of this as soon as he gets back from Cancun.
@@midcenturymoldyHaha 😂I
@midcenturymoldy I remember him throwing his daughters under the bus when confronted about that trip. If my memory serves correctly, didn't he leave their family dog home alone in the house to possibly perrish in the cold?
You mean Texans can't go on vacations? You think Cruz could magically thaw out Texas? Thousands of Texans were on vacation during the big freeze. So it's their fault as well huh😐
@@ThaddMitchell2112 He blamed everyone including his wife. I thought Texans didn’t take this type of crap.
I am voting him out on election day.🌊🌊
Republicans privatized our electric grid in 1994. Preventive maintenance was ignored as was weatherization. (You've got to think of the shareholders, first - _not consumers_ ... 🥀
Democrats think "The State" should own and control everything, just like in Russia!
Yet they charged a maintenance fee on all our bills. Where did that money go exactly since clearly it didn’t go to maintenance?
Privatized? Surely you’re joking. Govt delivered it to select corporations. There’s no widely free market. Oligarchy kills.
@@michaelrains64295
What do you think “privatized” means?
It wasn't privatized, it was "deregulated" . Before every electric provider only provided electricity to its local area. The regulation that you say is "privitaziation" Is Deregulation, It allowed customers to contract outside the local electric district to find lower rates, but also at the same time allowed energy generation companies to have 85% of the state to sell electricity to.
In 1994, Texas' electric grid was still operating under a system where power was generated and consumed locally by the same utility. The state's electricity market was deregulated in two phases, with the wholesale generation market deregulated in 1995 and the rest of the sector deregulated in 1999.
Here are some details about Texas' electric grid in 1994 and after:
Deregulation
The deregulation of the electricity market replaced the local system with one where retail providers contract with generators across the state. This allowed 85% of Texas power consumers to choose their electricity service from a variety of retail electric providers.
Power grid independence
Texas is the only state in the contiguous United States with its own power grid. Texas power companies chose to keep their operations within the state's borders to avoid federal regulation.
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)
ERCOT manages the Texas Interconnection, where power generators participate in an energy-only electricity market.
I bet during the freeze, all the Texas Energy executives were down in Cancun throwing a party, which is why Cruz was so hot to go there.
Governor G. Abbot has prepared special court system for protecting "BIG Business" here in Texas.. are kickbacks $$$ involved?
Follow the money. Who do you think are among his largest donors? Energy companies.
Abbot is a fair guy and texas loves him
Stay red
@@markyperalez I'm a fifth generation Texan pardner. Speak for yourself, and vote against your own interests, but don't be surprised when this racist, xenophobic regime lets more Texans freeze their homes, or starts deporting citizens and permanent residents with surnames that aren't yt enough to pad those deportation & detention
numbers for the MAGAt voter demographic.
If texas rangers aren't rounding up some folks, you all done lost your balls.
Didn’t do anything at Uvalde why would they now?
All those politicians there in Texas were saying it was because of the windmills......
A huge increase in cancers? The world renowned oncologist and expert on windmills Dr. Biggly Trump has been pointing this out for years!
I’m not sure if you live here or not. Or how old you are. I’m 57 and have lived here my whole life. When I was a kid, we had would have very cold February’s every so many years. We never had black outs. This started when Obama passed restrictions on coal plants that forced them out of business. Now, Texas is down 6 or more coal plants that have been replaced with solar and windmills. Solar and windmills do not work well in cold weather. When you loose close to 30% of your power generation, well, people go without power. This is going to get worse before it gets better. Prepare accordingly.
@Huntinghogs I work alot in TX...alot and a big part of that debacle how to deal with the natural gas freezing up not the solar Farms
@@seanmatal2383 didn’t say that didn’t contribute. But when you lose 6+ coal fired plants, that’s going an have an impact. Like I said, we didn’t have this problem when I was younger.
@Huntinghogs I see that... you live in TX? I am taking it?
Public utilities should belong to the public.
Most electric companies were public, built with public funds until politicians in the 1960's were bribed to "privatise utilities to save customers money" and our powerplants were sold to rich guys for pennies on the dollar. Power has become more expensive every year since our corrupt politicians sold us out.
This is what happens with loose regulation, the customer gets screwed , companies get rich , politicians get campaign contributions.
Deregulation is the ultimate goal for republicans because they are loyal to corporations. It started with Ronald Reagan and it’s only gotten worse.
I would say it's exactly the opposite, far too much regulation.
