Top Texas regulator ousted as recording emerges of pledge to protect Wall Street | Hacker News Reader

Top Texas regulator ousted as recording emerges of pledge to protect Wall Street

houstonchronicle.com

157 pointsstefan_28 comments

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>had privately assured Bank of America analysts

Knowing BofA I'm not at all surprised that people were recording the call.

Knowing anything at all about how the real world works, not surprised people were recording the call.

In many states, this would be considered illegal without consent from both parties.

In Texas, only one of the parties needs to know about the recording.

As well as in NY where BoA HQ is located.

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?

I record every conversation I have when talking to public officials.

https://archive.ph/cDsVD

what makes this fella remarkable is only that he said the quiet part loud.

It's amazing. The best part for me was

> “I went from being on a very hot seat to having one of the safest jobs in Texas"

Some serious "seconds from disaster" energy there.

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.

only if you have clout. And never back down. So, you're right some [!] conservatives can say whatever they want and don't have to fret.

insisted that repricing was illegal and potentially harmful to ratepayers

Is this really illegal? Even if it is, how can someone say it is harmful to ratepayers with a straight face?

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.

Your very conservative governor insisted that you deserved it because you'd rather die than have the feds involved in your energy grid.

Usually you have to paraphrase someone to make them sound that bad, but not lately.

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]

[0] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rick-perry-texans-should-endu...

> 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.

No matter the side, I prefer Hacker News when comments aren't politicking.

> but it was actually the regulators themselves who turned it from an inconvenience into a humanitarian crisis.

so what is your solution, get rid of all regulations?

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.

I did read the comment, did you?

Instead of giving snarky one liners you can just answer the question.

> crazy

Projection does not lead to rational behavior.

> 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.

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