Ted Cruz's Tweet About California Energy Shortages Comes Back To Haunt Him
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An old tweet from GOP Sen. Ted Cruz criticizing California’s energy policies went viral on Monday as the senator’s own state, Texas, reeled from a massive snowstorm that knocked out power to more than 4 million homes and businesses.
Cruz’s August 2020 post had taken aim at a tweet from the Office of the Governor of California, which urged residents to conserve energy by turning off lights, limiting the usage of electrical appliances and adjusting thermostats.
At the time, California was gripped by a major heat wave and implementing its first rolling power blackouts since 2001.
“California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity,” Cruz wrote back then.
The senator also claimed that supporters of the Green New Deal ― like President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, then campaigning for the White House, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) ― wanted “to make CA’s failed energy policy the standard nationwide.”
California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity.
Biden/Harris/AOC want to make CA’s failed energy policy the standard nationwide.
Hope you don’t like air conditioning! https://t.co/UkKBq9HkoK— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 19, 2020
As Monday’s extreme snow and freezing temperatures caused Texas to implement its own rolling blackouts, multiple commentators referenced Cruz’s old tweet, pointing out that the senator was perfectly happy to criticize California last August but noticeably quiet when it came to the emergency measures affecting his own state.
I ache for Central Texas, but I can't help noting the irony here: when California's heat and fires led to rolling blackouts there last year, Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz called it a failure of liberal energy policy. Now climate change is doing the exact same to them. https://t.co/SCPJHjmwie
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) February 15, 2021
It's almost as if in a world where extreme weather events become an annual thing, nobody anywhere has a power grid that can fully meet the emergency needs we've put on ourselves.
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) February 15, 2021
Here are three Texas Republicans mocking California power outages last year and my Dallas bathtub this morning, a literal block of ice pic.twitter.com/ViGZuTZz40
— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) February 16, 2021
If only you cared about your state instead of trying to “own” the libs, your tweets would not get ratioed.
— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) February 16, 2021
Hey "Ted." Hope you don't like heat in your home! Both the electricity and the gas companies in Texas couldn't protect Texans against the worst winter in decades. What about the failed energy policy of Texas?!? I hear y'all trying to blame it on turbines? Ha . . .
— Dr. Deborah Stote (@deborah_stote) February 16, 2021
My parents hv been without electricity for almost 24hrs in Houston they are not even rotating power outages in Houston anymore. Looks like Republicans like you took energy for granted, and didn’t invest enough in the power grid in Texas.
— Cloudydays16 need PPE now (@cloudydays1971) February 16, 2021
TX: remember how cold tonight is. Remember all the GOP is good for is talking shit, fear mongering, endless distractions, & conspiracies. The reason you’re cold tonight is because the GOP doesn’t run on policy. They run on the easiest path to raw power.
— nicole elan (@nicole_chenelle) February 16, 2021
As of Tuesday, outages in Texas were expected to last the full day for most affected homes and businesses. A representative for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas told a local ABC station that only about 10-15% of those customers were expected to get power back by mid-afternoon.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
