Texas is still suffering through massive blackouts due to the cold weather. Right wing politicians love calling out California when they had their blackouts last summer, but are now engaging in cognitive dissonance as their state freezes.

What are the differences?

California strained under demand and wildfires and hot weather stressed the system to the breaking point. State put rolling blackouts in place to keep system afloat.

Texas? They prioritized penny pinching and not spending anything on winterization despite fact that state periodically experiences winter. So when really cold and snowy weather hit, they had massive blackouts as 40% of the state’s oil/gas/coal plants went offline. Right wing lunatics pointed to wind power as the problem, but wind power actually outperformed other types as less wind power went offline and more wind power capacity was restored faster than the oil/gas/coal plants did.

The state blacked out because of the lack of proper oversight, prioritizing profit over production during a cold snap, and inadequate ability to import electricity from neighboring grid.

It had nothing to do with a Green New Deal (which isn’t a law but aspirational). It had nothing to do with wind power turbines freezing up (which makes for a great visual if you’re a right winger) because watching a coal plant not producing power is just a picture of a coal plant. It just isn’t dramatic.

There’s no green new deal in place that caused the disastrous Texas blackouts. That’s entirely the result of GOP and right wing lunacy, ignoring basic infrastructure, refusal to winterize because penny pinching was seen as virtuous.

— lawhawk #maskingforafriend (@lawhawk) February 17, 2021