Story at a glance
- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) criticized the Green New Deal Tuesday as his state is dealing with widespread power outages caused by winter storms,
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who introduced the Green New Deal into Congress, responded to Abbott’s claims on Twitter, saying the infrastructure failures in Texas “are quite literally what happens when you don’t pursue a Green New Deal.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) excoriated Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) after he blamed recent widespread power outages in his state on solar and wind sources and criticized the proposed Green New Deal favored by progressive Democrats.
“This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America. Texas is blessed with multiple sources of energy such as natural gas and nuclear as well as solar and wind,” Abbott said during a Tuesday interview with Sean Hannity.
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“Our wind and our solar got shut down and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid. And that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis,” he said.
Millions of people in Texas have been without power for days after winter storms slammed the region and devastated the state’s electricity grid. Nearly 3 million Texans were without power as of Wednesday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us. Officials in Texas have wanted that outages are likely to last through Wednesday and possibly longer.
Officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the majority of the Texas power grid, say the cause of the outages appeared to be natural gas providers, many of which are not designed to operate in such low temperatures, according to The Texas Tribune.
Ocasio-Cortez, who introduced the Green New Deal into Congress, responded to Abbott’s claims on Twitter, saying the infrastructure failures in Texas “are quite literally what happens when you *don’t* pursue a Green New Deal.”
I go offline a few days and return to a GOP Gov blaming policies he hasn’t even implemented for his own failures.
Gov. Abbott doesn’t seem to have a grasp on his state, so here’s a reminder: Texas runs 80-90% on fossil fuels.
The real “deadly deal” is his failed leadership. https://t.co/a3YoEqks7K
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 17, 2021
“I go offline a few days and return to a GOP Gov blaming policies he hasn’t even implemented for his own failures. Gov. Abbott doesn’t seem to have a grasp on his state, so here’s a reminder: Texas runs 80-90% on fossil fuels. The real ‘deadly deal’ is his failed leadership,” she said.
“So many Texans are in desperate conditions without heat, water, and little relief. Gov Abbott needs to get off TV pointing fingers & start helping people. After that, he needs to read a book on his own state’s energy supply,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
READ MORE ABOUT THE TEXAS ENERGY CRISIS
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TEXAS DEEP FREEZE CAUSES ELECTRICITY PRICES TO SPIKE 10,000 PERCENT
EMERGENCY EVACUATIONS NOW TAKING PLACE IN TEXAS HOSPITALS BECAUSE OF FREEZING TEMPERATURES
FIRST POWER, NOW WATER: TEXANS TOLD TO BOIL, CONSERVE WATER AS STATE WARNS OF SHORTAGES
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