Ex-ERCOT chief says he was following Abbott's direction when they ran up billions in bills during...

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Julie Oliver
@JulieOliverTX
Hundreds of Texans died and millions were left in the dark when our grid failed after decades of extreme deregulation and crony capitalism.

We know now that Greg Abbott personally directed ERCOT to jack up prices -- billions that we now have to pay for.

houstonchronicle.com
Ex-ERCOT chief says he was following Abbott's direction when they ran up billions in bills during...
The former head of the Texas power grid testified in court Wednesday that when he ordered...
11:07 AM · Feb 23, 2022

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/ercot-chief-abbott-direction-power-outage-storm-16941019.php

No paywall
https://archive.fo/MlBNX

The former head of the Texas power grid testified in court Wednesday that when he ordered power prices to stay at the maximum price cap for days on end during last year’s frigid winter storm and blackout, running up billions of dollars in bills for power companies, he was following the direction of Governor Greg Abbott.

Bill Magness, the former CEO of the Electric Reliabilty Council of Texas, said even as power plants were starting come back online former Public Utility Commission Chairman DeAnn Walker had told him that Abbott wanted them to do whatever necessary to prevent further rotating blackouts that left millions of Texans without power.

“She told me the governor had conveyed to her if we emerged from rotating outages it was imperative they not resume,” Magness testified. “We needed to do what we needed to do to make it happen.”

Abbott's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last year the governor's spokesman, Mark Miner said the governor was not “involved in any way” in the decision to keep prices at the maximum of $9,000 per megawatt hour – more than 150 times normal prices. He described a decision to send an aide to ERCOT's operations center in the middle of the crisis as based on the feeling the grid operator was spewing “disinformation."

*snip*

[Maraya1969]

1. People should take the money they would pay these electric companies and buy solar. Fuck them all.

[Cobalt Violet]

2. They're really going to keep electing him?

[Wednesdays]

7. Of course they are

'Cause he's not...you know, a liberal.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Texas consumers are paying the Abbottax

My natural gas and electricity bills were about $50 higher each month due to Abbott

[blm]

4. This testimony is THE campaign ad to take Abbott out.

Who hates themself and their family so much to ever vote for Abbott again?

[SKKY]

5. Beto can do something with this...

...hopefully his campaign won't fuck it up.

[dalton99a]

6. Kick

[DENVERPOPS]

8. Xcel energy

found a way, following Texas' gouging of customers to clip us customers here in Colorado, blaming it on the same Pure Bullshit as Texas' pulled on their customers..........

The PUC here in Colorado, the government organization that exists to protect the people in Colorado from the Monopoly that the Utility companies have over us, now merely Rubber Stamps any and all rate increases that come across their desks. (Xcel just handed us a 50+% rate increase in Natural Gas last week........)

Bend Over America and Katie Bar The Door........

Welcome to the New: Fascist Corporations of America..........

Someone recently said we should boycott some individual corporation to protest something they did.
I always laugh at that, and think: If you boycotted each corporation that was f***ing us over, you wouldn't be able to purchase anything, anywhere in the U.S.........

All the corporations are massively increasing prices, and dropping it all through to their bottom lines in excessive record profits, and the Republicans are continuously spouting bullshit about the resulting inflation, blaming it entirely on the Biden administration..............

WASF