'People need to read the fine print': Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Texans with giant electricity bills 'gambled' and lost



Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor of Texas, explained why some Texans received a massive electricity bill after the winter storm crisis, and he put the blame squarely on them for "gambling" with their power bill.

Patrick made the comments as a guest this week on Fox News' "Outnumbered."

"I saw the story about the high bills. Let me explain that," Patrick said, referring to reports that some customers had bills as high as $17,000.

"We have in Texas, you can choose your energy plan and most people have a fixed rate. If they had a fixed rate per kilowatt hour, their rates aren't going up. Now their bill might be up because they used more energy because they had the heat up when they got the power back," he continued.

"But the people who are getting those big bills are people who gambled on a very, very low rate, and it would go up with the power," Patrick added.

"But I've told those folks, do not panic. We are going to figure that out," he continued. "But going forward, people need to read the fine print in those kinds of bills and we may even end that type of variable plan because people were surprised."

As president of the Senate in Texas, Patrick went on to say that he would do everything in his power to fix the problem.

"We're gonna get to the bottom of this and find out what the hell happened, and we're gonna fix it once and for all," he added.

He said that they would consider using subpoena power to compel witnesses to testify over the energy grid failures.

At least 80 Texans reportedly died from the historic snowstorm that hit the state and knocked out the electric grid for many days, but experts say the true death toll won't be known for weeks.

Here's the video of Patrick's comments:

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Texans who 'gambled' deserve $17,000 power billswww.youtube.com

Cancun fallout: Ted Cruz says 'rude' neighbors put out 'Beto' signs and his wife is 'pissed' at whoever leaked her texts



Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas detailed more of the fallout from the public relations nightmare surrounding his family's trip to Cancun in Mexico amid the energy crisis in Texas.

Cruz said that his wife Heidi was very upset at whoever leaked texts of her private conversation about the trip. He also said that he was annoyed by his neighbors putting out "Beto" signs for his onetime election challenger, Beto O'Rourke.

He made the comments as a guest on the "Ruthless" podcast published on Tuesday.

"I will say Heidi's pretty pissed at that," he said, referring to leaked texts from his wife inviting friends to join them in Cancun.

The controversy erupted when Cruz was spotted with his family at an airport boarding a plane to Cancun. His home state was experiencing record-low temperatures that broke the energy grid and left millions without electricity to face the fierce cold. At least 80 people died as a result of the crisis.

On the podcast, Cruz said the incident revealed "how ridiculously polarized and nasty" people can get.

"Here's a suggestion: just don't be a–holes," he said. "Like, just, you know, treat each other as human beings have some degree, some modicum of respect."

He went on to gripe about neighbors on his street "who put up Beto signs, which I thought was a little rude."

Cruz added, "you know, I didn't, like, hold a victory party on their front yards when we won."

Defenders of Cruz have pointed out that he was merely trying to keep his wife and daughters happy during a terrible time and that as a U.S. senator there wasn't much he could personally do to alleviate the problems suffered by Texans.

Cruz conceded during a separate guest appearance on talk radio that the decision to leave was "was dumb as hell."

Here's the audio of Cruz talking about the scandal:

Ted Cruz's Wife 'Pissed' About Leaked Textswww.youtube.com

Oil to the rescue: President Biden sends dozens of diesel generators to Texas amid continued power outages



President Joe Biden's Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Thursday afternoon that it is taking steps to help Texas as it continues to grapple with power outages across the state in the midst of a deep freeze.

Included in the FEMA assistance, The Hill reported, are "60 generators to support critical sites like hospitals and water facilities, 729,000 liters of water, more than 10,000 wool blankets, 50,000 cotton blankets and 225,000 meals."

Sixty generators? What do those power providers run on?

Diesel. A fossil fuel.

Considering how frequently Biden and his party like to trash the industry, it's notable that when the chips are down, the federal government — under Democratic control — turns to oil to save the day, the Wall Street Journal pointed out in an editorial posted Thursday night.

