#16 Winter Storm 2021

Hello Fort Worth and welcome to another episode of the Fort Worth Freedom Review.

If you are new here, the Freedom Review exists to inform and educate the Fort Worth and Tarrant County community about the values and the functions of civic engagement, the goings-on of the local City Council, the Mayor, and the County Commissioners Court as well as important news stories from our community and from the greater Texas community including state political issues. 

My name is Anthony Sosa and today with me we have Amber O’Dell, Christopher Rose and Defense Attorney and fellow Justice Reform League Co-Founder Michael Campbell is back with us this week to talk about the disaster we just experienced and why it happened the way that it did as well as what the responses of our elected officials were, who in the community was helping out and what we can do moving forward. 

All of the resources used for today's episode will be provided below in the show notes. 

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Music by Anthony Sosa 

Newsletter Signup: https://justicereformleague.substack.com/ 

House Public Comment Link: https://comments.house.texas.gov/home?c=c450 

Anthony Notes:

Tweet 1: Comment on the problem with de-reg

https://twitter.com/Forrest4Trees/status/1361751034465574914/photo/1 

Tweet 3: Bud Kennedy ERCOT 2002

https://twitter.com/BudKennedy/status/1361918330806833152 

Texplainer: Why does Texas have its own power grid?

https://www.texastribune.org/2011/02/08/texplainer-why-does-texas-have-its-own-power-grid/ 

ERCOT Didn't Conduct On-Site Inspections of Power Plants to Verify Winter Preparedness https://www.nbcdfw.com/investigations/ercot-didnt-conduct-on-site-inspections-of-power-plants-to-verify-winter-preparedness/2555578/ 

Texas leaders failed to heed warnings that left the state's power grid vulnerable to winter extremes, experts say

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/17/texas-power-grid-failures/ 

Texas largely relies on natural gas for power. It wasn’t ready for the extreme cold.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-storm/ 

Texas grid fails to weatherize, repeats mistake feds cited 10 years ago

James Osborne

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Texas-grid-again-faces-scrutiny-over-cold-15955392.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral  

Jerry Jones’ natural gas company ‘hits jackpot’ as Texas freeze drives up prices

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2021/02/17/jerry-jones-natural-gas-company-hits-jackpot-as-texas-freeze-drives-up-prices/ 

Christopher Rose Notes:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/someone-leaks-heidi-cruzs-damning-group-chat-texts-about-cancun-trip-schadenfreude-ensues

https://twitter.com/davidshuster/status/1362272883775582209

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/19/texas-emergency-communication-power-outages/ 

Amber Notes:

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/20/texas-power-water-outages/#33331178-5af7-4046-9034-067611f332ab

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/several-parts-of-the-fort-worth-museum-science-history-flood-due-to-the-cold-weather/2555297/

https://www.kxan.com/news/lack-of-water-forces-texas-firefighters-to-watch-house-burn/

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/19/texas-emergency-communication-power-outages/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/more-of-fort-worth-goes-under-a-boil-water-advisory/ar-BB1dPudN

Beto: 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/beto-o-rourke-texas-winter-storm-b1803484.html 

https://nowthisnews.com/news/aoc-beto-orourke-fundraise-provide-relief-for-texas-while-ted-cruz-jets-off-to-mexico 

https://www.businessinsider.com/o-rourke-aoc-focus-on-texas-welfare-efforts-2021-2

AOC

https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-winter-storms-2021/2021/02/20/969809679/ocasio-cortez-fundraising-drive-for-texas-relief-raises-4-million 

Castro Bros

https://twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/1362210004800053248 

https://twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/1363235901502066689 

Mayor of Colorado City, TX

https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/lltchp/colorado_city_texas_mayor_tim_boyd_if_you_are/ 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/17/texas-mayor-power-outages-colorado/