Green Energy
Floor Speech
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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, the Nation watched in horror at the terrible situation in Texas this last week with horrific weather conditions and then the aftermath dealing with problems with safe drinking water and supply. It was leavened a little bit by the plight of Ted Cruz who is notoriously struggling to tell the truth this time as he fled his State and leaving his constituents behind and then watching him contort trying to change his story over the course of the next few days. It was sort of a national joke.
But what was happening in Texas was not a joke. These conditions were unprecedented. But they found Texas unable to really respond in a way despite the fact that 10 years ago there was a similar situation. It is fascinating. Ted Cruz isn't the only one struggling with the truth. The Governor of Texas, Governor Abbott, sought to blame wind energy for their plight. Wind energy, which supplies less than 10 percent of the total energy supply for the State, performed better than fossil fuel which provided the majority of it.
Think for a moment how they attempted to target the Green New Deal and AOC. While Ted Cruz was struggling to get his story straight, our colleague, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was raising millions of dollars to help people in Texas cope. Blaming a Green New Deal which has never actually been enacted--it is an aspirational goal--is foolish. What we have seen in Texas with those extreme weather events are a preview of coming attractions.
What we saw in Australia this last year and in the Western United States with horrific wildfires, looking at a once-in-a-century weather event is becoming routine, and it is going to happen more and more frequently.
I would suggest that Texas leadership could take a look at what they have done. Their famously deregulated energy system has given the family with a $16,000 electric bill or former Governor and Energy Secretary Rick Perry said: Well, people would just be happy to have a few days without energy to be free of the dangers of Federal regulation.
I think people in the surrounding States that survived much better and didn't have $16,000 monthly electric bills might review that. I would suggest that the folks in Texas leadership could start first of all by telling the truth. It is not renewable energy, it was fossil fuel that failed and continued reliance on fossil fuel is going to make events like this much, much more frequent.
We need to deal with reliability in Texas and around the country. Last, but not least, we must fight for climate justice and a low carbon future. That will help make these situations less frequent and more bearable, and it is a path forward that we can take confident that history will reflect we were on the right side.
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