A panel of judges has said that big power companies cannot be held liable for failure to provide electricity during the 2021 blackout. The reason is Texas’ deregulated energy market.

Almost three years since the deadly Texas blackout of 2021, a panel of judges from the First Court of Appeals in Houston has ruled that big power companies cannot be held liable for failure to provide electricity during the crisis. The reason is Texas’ deregulated energy market.

The decision seems likely to protect the companies from lawsuits filed against them after the blackout. It leaves the families of those who died unsure where next to seek justice.

…

This week, Chief Justice Terry Adams issued the unanimous opinion of that panel that “Texas does not currently recognize a legal duty owed by wholesale power generators to retail customers to provide continuous electricity to the electric grid, and ultimately to the retail customers.”

The opinion states that big power generators “are now statutorily precluded by the legislature from having any direct relationship with retail customers of electricity.”

      • reddig33@lemmy.world
        16·
        11 months ago

        I wish this state would split into multiple smaller states. Not all of us who live here are conservative nut jobs. Let us have our autonomy from the red counties.

        • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
          7·
          11 months ago

          They know they need the entirety of the size of the state to overcome any of the larger metro areas. Break that up and they’ll lose the power & prestige it brings in the Electoral College. They’ll never give that up, hence the massive voter suppression.

          • cerement@slrpnk.net
            81·
            11 months ago

            fun little thought experiment: Texas secedes from the US but then the metro centers secede from Texas and rejoin the US (Dallas taking banking with them, Austin taking the capital, San Antonio taking the Alamo, …) – we can let them keep scenic Midland and Odessa, but Big Bend National Park and Johnson Space Center as well as all the military bases are federal property …

      • mateomaui@reddthat.comEnglish
        6·
        11 months ago

        No worries, that’s why he hangs his hat in Tennessee, which probably comes with its own issues.

          • mateomaui@reddthat.comEnglish
            1·
            11 months ago

            Is Tennessee one of those states? Can never understand how the “save the children” crowd and the “marry ‘em too young to know better” crowd intersect.

            • Bone@lemmy.world
              2·
              11 months ago

              I did a little digging before writing that. Didn’t find all I was looking for, but I did see that only some states explicitly made laws against child marriage, and just in the recent past! Kinda weird. Tennessee wasn’t one of them.

            • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
              2·
              11 months ago

              Because they don’t want to “save the children” for the sake of the children but for the sake of their fragile egos that can’t handle the idea that their wife might have had other experiences to compare with.

    • LeadSoldier@lemmy.world
      5·
      11 months ago

      I had to live in HEll Paso because I was stationed there in the army. Iraq was better. The good news is I was able to leave.