And workers licensed and apprentices in training get killed or even survive and live to speak up about it.
@@jamisonmunn9215 Yes dummy you would!
A freer market would allow for more options and competition that drives better safety and efficacy outcomes.
There are three separate electric grids in America. The Eastern grid, Western grid and the Texas grid. Texas has their own grid because energy companies didn't want to follow all the regulations designed to encourage reliability that the two other girds were "unnecessarily burdened with".
Found this channel (local to me) because of this video. Thank you for your awesome, important work.
The whole system is rigged
Yep… and those of us who aren’t living paycheck-to-paycheck and can afford to protest get thrown in jail and/or beat up by the police at said protests. The deck is stacked against us. Always has been-always will be.
If it were you'd have never heard about it.
This was done in California years ago... And we allowed it to repeat itself. And then the State of Texas, pays the bad guys rather than let them go bankrupt or be hurt financially.
OMG, just no. The Feb 2021 fiasco was traced to two specific natural gas compressors in West Texas. One in Crane County and one in Crockett County just outside of Ozona. The control systems and support piping were never winterized, ice clots formed inside the pipes and the compressors shut down. There's pictures of these ice clots. As the supply of natural gas began to taper off, the power gens started shutting down one by one. This caused the supply of electricity to drop off and there was too much load, and the grid became unstable. The Texas government knew in 2012 this problem existed and tried to pass legislation to force the oil companies to winterized their equipment, but it deemed "too expensive" Legislation was passed in 2022 but Abbot was shoewered with cash to weaken it. The problem has not been fixed.
They really have it in for Texas
Put the blame where it belongs... The governor
💯
NO the Governor of Texas ONLY has any authority AFTER the Emergency is Declared. The authority you should be looking at is the Texas Railroad Commission!
When I was in my 20's, I thought we should rise up and overthrow a corrupt oligarchy and teachers said you have to vote, improve the system from within rather than tearing it down. They were wrong, but I am realising this when I am 67.
Corporate greed and its finest, we are in America.
The ERCOT board should’ve been in a lawsuit long ago!!! They just resigned and bailed on Texas just like Cruz!
If that is true, they should bankrupt them damn companies for doing price bidding, and bid rigging
so was Helene.
Red state values! 🟥
Yep, profits before people
Democrats have no room to talk look at California 😂
I dunno, my red state's oil men have no problem operating through actual winters. Texas only received a small taste of winter.
The only thing he didn't mention was Gov Abbotts payday. They donated money to him and his campaign and found a scapegoat that they paid.
Enron* 2.0??
Well then that’s called murder and should be handled accordingly.
wow - can I sue them for my $800 electric bill??
Same!!!!
To litigate in a corrupted system (ERCOT and Texas Gov't) will take time, but must be done. This doesn't change my 'no-confidence' vote for the Texas gov't.
I walk down P&IDS. I am out of Colorado and Wyoming. Having walked down sites in Texas (in winter) I fully believe it was a winterization issue. Zero surprise from me during Texas's small taste of winter.
Appalling and unacceptable
Creating artificial scarcity would force prices higher, for sure. And when there's a winter storm, where people are expecting to need the power to stay alive, it's not only irresponsible to limit supply, it's negligent at best. I would want discovery to find out who made the decision and charge them with negligent homicide of however many people died because of this price-gouging scheme.
I would venture the price gouging negotiations introduced delays. If the fuel purchase agreements are normal, not only are they mostly automated and ramped up for peak demand built on extreme temperature (high and low) AHEAD OF TIME, but also come with clauses as condition to approve vendors to not 'fix' or change prices just before these peak need periods.
But if multiple cronies are negotiating their corrupt cuts and focus on that despite the advance weather warnings, they aren't focused on delivery in time for the storms or heat spells.
If Abbott was a law abiding citizen, he wouldn't be protecting an openly corrupt AG.
Merrick Garland won't go after Abbott because Abbott loves Netanyahu.
I don’t know if it was an inside job or not, but I am in an electric co-op, and I have had an electric bill as high as 900, and not less than 350 since then. And my co-op had to file bankruptcy for BILLIONS because of this.
Allegation? they were openly talking about it as it happened, it was on the news, prices skyrocketed and the gas companies made bank then permanently raised prices.
Greed, these people dont care what happens you. Your food, your homes your energy. THEY CARE NOTHING FOR YOU! THEY WANT MONEY. MONEY THEY USE TO LIVE ABOVE YOU. MONEY AND POWER ARE THEIR ONLY GOAL AND YOU AND YOURS, ARE JUST IN THE WAY. YOUR LIVES DONT MATTER WHEN IT COMES TO THEM AND THEIR MONEY. SICKENING.
