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Huge lines form across Texas for water distribution after the storm
As people in Texas face the potential for further waterline disruptions and power outages with ice thawing, places for the distribution of bottled water see extremely long queues.
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The claim: Goldman Sachs, where Heidi Cruz is managing director, oversees utilities in Texas
The state of Texas is still remorseful over a historic snowstorm in mid-February that strained its power grid too much. More than 4 million people have been waiting a few days in icy temperatures for power to recover, reports USA TODAY.
Heidi Cruz, a senior executive at investment bank Goldman Sachs and wife of Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, shares some of the blame for the disruptions, a Facebook post on February 21 claims.
“YOU KNOW Heidi Cruz, Ted’s wife, is managing director of Goldman Sachs. They see the utilities in Texas,” the report reads.
USA TODAY released the poster for comment.
The Cruz family made headlines in the wake of the Texas snowstorm for the trip to Mexico on February 17, according to the USA TODAY. Millions of Texans were still without power on the day of their departure.
Cruz received criticism from his Democratic counterparts and the media and returned to Texas a day after landing in Cancun. The senator calls the trip “a mistake”, reports USA TODAY.
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Heidi Cruz works for Goldman Sachs
According to her LinkedIn page, Heidi Cruz joined the global investment conglomerate Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 2005 as Vice President. start working. According to a profile in Greater Houston Partnership, she was promoted to managing director in 2012.
Cruz was described as the ‘family winner’ in a 2018 profile in The Atlantic. She took unpaid leave of absence from her job in 2015 to run for Ted Cruz when, according to the story, he was nominated for the 2016 Republican nomination.
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Does Goldman Sachs oversee utilities in Texas?
Suspected links between the investment banking firm and Texas energy appeared on Twitter this month. February 20 tweet claims Goldman Sachs, and by extension Heidi Cruz, he has a “controlling interest in several Texas energy applications.”
TXU Corp., a Dallas energy company, was acquired for $ 45 billion in 2007 by Goldman Sachs and private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Texas Pacific Group, according to a press release from the company published on wsj.com .
The energy company was renamed Energy Future Holdings after the acquisition. The declining price of natural gas, as well as the cost of taking the company privately, EFC soon took a toll. The company collapsed seven years later after subsidiary Texas Competitive Electric Holdings filed for bankruptcy, The Motley Fool reported in 2015.
The EFH website provides no further updates.
A representative of Goldman Sachs told Newsweek the investment bank has no controlling interest in any US energy company.
USA TODAY contact Goldman Sachs for comment.
According to the US statesman, about 90% of the state’s power is managed by the non-profit Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT.
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Our rating: partially false
The allegation that Goldman Sachs, executive Heidi Cruz, wife of Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, works for a company that oversees Texas’ utilities is PARTLY FALSE. It’s true that Cruz is a managing director of Goldman Sachs, but the company has no current ties with Texas utilities. Goldman Sachs was one of three investors to acquire a Texas energy company in 2007, but the company went bankrupt seven years later.
Our sources for fact checking:
- , February 17, ” An electric island ‘: Texas has evaded federal regulations for years by having its own power grid “
- USA TODAY, February 19, “Ted Cruz’s trip to Mexico is widely criticized. Will it matter to his political future?”
- USA TODAY, Feb. 19, “Another winter storm hits Northeast, Mid-Atlantic; 224K still without power in Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas, sets 1918 snow record”
- USA TODAY, February 19, “Ted Cruz escapes to Cancun during a crippling storm in Texas in a pandemic, and travelers have so many questions.”
- Energy Future Holdings, visited on February 23, “Energy Future Holdings”
- The Motley Fool, May 23, 2015, “Energy Future Holdings: How the Largest Leverage Purchase in History Became a Disaster”
- The Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2007, “Full Text of TXU Press Release on Private Firm”
- Greater Houston Partnership, on February 23 visits “Heidi Cruz, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs & Co.”
- LinkedIn, visited on February 23 “Heidi Cruz”
- The Atlantic, October 18, 2018, “Heidi Cruz did not plan for this”
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