Oil tycoon Kelcy Warren sues Beto O'Rourke alleging defamation over power grid criticism

[LetMyPeopleVote]

33. Texas Is Still Not Recognizing The Full Death Toll Of Last Year's Devastating Winter Storm

This is from an email that I got today from the Lone Star Project

While Texans were freezing and hundreds dying during Winter Storm Uri, Governor Greg Abbott directed power prices to stay at the maximum possible rate for several days, recent court proceedings revealed.

Abbott’s order led to billions in profits for natural gas companies and billions in higher energy bills for everyday Texans. The fallout means that most Texans will be paying an average of $45 more per month for decades to come.

The Denial
The shocking revelation — that it was Abbott himself who ordered the higher power prices — raises even more questions about the circumstances that led to him receiving millions of dollars in contributions from the natural gas industry just a few months after Texans experienced nearly $293 billion in damages and more than 750 deaths.

Abbott denied being “involved in any way” in the decision to keep prices at the maximum but then refused to release emails and text messages related to communications that occurred during the storm.

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Here is the article cited https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/texas-winter-storm-death-toll

On New Year’s Eve, with few people watching, the Texas Department of State Health Services announced that 246 people died in the February 2021 winter storm that took down much of the state’s power grid. The new figure is 36 higher than the state’s previous count but is still almost certainly wrong.

According to an analysis of “excess deaths” in the week of the power outages by BuzzFeed News, the true number is likely more than 750.

“Independent reports suggest this is a gross undercount and that over 700 died,” tweeted Beto O’Rourke on Tuesday in a reference to our investigation. O’Rourke is a former Democratic member of Congress from El Paso who is now running to be Texas governor.