Criticism was rampant following comments by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) suggesting power outages in Texas due to a winter storm and accompanying low temperatures were evidence of why America needs her Green New Deal.
“The infrastructure failures in Texas are quite literally what happens when you *don’t* pursue a Green New Deal,” she tweeted, without evidence.
“Long-term we must realize these are the consequences of inaction,” AOC (D-NY) added.
Her comments come even as Texas governor Greg Abbott has placed blame on the power grid failures in-part on frozen wind turbines.
“This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Abbott said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday.
“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 added.
“It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary.”
The infrastructure failures in Texas are quite literally what happens when you *don’t* pursue a Green New Deal.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 17, 2021
Critics Were Quick to Pounce on AOC’s Green New Deal Comments
Reuters reports that Texas suffered during the storm because “a rare deep freeze across the state locked up turbine towers while driving electricity demand to record levels.”
“We are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines and limited natural gas supplies available to generating units,” the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s grid operator said.
To be clear, there are multiple aspects of the Texas power grid that experienced disruption during the storms.
The Texas power grid has not been compromised.
The ability of some companies that generate the power has been frozen.
This includes the natural gas & coal generators.
They are working to get generation back on line.
ERCOT & PUC are prioritizing residential consumers. https://t.co/wDiDXN17Fu
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 15, 2021
But using the historic Texas snowstorm as evidence that a Green New Deal is the best path forward led to heavy criticism for AOC on social media.
Former Virginia congressman Denver Riggleman urged Ocasio-Cortez to pursue “facts and analysis” to determine what happened with the power grid, “not rhetoric.”
Riggleman also said that AOC’s Green New Deal comments were “quite literally false.”
This is “quite literally” false
There are many factors that contributed to the Texas situation, most evident being a winter storm (things like cold and ice) and lack of preparation.
Facts and analysis are the answer, not rhetoric. https://t.co/YwkD2HFbUN
— Denver Riggleman (@RepRiggleman) February 17, 2021
Conservative commentator Erick Erickson added, “Yes the snow-covered solar panels and frozen wind turbines would have been so much more effective by themselves.”
Others, like columnist Kurt Schlichter, were much more dismissive of AOC’s attempts to score environmental points off the deadly Texas storms.
Climate change is a hoax designed to steal your money and power, both electrical and political. https://t.co/ovO1k0p9mS
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) February 17, 2021
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AOC Spews More Falsehoods
Ocasio-Cortez proceeded to lecture Governor Abbott and the state of Texas on their power grid, though she struggled with presenting factual information.
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. I’ll be prepping TX relief emails if he needs help.
— 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. https://t.co/a3YoEqks7K
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 17, 2021
That percentage seems a bit off, likely indicating AOC forgot to carry a 2 somewhere in the midst of using her solar-powered abacus.
In reality, Texas leads the nation in wind-powered electricity generation, producing almost three-tenths of the United State’s total output.
Reuters reported that wind generation ranks as the second-largest source of energy in Texas, accounting for 23% of state power supplies last year, behind natural gas, which represented 45%, citing ERCOT figures.
45 percent, 80-90 … who’s counting? Certainly not AOC and the Green New Deal fans.
In an interview on Tuesday, Abbott called for ERCOT leadership to resign, saying, “This was a total failure by ERCOT.”
“ERCOT stands for Electric Reliability Council of Texas … and they showed that they were not reliable,” he continued. “These are specialists, and government has to rely upon these specialists to be able to deliver in these types of situations.”
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