Article: Foreign national paid for private planes that took runaway Texas Democrats to Washington

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Foreign national paid for private planes that took runaway Texas Democrats to Washington

WorldTribune, 14 July 2021

Election integrity would seem to be a bi-partisan joke. Even in Texas.

“If they (Democrats) felt like walking out was representing their districts, I was not going to force them to vote on a piece of legislation that was offensive to their district.”

That’s how freshman Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan responded to questions surrounding the Texas Democrats’ latest attempt to delay passage of a voter integrity bill by flying to Washington D.C., the Corpus Christi Caller Times reports. Continue reading “Article: Foreign national paid for private planes that took runaway Texas Democrats to Washington”

Article: ERCOT Calls On Texans To Conserve Power Amid High Summer Demand, Forced Outages

Article - Media

ERCOT Calls On Texans To Conserve Power Amid High Summer Demand, Forced Outages

Mose Buchele, 14 June 2021

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has asked people to conserve energy throughout the week as the supply of electricity on the Texas grid runs the risk of falling short of demand.

Texans should reduce their electricity use through Friday, ERCOT said.

It is the second time the state’s grid operator has made such a request since devastating blackouts gripped Texas in February. Continue reading “Article: ERCOT Calls On Texans To Conserve Power Amid High Summer Demand, Forced Outages”

Article: Hartford Cuts $650M Deal To End Boy Scouts Abuse Claims

Article - Media, Publications

Hartford Cuts $650M Deal To End Boy Scouts Abuse Claims

Dorothy Atkins, 16 April 2021

Hartford Financial Services Group announced Friday that the insurance company has agreed to pay $650 million to resolve sexual abuse claims in Delaware bankruptcy court related to the Boy Scouts of America scandal.

Under the deal, which is subject to a bankruptcy judge’s approval, the Connecticut-based insurance company will make the payment to the Boy Scouts of America and its local councils in exchange for releasing it of any obligation under the insurance policies, most of which were issued in the 1970s, according to the company. Continue reading “Article: Hartford Cuts $650M Deal To End Boy Scouts Abuse Claims”

Article: Lessons from the Texas big freeze

Article - Media, Publications

Lessons from the Texas big freeze

Carl Pope, 24 March 2021

The Texas power market caps wholesale prices at an astonishingly high $9,000 per/mwh. When the crisis hit, the computers managing the market price crashed. Regulators then arbitrarily set prices at the peak rate, and left them there for four days, knowing that generators could not provide more power because their facilities were frozen. During the freeze, household daily utility bills of $2,500 and more were incurred by homeowners who had signed up for variable plans, even when for most of the four days they had no power. The City of Denton incurred $300 million in power bills in a week, $2,000 for each of its 15,000 residents.

The power companies maximised their profit from those units that were up and running. By the third week in February, it appeared all the energy companies serving the Texas market had made as much money in 2021 as they had in the previous three years.

“We were able to get super premium prices, that’s going to pay off handsomely like hitting the jackpot,” said Chief Financial Officer Roland Burns of Comstock Resources, a leading Texan energy producer. He later apologised when his remarks hit the headlines. Continue reading “Article: Lessons from the Texas big freeze”

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