J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
- Former Texas Governor Rick Perry wrote that Texans prefer blackouts over power grid regulation.
- Perry briefly served as Secretary of Energy under former president Donald Trump.
- Perry also exaggerated the role of renewable energy sources in the blackouts.
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Texas Republican and former Governor Rick Perry penned a blog post on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's website, making the audacious claim that Texans would rather continue to deal with blackouts than have the federal government regulate their power grid.
"Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business," Perry wrote. "Try not to let whatever the crisis of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically, and strategically."
Perry also briefly served as the Secretary of Energy during former president Donald Trump's tenure. Perry and current Texas Governor Greg Abbott have parroted similar misleading talking points about the Green New Deal, and the role of renewable energy sources amidst the blackouts.
"If wind and solar is where we're headed, the last 48 hours ought to give everybody a real pause," Perry wrote. "We need to have a baseload. And the only way you can get a baseload in this country is [with] natural gas, coal, and nuclear." Perry later acknowledged the vast majority of Texas' energy is sourced from non-renewables.
As a privatized state power grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has dodged federal regulation for years.
In a Tuesday interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Abbott said, "the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America."
At a Wednesday press conference, his first during the 3-day blackout, Abbott said he did not have complete information regarding when Texans could expect power to come back on.
ERCOT has acknowledged that the blackouts have largely stemmed from failures to winterize natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy systems.
Experts have backed up that as those power systems largely went offline, demands for electricity increased during the storm, causing massive failures in the state's privatized power grid.
ERCOT also has said that, typically, wind turbines account for around 25% of the energy produced in Texas during the winter, with natural energy sources accounting for around half of energy production.
At the end of his blog post, Perry said, "the sun will come out, the temperatures will moderate, and this will become part of our rearview mirror."
According to ERCOT, as of Wednesday morning, some 2.7 million households in Texas were still without power. Another snowstorm is expected to hit through Wednesday evening.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/3b8MIM4
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