TEXAS — As Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has come under fire as the weather catastrophe in Texas drags on, he appeared on Fox News Tuesday night and blamed wind and solar energy for the state’s ongoing blackouts. He additionally likened the current situation in Texas to what would occur if the Green New Deal were to pass and take effect. 

Former Texas Democratic congressman Beto O’Rourke seized on the statements, taking to social media to criticize the governor.

“You’re the governor of a state where millions don’t have power, where people are literally dying of exposure, and you go on Fox news to talk about... the Green New Deal?” he wrote. “You are the governor. Your party has run Texas for 20 years. Accept responsibility & help us get out of this.”

Abbott wasn’t alone in attributing the massive power failures in Texas to clean energy. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller criticized wind energy in a Facebook post.

“We should never build another wind turbine in Texas,” Miller wrote. “The experiment failed big time.”

Yet another problem with wind turbines. There should never be another one ever built in the Lone Star State.

Posted by Sid Miller on Tuesday, February 16, 2021

It has been pointed out numerous times by the Associated Press and state officials that failures in natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy systems were responsible for nearly twice as many outages as frozen wind turbines and solar panels. That was confirmed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (EROCT) during a news briefing Tuesday.

Further, the Green New Deal is irrelevant, as no version of it exists in Texas or nationwide, said Mark Jacobson, director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University.

“It’s really natural gas and coal and nuclear that are providing the bulk of the electricity and that’s the bulk of the cause of the blackouts,” Jacobson told The Associated Press.

ERCOT said on Tuesday that of the 45,000 total megawatts of power that were offline statewide, about 30,000 consisted of thermal sources — gas, coal and nuclear plants — and 16,000 came from renewable sources.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.