Gov. Abbot blames The Green New Deal For Texas Blackouts

For years scientists have been warning us of the dangers of climate change. Over and over again we’ve been hearing about its consequences and how extreme weather conditions will end up affecting us in more ways than we know. Texas has begun to experience those consequences, but regrettably, some are not willing to accept the cause behind such events.

More than 4 million Texans were left without power or heat while the state goes through record low freezing temperatures. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has said they’re not sure when will power be completely restored. People have died over this, and yet the Governor of Texas has chosen to go political on the matter instead of focusing on how to prevent this from ever happening again.

Abbot is blaming the incident on wind and solar energy, stating that it makes up collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid.

“This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Gov. Abbott said to Fox News’ Sean Hannity last Tuesday. “It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas as well as other states to make sure we’ll be able to heat our homes in the wintertime and cool our homes in the summertime.”

Nonetheless, Dan Woodfin, a senior director at ERCOT, has placed blame on the state’s reliance on natural gas. “It appears that a lot of the generation that has gone offline today has been primarily due to issues on the natural gas system,” Woodfin said.

According to S&P Global Platts, around 80 percent of the Texas electricity grid’s capacity is generated by fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal, and nuclear power. Only 7 percent of the grid’s winter capacity comes from wind power.

Abbot is already facing backlash for his unfortunate misplaced comments, New York US Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “…Texas runs 80-90% on fossil fuels. The real ‘deadly deal’ is his failed leadership.”