ERCOT To Be Sued Into Oblivion
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, February 22, 2021
What’d I tell you, eh?
Just a matter of a few days ago, on Thursday, February 18, 2021, in an entry entitled “Details On Texas’ Electrical Power Grid Production Problems,” I wrote in part that,
“It would not be too far-fetched to imagine (unless the Texas State Legislature asserted otherwise, and chose not to protect the people, but industry instead), that in the future,
if such deliberate failures to act to prevent catastrophic loss in Texas – primarily as loss of human life, but property loss, as well – would be subject to litigation by others against the offenders – that being the entire spectrum of participants, ranging from Power Generators, Investor-Owned Utilities aka Retail Electricity Providers, and ERCOT as the esrtwhile ne’er do well pseudo-manager, and perhaps even the Public Utility Commission of Texas for allowing it all to happen under their watchful eyes.
“Ultimately, of course, the responsibility lies with Texas politicians who have horrifically and bitterly failed their constituents… again, and in magnificently resplendent fashion – making this catastrophic fiasco their magnum opus of failure.
“And there is precedent for the same. Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE), the primary electrical utility and NatGas service provider for California, was sued recently, and consequently filed bankruptcy because of the sheer volume of lawsuits filed citing PGE’s deliberate failures to act in a preventative manner to secure their power lines to prevent fire, which in turn caused massive wildfires in the state. To assert that affirmative corporate responsibility is somehow tortuous or onerous to justice or jurisprudence is beyond the scope of the pale. And ERCOT is a well-known name in Texas.”
And, have you noticed?
The ERCOT website, ERCOT.com has remained off-line for several days, and at last check, moments ago, remained off-line.
Fortunately, however, there is a thing called the “Internet Archive” which has a “Wayback Machine” that caches and “makes images” (copies) of websites worldwide. So the ERCOT website isn’t truly gone… even though they might wish it to be.
But ERCOT and Entergy… deserve to be punished for their failures.
The buck stops here.
$100M Lawsuit Alleges Negligence By Power Company, Grid Operator Led To Texas Boy’s Death During Winter Storm
The family of an 11-year-old boy who died in the freezing Texas weather last week has filed a lawsuit against the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and power company Entergy, alleging that gross negligence led to the child’s death.
Local Houston news station KHOU reports that the family of Cristian Pavon has filed a lawsuit and is represented by attorney Tony Buzbee.
Family of Conroe boy who died during winter storm suing ERCOT, Entergy for $100M
The lawsuit alleges gross negligence by the power grid operator and the electricity provider, saying it led to the death of 11-year-old Cristian Pavon.
Published: 7:24 PM CST February 20, 2021
https://www.kens5.com/article/weather/11-year-old-found-dead-after-freezing-cold-night-in-a-conroe-mobile-home-with-no-power/285-4781bcb9-6643-4224-8b5b-c1fc5c725b61
CONROE, Texas — A Conroe family whose young son died during the winter storm has enlisted to help of high-profile attorney Tony Buzbee in their lawsuit against ERCOT and Entergy.
The lawsuit alleges gross negligence by the power grid operator and the electricity provider, saying it led to the death of 11-year-old Christian Pavon.
The boy died Tuesday after spending the night in his frigid mobile home that lost power.
The lawsuit says Christian died of hypothermia, and the family is asking for more than $100 million in damages.
Medical examiners have not yet released his cause of death.
Entergy released the following statement on the lawsuit:
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of life in our community. We are unable to comment due to pending litigation.”
ERCOT also released a statement:
“We haven’t yet reviewed the lawsuits and will respond accordingly once we do. Our thoughts are with all Texans who “have and are” suffering due to this past week. However, because approximately 46% of privately-owned generation tripped offline this past Monday morning, we are confident that our grid operators made the right choice to avoid a statewide blackout.”
Pavon is believed to have died on Tuesday due to hypothermia after his family’s home lost power. His official cause of death has yet to be released, KHOU reports.
According to the suit filed by Pavon’s family, the cause of death was hypothermia, KHOU reports. His family is asking for more than $100 million in damages.
Entergy, in response to the lawsuit, said the company was “deeply saddened by the loss of life in our community. We are unable to comment due to pending litigation.”
“We haven’t yet reviewed the lawsuits and will respond accordingly once we do. Our thoughts are with all Texans who ‘have and are’ suffering due to this past week,” ERCOT said in its own statement. “However, because approximately 46 percent of privately-owned generation tripped offline this past Monday morning, we are confident that our grid operators made the right choice to avoid a statewide blackout.”
