All Hat No Cattle Texas News September 8th, 2023

Paxton Trial Highlights This Week 

The Paxton trial has just begun and has had a few notable moments. Tuesday, Paxton's lawyers were unsuccessful in their attempt to dismiss any of the 16 charges.

Wednesday, Jeff Mateer, Paxton's #2 guy at the time, was accused of staging a coup when he informed the FBI of Paxton's misdeeds. On the vain side, Paxton's attorney, Tony Buzbee (who decided to run for Houston City Council during all of this) is upset the media supposedly photoshopped him to look so tan in images.

Yesterday, Ryan Bangert took the stand and stated that he was concerned that, in 2020, Paxton was hijacking the AG's office for the benefit of Nate Paul and his business, going so far as to hire outside counsel to look into Paul's claims that he was being targeted. Ryan Vassar, former Deputy AG, took the stand and teared up when confronted about Paxton calling him a rogue employee. Vassar testified about Paxton's desire to give Paul the  FBI files about his case, which would have gone against precedent.

Paxton has noticeably been MIA from the trial. If you are interested in watching the trial, it is being broadcast here.

Abbott's Border Buoys Eviction
Abbott's giant orange, serrated buoys in the Rio Grande had their day in court this week and lost. The Federal Judge ordered them removed by next Friday. Abbott immediately appealed the decision to the 5th Circuit US Court of Appeals, and they put a temporary stay on the order. So for now, they are staying put. Abbott has said he intends to appeal to the Supreme Court.
 
Texas Power Grid Swipes the Guardrails Again
As the Texas heat wave drags on, the 40-year-old Texas grid came dangerously close to failing again Wednesday night. ERCOT entered emergency Level 2 and reserve energy dropped below 2000 MW of power as a gas power plant likely went offline unexpectedly. New battery storage bailed us out and prevented rolling blackouts from occurring. Texas had a $33 billion budget surplus, yet the Legislature did nothing to fix the grid.
 

Also, CNBC reported that a Bitcoin mining company here in Texas, Riot Platforms, made $32M in energy credits in August by shutting down during tight grid power conditions. This is notable because RIOT is losing money as a business mining Bitcoin, but making money by not mining Bitcoin when the grid is stressed. Interesting business model in a state that can't keep the lights on. 

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