Texas Governor Knew Of Natural Gas Shortages But Let People Die Anyway

Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott was warned several days in advance of February's snowstorm that the state did not have enough natural gas to prevent blackouts across the state during the storm. In spite of the advanced warnings, Abbott not only didn't warn people about what was coming, but he had the audacity to turn around and blame wind turbines when the predicted blackouts hit. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

After winter storm Uri hit Texas. And we had those blackouts people literally freezing to death, children, freezing to death in their own homes. The Republican controlled government of the state of Texas, including Republican governor, Greg Abbott came out and said, the problem was the windmills, the wind turbines failed. And that's why people died in our city. Okay. Your reports came out this week, showing the Greg Abbott Republican governor of Texas knew that this was a lie when he said it. And he had advanced warning from state officials that the state didn't have enough natural gas on hand to prevent the blackouts heading into the storm. And it all centers around conversations with the then chair of the public utility commission of Texas DeAnn Walker. Ms. Walker had multiple phone calls, not just with Greg Abbott, where she warned him. We've got a storm coming. We don't have enough natural gas to get us through this.

People are going to be running their heaters more. Obviously, this is the kind of thing that is going to cause an energy shortage here in Texas. I'm warning you days in advance, let's figure something out. And of course they did have time, maybe not enough time, but they had time to start reaching out to other states, getting natural gas on the way there. They didn't do it. Abbott was not by the way, the only official worn by Ms. Walker. She reached out to other officials in the state, let them know how dire the situation was and nobody did a thing.

So instead of blaming the failures that led to these deaths in Texas, instead of saying that, Hey, we ran out of natural gas. Hey, our energy grid was so antiquated that it couldn't handle the increased demand. They all came out and said, Nope, it was the windmills. And by the way, windmills in Texas in the wintertime do not generate very much electricity at all. And that's not the number one source of electricity for the state of Texas. It is a very, very minor source. So it was not the failure of the windmills that caused these blackouts in the subsequent deaths. It was the negligence of the Republican leaders in the state of Texas. This is the kind of thing, in my opinion, uh, that warrants a congressional investigation. I want Dan Walker to be called in front of Congress to tell the entire country what she told those officials in Texas.

And again, including those at the very top Greg Abbott himself. I want her to tell the world what she told those officials. I want she to her to show us these reports that she had showing there wasn't enough natural gas. And then I want those officials hauled in front of Congress and forced to answer for why they didn't do anything and why they let people die, because that's what happened. And we know that now. And if we don't get some kind of commission on this, if we don't have an investigation, then I promise you, the people in Texas are going to keep collecting, keep electing the same kind of Republicans that are going to keep doing the same kinds of things. People died from this. I think the least we could do for their families is get them some answers.

[inaudible].