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They all used to be. Then Reagan and Clinton happened.

Yep. Essential services should not be for profit.

Worth noting this ruling is explicitly based on statewide legislation, meaning this could be changed at any time, if the legislature cared at all.

You really do get exactly what you vote for.

There's also a lot of voter suppression and gerrymandering.

This was the second time it happened too. It happened ten years prior as I recall. So they did nothing then. Did nothing later. No responsibility for anything later. Fuck Texas.

Conservatives will gleefully watch your family die for fun or profit.

From their beach cabana in Cancun, no less.

Incapable of truth, too. As a lawyer, I will not take them on as clients. They lie constantly to justify their emotions. That's really it.

They can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until we are dead.

Health Insurance companies don't have to provide payment for health services you pay them to cover.

Yeah ... SCOTUS.

If there are no people, there is no company. If there are no companies, people will survive.

That takes care of whatever stupidity SCOTUS was thinking when they made companies and people equal.

As one of those people who is stuck in the system I can’t correct: I agree.

I had to shit in grocery bags for a week because my toilet was frozen solid. But the blame only partly lies on the power companies. The vast majority of the blame lies on the regulatory agency who had the opportunity to require winterized gear for power plants… And repeatedly refused to do so.

Companies will always choose the cheapest option for whatever market they’re in. And winterizing all your gear is expensive when compared to… Well… Not. Could they have taken the initiative and winterized anyways? Absolutely. But if there’s one thing humans are generally really really bad at, it’s emergency preparedness. Because nobody wants to spend a ton of money building an earthquake-resistant home until after they experience their first earthquake. But that’s why building codes exist, to ensure everyone is forced to build to a minimum safe standard. To use this same metaphor, the building codes didn’t require winterized gear, so the companies didn’t build winterized gear. The fault primarily lies with the people who wrote the building codes, while knowing full well that the area could and would experience winter weather.

ERCOT is the regulatory agency that set those standards, and ERCOT is the agency that refused to require winterized gear. It wouldn’t be fair to penalize the power companies for failing to provide power, when ERCOT should have ensured their facilities were adequately prepared. It would also set a weird precedent to require companies to provide something in a disaster. Yes, they’re utility companies, and are subject to more regulation than most. But does this also mean they could be penalized for downed power lines during a tornado, or for blown transformers during a hurricane flood in Houston?

Absolutely. Protecting profits and shareholders is priority #1.

GOP: "Cry more, peasants."

A recent study showed that Texans have the least personal freedom of any state

But don't do this by installing solar panels. That's "woke!"

If what Texas has with ERCOT is neither free market nor a public utility, what is it?

A profit generating machine.

I agree with the problem, but I also kind of agree with the judge. The point of separation of powers is that the judicial system interprets the will of the legislative. We have had similar cases in Finland , where the law clearly should say one thing and the courts conclude that the law in fact says another thing. Fortunately, this situation occasionally leads the parliament into saying 'well fuck' and changing the law.

I will admit I don't really understand the role of courts making law in the US and other common law countries, so it might be different there.

Texas does not have lower Taxes. That is a myth. Texas has lower Income Taxes. They more than make up for it in the other taxes and fees they collect. Texas is actively trying to force People from their homes such that wealthy connected folks can buy the property and rent it out.