Ted Cruz is at it again. He and other GOP leaders in Texas are whining about failure of wind turbines in the cold weather proves that this methods of green energy cannot be trusted in an emergency. The emergency is that almost a quarter of Texas has lost power since the weekend due to the cold weather. But wind turbines are only responsible for less than 10% of the energy in Texas. The fossil fuel sources of energy, particularly those from natural gas, have been failing also due to freezing pipelines. So it is rather hypocritical to call out wind turbines when the old fossil systems also have failed.
Besides nature, the political system of Texas also should be blamed for leaving millions of Texans without power for several days. Texas has its own electrical grid so that it would not be under federal regulation. There are three main grids in the U.S., the Eastern grid, the Western grid and Texas grid. So even if other states want to, they can't help Texas. Cruz laughed at California last year when there were power outages here. He said the government in California could not provide for basic civilization. For a guy who advocates Hong Kong to secede from China, who advocated for insurrection in the Capitol, it is not surprising that he made such a stupid comment and has to eat his words today.
But regardless the fact that parts of Texas want to secede from the Union or that people like Cruz and Governor Abbott are saying stupid things about energy, we need to help Texas in this dire situation. Every part of the country can have catastrophes. From hurricanes in Florida and other southern states, to tornados across the Plains and the Midwest, to heavy snow storms in the North, to earthquakes and wild fires in the West, we face natural disasters frequently. We have to help each other whenever these disasters hit. We are always in it together.
Good timing on Lyin' Ted since he got caught travelling to Cancun. Of course when people started to complain, he lied and said he was just dropping his daughter off. Then they found out that he wasn't scheduled to come back until the weekend. At least he wore a mask. I actually can understand someone who would leave town, but when you're a Senator, it's a bad look. Now, I don't know what he could do while in town. In fact, I just figured he was in DC.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the wind turbines go, I have no idea why they are not working. But I've heard that there are some in Canada and they never have problems with the cold. As far as infrastructure goes, I can't blame the state or even the power company for not being prepared. This might be a 100 year thing but this is also an argument for the global warming crowd.
What we do know is that the old school Texans are pro oil. I don't blame them since it's brought a lot of money to the state. So change to greener energy would be met with resistance.
-LBOAYM
Besides the bad look, Cruz is also of guilty of complaining about other politicians vacationing or fund raising when there is something going on in their home area. He has even criticized Chris Christie, a fellow Republican, for going to a beach when the public beaches in his state were closed. And his excuses are so bad that it makes the Lyin Ted name look more fit than ever!
ReplyDeleteThe way I understand it is that the wind turbines and pipelines all could have been weatherized and thus prevented them from freezing. I guess Canada had to do this given their weather and Texas didn't think it was necessary. This goes to my theory that our infrastructures are nowhere near world class. We don't have planning for the future and just spend to get by for now. If a politician or party in charge decide to spend money on a project that would prevent a disaster, nobody will remember that in the next election, especially if this causes a deficit. When something collapses 10 or 100 years down the line, that politician is long gone and is the current person or party in charge who is going to get the blame. So, politicians may want to build a stadium or a convention center rather than weatherize wind turbines and pipelines.
I think that maybe that is why we don't have ventilators, masks and other protective gears in reserve ahead of time. Maybe that is why we don't fix the water supply systems or the bridges since nobody wants to be the guy who runs a deficit and chances are nothing will happen under his watch. The only things we have overabundance are possibly weapons, particularly nuclear weapons where we can destroy the whole world more than once over.
Agreed. Infrastructure has been something that has been discussed for years and they keep saying that there's no money for it. But let's be honest. No one in government (well a good amount of politicians) don't want to spend for it because it doesn't give immediate results and weakens the budget.
ReplyDeleteSo they band aid everything and when a disaster happens, the people that pay for it are usually poor people. The rich can survive (some like to hop a plane to Mexico!) but the poor people have no where to go.
I love how Lyin' Ted threw his daughters under the bus. What kind of low life does that?
-LBOAYM