Episode 16: Disaster Capitalism

#16 Winter Storm 2021Hello 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. As always, please subscribe and sign up for our newsletter and get updates on FW political news and deep dives into local issues. You can sign up at our website www.justicereformleague.org  We are currently a volunteer organization, if you would like to get involved or want to contact us you can reach us at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter at @FWReview. This podcast is made possible by The Justice Reform League, a Fort Worth based non-profit. If you wish to support us and this podcast, please go to www.justicereformleague.org  and click on the Donate button. 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-reghttps://twitter.com/Forrest4Trees/status/1361751034465574914/photo/1 Tweet 3: Bud Kennedy ERCOT 2002https://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 sayhttps://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 agoJames Osbornehttps://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 priceshttps://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-ensueshttps://twitter.com/davidshuster/status/1362272883775582209https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/19/texas-emergency-communication-power-outages/ Amber Notes:https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/20/texas-power-water-outages/#33331178-5af7-4046-9034-067611f332abhttps://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-BB1dPudNBeto: 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-2021-2AOChttps://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-winter-storms-2021/2021/02/20/969809679/ocasio-cortez-fundraising-drive-for-texas-relief-raises-4-million Castro Broshttps://twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/1362210004800053248 https://twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/1363235901502066689 Mayor of Colorado City, TXhttps://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/