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20 Feb, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Until 1992, the US had just about the lowest electricity prices in the world and the most reliable system. Power companies were limited by law to recovering their provable costs plus a “reasonable" profit. But then George HW Bush deregulated the industry. gregpalast.com/texas-gets-lay…
“Deregulate” is a misnomer. “De-criminalize” describes it best. With the “free market” supposedly setting the price of power, Texas-based Enron was free to blow prices through the roof when weather shut down power plants.
gregpalast.com/texas-gets-lay…
This week was not the first game of Texas Gouge’m. thedailybeast.com/dollar5152-pow…
Bush’s son, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, signed a law in 1999 forcing the state’s hapless customers to accept any price the “free” market dictated. Enron’s CEO Ken Lay showed his appreciation by becoming Baby Bush’s #1 donor for his presidential ambitions. gregpalast.com/texas-gets-lay…

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More from @Greg_Palast

Greg Palast Profile picture
21 Feb
Every state in America interconnects their power lines to provide back-up in case of emergencies — except #Texas. To prevent federal regulation, Texas deliberately refused to connect its lines to other states. #TexasFreeze #TexasPowerOutage gregpalast.com/texas-gets-lay…
The federal government, which has restored a modicum of protection, can only police utilities that are connected to the national grid. So, Texas literally cut itself of from the rest of the USA’s electric system.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott blames windmills for this week’s deadly disaster. Some wind farms froze — but they manage to keep 'em going in the Antarctic! nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_d… Image
Read 5 tweets
Greg Palast Profile picture
19 Feb
For 100 years, electric prices were based on power company costs and “a reasonable profit.“ But in the 90s, a chuckling Chimp, Gov. Dubya Bush, dancing for his organ grinder Enron’s Ken Lay, created the “free“ market in electricity in Texas. thedailybeast.com/dollar5152-pow…
Back then, in a guide I wrote for the United Nations entitled “Democracy and Regulation,“ I warned that a free market would become a “freeze” market. This week is not the first electricity nightmare for Texas. amazon.com/Democracy-Regu…
You’ve only got one wire going into your house — what we economists used to call “a natural monopoly.” Now it’s an unnatural monopoly, where they’ve got us by the bulbs.
#TexasPowerOutage #TexasBlizzard2021 #TexasFreeze

thedailybeast.com/dollar5152-pow…
Read 5 tweets
Greg Palast Profile picture
12 Feb
#Thread: Smoking Gun for Impeachment: Proof Trump’s Call to March on Capitol was a Crime #ImpeachmentTrial #ImpeachmentTrial2 #CapitolInsurrection gregpalast.com/smoking-gun-fo…
Here is the smoking gun...

Trump’s GOP defenders say that Trump merely called for a march to the Capitol, a legal act of protest.

Except for this: it wasn’t legal. And Trump and his team knew it. gregpalast.com/insider-white-…
During Wednesday’s trial, Rep. @StaceyPlaskett laid out the evidence our team first broke in @ConsortiumNews & on the @Thom_Hartmann Program: The sponsors of the Jan 6 rally at the Ellipse promised, in writing, there would be no march on the Capitol.
Read 18 tweets
Greg Palast Profile picture
30 Jan
An hour on hold — plus an hour with California State COVID operators who are NOT told where vaccines are available. Operators have to go through EACH of more than 200 Zip code files to find an opening. latimes.com/projects/calif…
New jab sites are not yet open in low-income areas for health workers 2 months after vaccine approval and 6 months after we knew vaccines would need DISTRIBUTION.

And the website is impossible for the non-computer-savvy folks over-75s who are most in danger.

#California #COVID
California’s vaccine rate is half UK’s — and lower than Louisiana’s! covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tra…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Palast Profile picture
15 Jan
Insider reveals that before Trump urged supporters to march on Capitol, the White House was warned by rally organizers there was no permit for a march, that they'd promised DC Police there would be no march, and that such a march was dangerous. gregpalast.com/insider-white-… #DCRIOTS
“It’s something we advocated against doing for exactly the reasons that ended up playing themselves out,” says source inside Women for America First, the organization that held the permit for the DC rally. #DCRIOTS gregpalast.com/insider-white-…
Even more damning, the march Trump set in motion was led and promoted by ultra-right, violence-threatening extremist #AliAlexander, head of Stop the Steal.
Read 6 tweets
Greg Palast Profile picture
15 Dec 20
Which Georgian has had their voting rights suppressed the most? @TheDailyShow's @DesiLydic and @roywoodjr host America’s Got Suppression to find out.
Contestant #1 is @johntalsr, who had to wait in line for 11 hours to vote. Long lines are a key trick in the GOP's election fraud book. gregpalast.com/the-long-histo…
Contestant #2 is Christine Jordan, the 94-year-old cousin of Martin Luther King Jr. who's been casting her ballot at the same voting center since 1968. But when she went to vote in 2018, she was told there was no record of her ever voting in any election. gregpalast.com/92-year-old-ge…
Read 4 tweets

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