Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Gets Trashed for Appearing on Hannity in the Middle of Blackout Crisis to Blame the Green New Deal

Joe DePaoloFeb 17th, 2021, 10:01 am
 

With historic winter storms and freezing temperatures throughout his state causing widespread blackouts, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is under fire for taking time to speak with Sean Hannity, and making false claims about the cause of his state’s power crisis.

Abbott appeared on Hannity’s Fox News program Tuesday night and blamed the blackouts on frozen wind turbines in the Lone Star State.

“This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Abbott told Hannity. “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… As a result, it just shows that fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas.”

This claim has been debunked by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages most of the state’s power grid. According to the ERCOT (via the Texas Tribune), natural gas providers, unprepared for the extreme cold, are responsible for most of the outages. The Washington Post reports that thermal power plants primarily reliant on natural gas have been responsible for five to six times as many outages as frozen wind turbines.

But Abbott didn’t let the facts get in the way of a good partisan argument. Green New Deal co-sponsor Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took exception to Abbott’s comments.

“The real ‘deadly deal’ is his failed leadership,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter.

Other observers sounded a similar note — slamming the governor for pushing false claims and taking time to appear on Hannity while his state is in crisis.

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Joe DePaolo - Senior Editor

Joe DePaolo is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: joed@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @joe_depaolo