The Blog

2022-

2022-02-28 c
WORTHLESS POLITICIANS III

Gov Abbott Ordered Price Gouge During Outages: Former Texas Energy Chief

Texas Governor Greg Abbott allegedly pushed to charge residents sky-high energy prices amid the winter storm that paralyzed the state and caused mass blackouts last year, according to court testimony from the former head of his state's power grid.

Former Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) CEO Bill Magness testified in court on Wednesday about the Republican governor's alleged role in allowing power prices to reach and remain at a maximum cap of $9,000 per megawatt hour, or 150 times the normal rate, according to the Houston Chronicle. More than 4.5 million Texans lost power during the February 2021 crisis, contributing to the deaths of at least 246 people.

Magness maintained that he was left with no choice but to go along with the rate increase, racking up huge profits for energy companies in the process, after Abbott allegedly told former Public Utility Commission (PUC) Chair DeAnn Walker to do anything it took to prevent more blackouts. The PUC ordered the maximum price on February 15 as part of the anti-blackout effort, with prices remaining at the cap until February 19.

"[Walker] told me the governor had conveyed to her if we emerged from rotating outages it was imperative they not resume," Magness reportedly said during his testimony. "We needed to do what we needed to do to make it happen." (read more)

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