Dozens of Texans died when freezing temperatures swept across the state last week, and more than 4 million people lost power, many for several days. Power to most homes has been restored, but several thousand remain without electricity.
The state’s leaders and ERCOT are facing intense criticism over the outages. Texas’s power infrastructure lacked the winterization needed to handle freezing temperatures. In addition, Texas is the only state to maintain an independent power grid, meaning it couldn’t turn to its neighbors to temper the blackouts.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) has called for an investigation into ERCOT.
President Biden has sent emergency supplies to the state, including 60 generators as well as thousands of blankets, meals and liters of water. Biden on Saturday also authorized a declaration of emergency in Texas along with Louisiana and Oklahoma.
These Three Siblings Died Tragically in Texas’ Deep Freeze. It Didn’t Have to Be This Way.
“We don’t know what happened. … Why was the power off? If the power wasn’t off, this wouldn’t have happened,” said the children’s aunt.
by Kate Briquelet, Senior Reporter
Updated February 20, 2021 9:22PM ET
https://www.thedailybeast.com/these-three-siblings-died-tragically-in-texas-deep-freeze-it-didnt-have-to-be-this-way
At 11 years old, Olivia Nguyen was the oldest of three siblings. She was smart and sassy, and loved making playlists with songs from Coldplay and U2, music written before she was born.
Her brother, Edison, 8, was quiet and articulate. He loved the color green and taking photos of anything in his path, especially sunsets.
Their youngest sibling, Colette, turned everything into a song. Nicknamed Coco, the 5-year-old was known for donning sparkly pink dresses and shoes.
Early Tuesday morning, the children and their grandmother, 75-year-old Loan Le, lost their lives when their Texas home erupted in flames. The fatal blaze may have started from a fireplace—which their mother had lit up to keep them warm amid the state’s power outages and freezing cold temperatures.
The Nguyen children and their grandma Loan are among more than 30 people in the Lonestar State who died this week amid the extreme weather crisis that nearly decimated the state’s power grid.
Before the fire, the family was without power for eight hours and huddled together in their two-story house in Sugar Land, a suburb of Houston. It’s unclear how the blaze spread; the bedrooms are upstairs and the fireplace is downstairs.
Vanessa Kon, the children’s aunt, said the family is awaiting answers on what started the house fire. While they’re focused on mourning the kids, they also have questions for state officials who were woefully unprepared for the unprecedented disaster, which left millions of residents without heat, electricity, or water.
“We don’t know what happened,” Kon told The Daily Beast. “We don’t know why the lights went out like that. The city should have been prepared for it. Why was the power off? If the power wasn’t off, this wouldn’t have happened.”
According to Fox 26 in Houston, authorities were called to the Nguyen residence around 2 a.m. and found the house engulfed in flames when they arrived. One fire official said a first responder had to restrain the children’s mother, Jackie, from rushing back inside the home.
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Family of Cristian Pineda 11-year-old boy who died in a frozen Texas trailer sues ERCOT for $100M
The family of an 11-year-old boy from Texas who froze to death after the family’s mobile home lost power during cold weather are suing the electricity companies involved to the tune of $100 million.
Cristian Pavon Pineda, 11, was found dead in his bed next to his younger brother Tuesday as temperatures plummeted into single digits and the family were unable to keep warm.
The lawsuit places the blame squarely at the region’s utility companies, Power grid operator ERCOT and electricity provider Entergy, holding them responsible for the tragedy.
The Pineda family are accusing the providers of gross negligence and say the companies ‘failed to warn people of the dangerous conditions and gave incomplete guidance to customers’.
The family of Cristian Pavon Pineda, an 11-year-old boy from Texas who ended up freezing to death after the family’s mobile home lost power during freezing weather last week are suing the electricity companies involved to the tune of $100 million
An 11-year-old Texas boy who was excited at seeing snow for the first time died of suspected hypothermia in his family’s mobile home just hours before Ted Cruz abandoned his state at the height of the storm crisis and jetted off on a luxury holiday to Cancun. Cristian Pavon Pineda pictured. A GoFundMe has been started by the family to help with burial costs
Cristian Pavon Pineda, 11, died Tuesday after his home in Conroe lost power at the weekend and temperatures plunged to single digits. Cristian had been excited to see snow for the first time Monday (pictured) after he moved to Texas from Honduras in 2019 to live with his mom
His devastated mother Maria Elisa Pineda told the Washington Post she went to check on him as he was huddled under a pile of blankets in bed and found him unresponsive. Pictured the trailer
Texas is the only state in the continental United States with an independent and isolated grid. It allows the state to avoid federal regulation – but also severely limits its ability to draw emergency power from other grids.
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Warm Southern Breeze 
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