2/18/21
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) knows who and what to blame for the fact that a subfreezing cold snap and winter storm has left millions of people in his state without access to heat, water and electricity for days. It’s not him. It’s not the climate change-denying Republican Party. Instead, it’s the Green New Deal. He’s wrong, of course: The Texas climate catastrophe makes the case for a Green New Deal. Abbott, ducked any responsibility for the crisis, instead pinning the blame on the state’s renewable solar energy, which froze up in the cold weather. Abbott isn’t the only one making that claim. The “wind turbines did it” is becoming the Republican rallying cry. What is happening in Texas is a confluence of bad weather — of the sort we can expect more of as the pace of climate change quickens — and a lack of investment in infrastructure, combined with the downside of a go-it-alone mentality. Yes, many of the state’s wind turbines froze up, but that’s because of a failure to put in place the equipment to keep them going in cold weather. And at the same time, solar energy is only responsible for a small portion of state’s energy needs. The state’s utilities did not make the investment — something Abbott failed to mention.
Oil and natural gas are responsible for providing a majority of the Texas’s energy, and, what do you know, those utilities froze up, too. In the view of many experts, Texas prioritizes low electricity prices over preventive maintenance and worst-case-scenario planning. Despite the increasing number of severe weather crises, the Republican Party and its politicians continue to deny the impact of climate change and claim that they are protecting jobs and local economies. All this needs to be called out for the appalling ignorance and political expediency that it is. The consequences of climate denial are getting more severe. A Green New Deal is needed to combat extreme weather, as well as upgrade, modernize and improve our infrastructure so it works better and we ultimately become less reliant on fossil fuels. What’s happening in Texas this week is exactly what we can expect to happen more often as the accelerating pace of climate change continues to collide with the United States’ deteriorating infrastructure and continuing Republican inaction, intransigence and excuse-making. It’s leaving us all out in the cold.
