Clean Line Misses Kansas Deadline -- Too Busy Glittering

Some 550 guests entered the soiree via the Water Works at Buffalo Bayou Park. There, arrivals grabbed A Fare Extraordinare's smoked chicken tostadas and lavender lemonade cocktails before venturing underground to tour Carlos Cruz-Diez's art installation inside the Buffalo Bayou Cistern. 

Later the brightly-hued mob - dressed in-theme with the "Color Outside the Lines" motif - headed into a rainbow-lit tent for dinner. Fuchsia, cobalt and neon streamer-centerpieces zig-zagged from tabletops to the ceiling. Roasted root vegetables with truffle pea puree were plated to match.

The casually A-list throng including Lynn Wyatt, Susie Criner, Sorarya McClelland, Cathy and Jo Cleary, and Anne Whitlock and Michael Skelly happily dug into their beef tenderloin and vanilla panna cotta.

Post-dessert, BBP chair emeritus Collin Cox auctioned off two inaugural entertaining opportunities: choice of a cocktail party inside the cistern catered by Emmaline featuring a Houston Grand Opera private recital or around Lost Lake with food and libations by the Dunlavy. Bids for both offers quickly swelled past the five-figure mark.

Here's what that looks like:

Gosh, what a big surprise it must be to find yourself at another glittering gathering where the wealthy part with their money in the name of "charity."  It looks like someone's ego got well stroked.

Meanwhile, back at the regulatory ranch, the Kansas Corporation Commission had ordered Clean Line to "...submit evidence of its financial, managerial and technical ability to complete the Project" by November 29, 2018.

November 29 came, November 29 went.  November 30 happened.

What did Clean Line file?  Nothing.  Not.A.Thing.

Apparently it's okay to make your own rules and orders at the Kansas Corporation Commission.  If you're a utility with a well-connected attorney, you can do anything you want without repercussion.

Because the night before Thanksgiving, Clean Line's attorney filed a motion asking for an Order from the Commission to suspend the procedural schedule that required it to file evidence by November 29, and to extend Clean Line's permit until further notice.  Clean Line dropped its little Invenergy bombshell and shared that it had a little party with KCC Staff the week prior and "introduced" Invenergy to the Staff.  I wonder if there was vanilla panna cotta?

However, the KCC never responded.  The KCC did not issue an order suspending the procedural schedule.  That means that Clean Line was still obligated to file its evidence by November 29.

Who disobeys a direct order of a state regulatory commission?  Clean Line.

Pass the lavender lemonade cocktails.  I need to practice making the lavender lemonade cocktails face.   Apparently it gives you immunity from regulatory oversight.