Critics have gone after the state's reliance upon wind power in such an oil-rich state, but the entire grid was impacted — not just wind turbines that were created to withstand Texas heat and not a once-in-a-lifetime cold snap.

Regardless of the state's use of renewables like wind or solar, when there was an emergency need for power, oil was the answer — despite the fact that the left seeks to ban fossil fuels, the Journal noted.

In fact, Democrat-run governments continue to be reliant upon their least-hated fossil fuel, natural gas — as well as oil for backup.

"Liberals blame gas plants for not covering wind's you-know-what when turbines froze amid surging demand," the paper said. "This is ironic since they seem to be acknowledging that fossil fuels are necessary, though they still want to banish them."

The Journal pointed out that left-wing states like California and New York continue their "love-hate relationship" with oil and gas.

The Golden State's electric utilities commonly deploy diesel generators when they have to cut power during heavy winds, the Journal said. And Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended emissions rules and relied heavily on diesel generators over the summer during a heat wave that pushed California's grid to the limits "and renewables were MIA."

And then there's the Empire State, home of Green New Deal author Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, where the government's anti-fossil fuel moves have made it increasingly more likely that people will burn oil instead of clean natural gas:

As for New York, its gas plants can switch to oil. So if there is a shortage of gas due to weather or pipeline constraints, power plants can continue to run by burning oil. One irony is that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's natural gas pipeline blockade, which has limited gas shipments from Pennsylvania, has reinforced the state's reliance on less-clean-burning oil for heating fuel.

If we can learn anything from Texas' current power problems, it's that the environmentalists' positions and policy proposals don't work, the paper said. And fossil fuels will have to be used to fix the problems caused by their failed adventures.

The Journal editorial concluded:

Climate activists want to replace gas in homes and buildings with electric heating and stoves, but Texas is showing the problems with this policy. If the power goes out, people don't have heat or hot water. Electric batteries aren't a solution because they can't provide backup power for entire homes including appliances.

The harder the climate absolutists strive to banish fossil fuels, the more Americans learn they can't live without them.

Commentary: The controversy over Ted Cruz's trip to Cancun is silly



In case you missed it, the whole world is flipping out over the fact that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) took a trip to Cancun during the middle of a historic snowstorm in Texas that has caused massive power blackouts in the state. Apparently, the story is important enough that a major New York publication sent a reporter to find out who was taking care of Cruz's dog while he was gone (and predictably wrote a dishonest headline about the answer to that asinine question). The whole controversy is nearly the silliest thing I've ever seen.

The people who are complaining about Cruz right now would have a very valid complaint if Cruz were the governor of Texas or even a mayor of a Texas city or some other executive branch official whose job involves coordinating the government response to a crisis. I would submit that the overwhelming majority of those jobs can also be performed just as effectively from nearly anywhere on the planet in the modern age, but there's something to be said for the boss showing the flag, so to speak.

Cruz's job involves none of those things. His job is to cast votes on behalf of his constituency in Washington, D.C. He has no role in restoring power to the residents of Texas, nor in salting roads or heating homes or anything else. To the extent that he might be doing anything during the course of this week — be it sending strongly worded letters to power company officials or appearing on television to make his concerned face — those things would probably actually distract people who are working to get power back on from doing what they should be doing.

Nor is Cruz guilty of hypocrisy, as so many Democratic politicians were when they took posh trips over the last several months after telling their constituents that traveling to see their families at Thanksgiving would cause us all to die of COVID-19. I can't find any record of anyone posing the question to Cruz, but if someone had asked him if he thought it advisable for Texans to go somewhere that does have power for the duration of the storm, he would probably have answered with a resounding "yes."

Ted Cruz did not spend the last three weeks telling people that traveling anywhere would kill Grandma, only to jet off to a fancy vacation with his family. Many, many, many Democratic politicians did, and yet the Cruz trip has already been covered by the media more than all those trips combined.

The most serious error that Cruz committed was doing something that invited the media to have an excuse to make him look bad. I'm willing to bet that almost no people who were sitting around in the dark and cold in Texas were thinking to themselves, "I wonder what Ted Cruz is doing, and I sure hope he is sitting here in the dark and cold with us, just because."

