Did Texans freeze because of greed?

[walkingman]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/winter-storm-uri-gas-blackout-lawsuit-18303252.php

Want to make billions of dollars in one week? Here’s how it’s done.

First, start a natural gas pipeline company in Texas. And make sure it’s in Texas, the only state in the nation that lets you own the gas that moves through your network, seize people’s land to build pipelines wherever you want and create local monopolies so you can bully well owners to sell for less and force customers to buy for more.

Then, wait for an act of God. A vicious winter storm will do. A few days before the storm hits, go ahead and cut off some of the gas flows in your pipelines. In fact, move some of it into storage to make it appear to your clients — electricity generators and utility companies that deliver power to people’s homes — as if supply is running low. Heck, you could even export some of it to Mexico real quick. Then, once the storm hits, you throw up your hands and cry “unforeseeable circumstance!” so you can legally suspend your pricing agreements with clients and sell your supposedly dwindling supply of gas at an astronomically inflated price.

If this scheme is successful, you’ll make out like bandits — or maybe like Enron execs before the fall. In nine days, as people huddle for warmth and freeze to death across Texas, you’ll rake in, say, $11 billion.

Good money, if you can get it. Texas lawmakers and regulators certainly won’t stand in your way. Corruption is a lucrative enterprise — for you, and for them. See their campaign finance reports.