Greedy private utility and oil companies.
Wonder how much Abbott made off it?
Enough to upgrade to all terrain wheels…
Capitalism functioning as intended.
Exactly
The alternatives are all 500% worse. Look at north korea
Its not capitalism when theres only 1 natural gas company in the market
But this isn’t capitalism
That's just disgusting!
Evil
Somehow I am not shocked and I suspect that Abbott knew about it and made money off of it.
I'm starting to not like some of these monopolies
Negligence of the possible outcomes of this predatory capitalism is criminal. If citizens united made corporations people, they should do the time just like a real person.
And where was ted cruz when all this was happening?
If this story true. All should be charged with treason as domestic enemies mentioned in the US Constitution.
So you don't know the definition of Treason in the Constitution then.
Huge surprise, and why wouldn’t they? They get away with everything.
If found guilty, there will be a small fine. They were only human lives, afterall.
They dont get away with that in Walz State.
Any company who is a monopoly can get away with that in any state...
@@jbkibs We never had the shenanigans with excel energy in Minnesota, like the problems the power company in Texas frequently has. Would you consider that luck? Look at how the coal company greased the Governor of West Virginia. Several Governors. Republicans are in the pockets of the big oil, coal, and power companies like so many nickels and dimes.
Sounds like Enron all over again.
Well this explanation certainly makes more sense than "oops our normally stable grid failed - guess we forgot to winter prep".
This life long Texas resident is fed up with Abott, his cronies and all the back room deals! ENOUGH
Yikes!!! There's corporate greed, and then there's what's either deliberate negligence or malice.
We all kind of expected this so please prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. 👍👍👍👍🇺🇸
Those windmills didn’t freeze up. They were turned off by the governor
That’s a load of bull. Just because you don’t like Abbott doesn’t make that true. I live in Dallas and we suffered for 3 days, but we survived.
@YourAlcoholicUncle 42 degrees during the day and 32 at night. No electricity, no gas, everything spoiled in the freezer, wife got frostbite. No fireplace because it’s gas which wasn’t available. Couldn’t flush because we’re on a septic tank and heads were frozen. My Mother got pneumonia.
Please interview the Governor about this.
So what was Abbot's et al cut?
A free to commit crimes AG.
All owners, board members, and those with knowledge of this need to go to prison.
They know they acknowledge and nothing happens thats justice in Texas.
People before profits. This needs to be in a harsh spotlight across the country and Texas needs to recognize it is part of America and support federal authority more.
Republican love for the masses.
Leave it to a supporter of illegal immigration to blame Republicans!
Yeah.. Like when Democrats did that with Enron in California?
Money grab, just like when gas prices doubled towards the end of George W’s presidency
I TOLD EVERYBODY THAT WAS PLANNED... SAME THING WITH THIS GEOENGINEERING WEATHER IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND THE PORT STRIKES.. EVERYTHING IS BEING DONE ON PURPOSE
Indeed!
🎯🎯🎯
Most likely, because we have a lot of bad eggs in society in this world, that have money and are in high positions of power and authority that they either don't deserve or didn't earn the hard working or honest way and now all citizens are suffering financially, physically, or emotionally because of all the rot and greed alone in this country!
You get what you vote for.
“Less government oversight” is the problem in this case.
Now do the pharmaceutical companies…
They need to be prosecuted ASAP!!!! innocent people died all bc yall wanted to shut off the gas and sell it is crazy
😮Greed is actually NOT good for anyone
How the FARK did 247 people die when a winter storm rolled through the “most modern” country in the world? It was barely below freezing…how bad is the housing in TX?
Barely below freezing??? I think you have no idea how cold it was. It was -10 where i lived. And most of Texas was like that.
But also, the housing is not built like it is up North. Less insulated, fewer firelAlso, I think quite a few homeless die.
There was no electricity. Furnaces, even gas ones, don't work without electricity.
@@midcenturymoldyYou know what DOES work without electricity?
Generators. Many have them up here (for sump pumps). Texas, not so much.
I mean, it's a place where e
EVERYTHING shuts down for less than ¼" of frost!
@@MomMom4CubsSo, people up north start dropping like flies when the temperature get over 85 degrees and they don’t have an AC blowing right in their face AND directly on their ass! 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Bring them to the courts! Where is the Texas Attorney General? What job is he/she doing?
PRISON