Pause the project
I was disappointed the proposed plan to improve the Alamo continues. A $450 million facelift of the area will do nothing to enhance awareness about this historic battle. The task is for historians to find more primary research material to expand the truth of events surrounding the conflict.
Some funds should be used to restore the chapel and the Long Barrack. The former Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library building could house the Phil Collins artifact collection.
At this time of the pandemic and power outage destruction, it would be prudent of our leaders to cancel this boondoggle, and allocate the funds to help with property damage, combat COVID- 19, lift the unemployed and provide more grants for small businesses.
Q: In 2008, my wife and I signed wills, statutory durable powers of attorney, medical powers of attorney, HIPAA releases and directives to physicians. Since then, there has not been any material change in our family and financial situations, except that now we both have retired from our respective jobs. Should we have our wills reviewed by an attorney because the legal requirements may have changed in the meantime?
A: Most estate planners recommend that the documents you mentioned be reviewed every five to 10 years. Importantly, both powers of attorney and the directive to physicians form have changed since 2008, so those forms should be updated.
Q: My husband is going to inherit about $1 million when his father passes. We are financially secure and do not need the inheritance. Are there potential advantages (tax or otherwise) to directing
Portuguese utility Edpenergias de Portugal SA is among the wind-farm owners that took a hit from the deep freeze that upended Texas last month.
The financial impact was in the “low tens of millions” of dollars, Chief Executive Officer Miguel Stilwell Andrade said in an interview. That’s a relatively modest hit compared to some other wind producers that racked up hundreds of millions in losses, he said.
Last month’s arctic blast knocked nearly half of Texas power generation offline, left millions of homes and business without heat and light for days, and killed dozens of people. Wind turbines across Texas froze, and projects from some companies including Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. and RWE saw production curtailments. In some instances, wind operators unable to produce were forced to buy electricity at the $9,000-permegawatt-hour price cap to fulfill delivery commitments.
Much, though not all, of EDP’S Texas portfolio benefits from power-purchase agreements, which limited losses. If assets with such contracts weren’t producing, they didn’t have to deliver energy, Andrade said.
“In Texas most people were having to deliver energy which they didn’t have, and so they were having to buy it in the market,” Andrade said.
Of EDP’S more than 1 gigawatt of assets in Texas, only 10 percent was affected by the freeze, showing “we have effectively a low-risk portfolio,” he said.
Despite the weather impacts, Andrade said companies probably won’t winterize their Texas assets, calling the storm that crippled the state’s grid “a once in a century event.”
“Typically the thinking would be that you wouldn’t necessarily need to pay to insure that risk,” he said. “But obviously it’s something that everyone will be looking at.”