Texas Gov. Greg Abbott walked back comments he made on Fox News appearing to blame the Green New Deal and renewable energy for a power crisis primarily caused by the failure of gas, coal, and nuclear power plants, The Texas Tribune reports.
Abbott on Tuesday went on Fox News to tell Sean Hannity that the deadly power outages in the state show “how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America."
"Our wind and our solar got shut down," which "thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power in a statewide basis,” he claimed.
But wind and solar make up a small fraction of the state’s power supply and solar was the lone form of energy that did not underperform, according to the Tribune. Most of the state’s outages were caused by failures in the natural gas sector.
Moreover, the Green New Deal is not law in Texas or anywhere else.
Abbott walks back claim:
"I was asked a question on one TV show about renewable, and I responded to that question," Abbott said on Wednesday. "Every source of power that the state of Texas has has been compromised, whether it be renewable power such as wind or solar, but also, as I mentioned today, access to coal-generated power, access to gas-generated power, also have been compromised."
Abbott acknowledged that ERCOT, which operates the state’s independent power grid, was to blame.
“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has been anything but reliable over the past 48 hours,” he said.
Democrats blame Abbott:
“There is blood on Abbott’s hands,” Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement. “Crisis after crisis, Greg Abbott has failed and passed off blame to somebody else. Texas is in dire straits. Texans are dying. Homes are being destroyed, people are cold and hungry, and we have no idea when things will begin to return to normal because our state Government continues to fail.”
“As with Covid, a natural disaster has become far deadlier due to the inaction & ineptitude of Abbott and Texas’ Republican leadership,” said former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke. “Energy experts and State House Dems, among others, were warning of this for years. Abbott chose to ignore the facts, the science and the tough decisions and now Texans will once again pay the price.”
