Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Old Ted Cruz Tweet Mocking California's Electricity Woes Comes Back To Haunt Him Amid Texas Blackouts

Old Ted Cruz Tweet Mocking California's Electricity Woes Comes Back To Haunt Him Amid Texas Blackouts
Tom Williams-Pool / Getty Images

With millions of Americans dealing with the massive winter storm, Texas in particular has been hit hard. The extreme cold weather combined with energy generation problems has led to blackouts leaving many without power.

It's tough all around, with many offering advice and help where they can, but there's only so much that can be done without sufficient power.


In the middle of all this, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas became the focus of Twitter as an old tweet of his resurfaced.

In it, Cruz mocked California for their energy issues.


At the time last August, California was experiencing an energy issue over the summer, leaving their system short up to 2 gigawatts in the evenings. The state government asked citizens to take steps to control their energy usage until the crisis could be averted.

By comparison, Texas has been short 15-25 gigawatts for two days.

The unearthed tweet mocking California became a rallying cry against Cruz.





Exacerbating the issue for Texas, most of the state is the only one in the continental United States that isn't on a federal power grid. This means in the event of a loss in power, Texas can't balance out by pulling energy from another state the way other parts of the country can.

While the state can import some power from Mexico, the state has tried to remain as separate as possible to avoid transferring power over state lines, which would make their energy infrastructure fall under federal jurisdiction. This lack of federal oversight is a point of pride for the state.

But this means the state has to be significantly more self-reliant, an issue when multiple forms of energy generation, especially fossil fuel energy fail during a record storm.

The danger in this storm goes far beyond a tweet, and into the energy policies championed by Cruz.





Cruz and House Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas are both known for criticizing green energy policies and pushing for the use of fossil fuels. Specifically, they've criticized the Green New Deal, and try to advocate for coal energy.

However, both of California's issues, wildfires and heatwave, and the Texas cold snap are likely byproducts of climate change.

Since Crenshaw was also critical of California's response to their energy crisis, it didn't take much to find his own hypocritical tweet.

During California's energy crisis, wildfires and extreme heat waves strained the state's power, causing rolling blackouts in the evening for a couple days.

The Texas system had the opposite problem, with an extreme cold snap hitting the state's infrastructure. The normally very warm state's power generators couldn't handle the frigid weather, with different portions of the system failing simultaneously.

This decrease in power generation, combined with the demand for increased power to survive the cold wave has led to a widespread energy shortage that leaves many without power.

Because of this, the views pushed by Crenshaw and Cruz have been heavily criticized over the last day and a half.




In the end, though, even Cruz himself admitted there was no defending his past tweets.

As climate change ravages the planet, extreme weather events will become more and more common. While we need to take steps to ensure our energy infrastructure can meet these challenges, we also need to start taking preventative steps too.

Without an extreme response to our CO2 emissions and a significant overhaul of our society, these storms are only going to get worse.

Until then, stay safe and take care of each other.

More from Trending

 Andrew Isker
Contra Mundum Podcast

Christian Podcaster Roasted After Claiming He Opts For TSA Pat-Down For Truly Bonkers Reason

Christian nationalist Andrew Isker from Tennessee avoids walking through an airport security scanner at all costs because he claims it makes people gay.

So what's the alternative method he prefers for security clearance? A full body pat down by male TSA agents, of course.

Keep ReadingShow less
Nancy Mace
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Nancy Mace Ripped After Raging Over 'Evil' Constituents Asking Her To Host Town Hall

In March, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP leaders held a caucus meeting to instruct Republican members of Congress to cancel town halls and avoid their constituents for the foreseeable future. But South Carolina MAGA Republican Representative Nancy Mace decided to take things a bit further.

Mace posted three videos attacking her own constituents for sending her an invitation and repeatedly asking for a town hall.

Keep ReadingShow less
Back shot of five young, carefree female friends stand in a field of tall sunflowers clasp hands and raise their arms to the sky.
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

Unbothered People Explain How They Became Immune To A-Holes

Being able to walk away from toxic people is a skill.

Too many of us have wasted too much time in life on people who drag us down.

Keep ReadingShow less
parents holding child's hands
Nienke Burgers on Unsplash

Times People Realized Their Parents Weren't Who They Thought They Were

Some kids grow up with an inflated perception of their parents. They see them as infallible heros.

These kids are usually in for a very rude awakening.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov
10 News First/YouTube

American YouTuber Arrested After Sneaking Onto Remote Island And Leaving Diet Coke For Uncontacted Tribe

24-year-old YouTuber Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov was arrested after making contact with one of the world's last uncontacted tribes, making the perilous and ill-advised journey to North Sentinel Island and leaving a coconut and a can of Diet Coke on the beach as a gift to the Sentinelese.

Polyakov, 24, arrived at the northeastern shore of North Sentinel Island at 10 a.m. on March 29, according to police reports. He used binoculars to survey the land but saw no one. He then climbed ashore, leaving behind a Diet Coke and a coconut, took sand samples, and recorded a video, the authorities said.

Keep ReadingShow less