Everything is recorded now. Even a private one-on-one in-person conversation is likely being recorded. Did you check the other person's phone? Or ask them to leave it outside the room?
Even better (from an article reporting on the original call):
> “I think they probably enjoy having just one person up there because they can secure promises from me and I can’t say, ‘Oh, well, my fellow commissioners wouldn’t go along.’ It’s easier for everyone, actually. At a time like this when I’m communicating all the time with the Legislature, it’s easier to just be going through one person.”
Just... just really laying it all out there. "Hey guys, I can do whatever I want, let's make some back-room deals"
Conservatives recently realized that they can say the quiet part loud and not only will nobody punish them for it, more people will vote for you the louder you shout it.
I wouldn't want to opine on "illegal", but, as much as I'm skeptical of privatized energy markets, it's not outlandish to think that if you're dealing with a counterparty that has the ability and inclination to change prices retroactively, you're probably going to add some extra margin up front to compensate for that risk, and on balance, it's not a given that the counterparty is better off.
This is what drives me crazy about all of the hand-wringing about the weather disaster we had down here a few weeks ago: liberals keep insisting that we Texans deserved it because we voted regulation-averse politicians into office here, but it was actually the regulators themselves who turned it from an inconvenience into a humanitarian crisis.
He's not the governor, and I don't know anyone here (in Texas, not HN) that cares what he says.
However, you did not paraphrase him so much as lie about what he said. "you deserved it because you'd rather die than have the feds involved in your energy grid" is not at all what Rick Perry said. The actual quote is “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business. Try not to let whatever the crisis of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically, and strategically.” [0]
> He's not the governor, and I don't know anyone here (in Texas, not HN) that cares what he says.
Rick Perry is the former governor of Texas, who was succeeded by the current governor. The seeds of this disaster were (intentionally) sown under his tenure. What he says is pertinent, IMO, since he had a hand in shaping the energy ecosystem in Texas and is likely to capture the Texan energy business/political zeitgeist.
I am similarly suspicious of the idea of collective guilt, but when we hire incompetents for a particular task we can't be surprised when that task is performed incompetently.
What a bizarre comment. Did you even read the comment you're responding to? It said "blaming the incident on deregulation is annoying because it was regulators' fault". Veracity of the claim aside, how on earth do you get "oh so we just shouldn't have regulations?!".
Believe it or not, there's no law that says you have to drop into simple-minded Manichaeism whenever a political topic comes up.
> liberals keep insisting that we Texans deserved it because we voted regulation-averse politicians into office
wow, that's quite a sweeping generalization right there. as a liberal, living in a very liberal part of the country, i can promise you that i never saw or heard anything but sympathy for all texans during that terrible time.
i'm truly sorry that you feel that this was not the case.
Sadly many people's world view seems entirely influenced buy social media jerks, and weird "news" sources.
Folks a few miles from me believe the city another few miles from me have Somali dominated 'no go zones' and folks in the city think everyone outside is a racist county bumpkin.
Fortunately they can agree they both dislike the suburbs, where I live.
I wonder how long before D'Andrea goes to work for an energy company?
Also, people on the right screaming about how gas prices have gone up "under Biden", wilfully ignoring that 30% of Texas refineries were shut down for 2+ weeks.
Knowing BofA I'm not at all surprised that people were recording the call.