But now that a media frenzy has descended, many of his constituents will no doubt be angry, even though almost none of them could come up with something that Cruz, as a senator, should have been doing at this time, and even though none of them would have had any complaints about any other person in Texas who responded to extended blackouts and freezing cold by leaving to take a trip somewhere else. That's just called sensible behavior.

Granted, not everyone has the financial wherewithal to escape to Cancun during a time like this, but you can bet that if my power had been off all week and I had relatives in Alabama who invited me to stay with them, I would have done it. And since I feel that class envy reflects more poorly on the people who have it than the people who are targets of it, I find it impossible to condemn Cruz for anything other than violating expectations that are not grounded in reality.

And for that, it seems pretty insane for people to be treating this like the biggest news story of the week. The story has been established: Because his physical presence could not improve the situation in any way whatsoever, Cruz left a place that was cold and without power for a place that was warm and had power. If the people of Texas feel that that reflects poorly upon him, so be it. The ongoing feeding frenzy over the story is plainly not driven by its news value, but rather by animosity Cruz has personally generated among members of the media — which, in my book, is probably his most endearing quality.

Rick Perry says Texans would rather be without power than face federal regulation — and the backlash is fierce



Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry suggested that Texans would rather be without electricity for a few days than face expanding federal regulation, but many of his former constituents took to social media to furiously disagree.

Perry made the comments Wednesday in a blog post on the website for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

"Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business," Gov. Perry said. "Try not to let whatever the crisis of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically, and strategically."

Perry was responding, according to the blog post, to some on the left who were looking at the crisis in Texas as an opportunity to "expand their top-down, radical proposals."

He went on to explain why the crisis in Texas was evidence that they could not depend on solar and wind energy in the future.

"We need to have a baseload. And the only way you can get a baseload in this country is [with] natural gas, coal, and nuclear," he said.

Perry's comments mirror those from Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), who concluded on Tuesday, "Bottom line: fossil fuels are the only thing that saved us. They are *base load* energy."

The comments from Perry were met with angst and anger from many suffering from the lack of power during historically frigid conditions.

"Just got a note from a friend whose uncle died of hypothermia last night in Dallas. Her family and hundreds of thousands of others beg to differ," replied Houston Chronicle columnist Chris Tomlinson.

"So our leaders believe we're willing to die to protect Texas businesses and freeze to keep the feds away from the power companies? What other sacrifices do they have in mind for us?" said Austin reporter Fred Cantu.

"I thought I was going to die at 4am. I was cold to the touch and couldn't bring my temperature up despite wearing 2 thermal leggings + 1 thermal shirt and 2 really warm sweaters. (Add in 2 San Marcos blankets). The temperature in my room was 20f I don't want this ever again," tweeted Kassandra Aleman, a Democrat activist.

"My grandmother in Austin had to drive to a nearby town to stay with relatives because even though their power is out, too, at least they have a fireplace to keep everyone warm. Rick Perry can go to hell," replied Charlotte Clymer, a liberal transgender activist.

On Wednesday morning, 3 million Texans awoke to face the bitter cold without power. Some reports say as many as 20 people have already died because of the crisis.

Perry was once considered a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination and later served as Secretary of Energy under the Trump administration.

Here's more about the energy crisis in Texas:

Millions suffer through deep freeze without power l GMAwww.youtube.com

Energy expert: 'Unreliable' wind and solar energy push is behind Texas' massive power failure



With as much gas and oil as Texas has — and not to mention its own power grid — why in the world is Texas experiencing such bad power outages?

Center for Industrial Progress president and founder Alex Epstein joined "The Glenn Beck Radio Program" to lay out what he's found.

Alex said he believes the "fundamental" problem is "the insistence on using unreliable wind and solar energy instead of reliable energy from coal, nuclear, and natural gas." And soon, it may not be just Texas, as President Joe Biden pushes for 100% dependency on green energy nationwide. THAT is the "real lesson of Texas," he warned.

Watch the video below to catch more of the conversation:


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