Texas’ electrical grid could fail again, and the woke crowd has taken to Twitter to use the state's power woes to call for a Democrat takeover of the Lone Star State leading the phrase “Turn Texas Blue” to trend on Twitter Tuesday.
ERCOT has issued a Conservation Alert, and Texans are being asked to safely reduce their electric use.
— ERCOT (@ERCOT_ISO) June 14, 2021
The mess all began on Monday afternoon when ERCOT—the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which is responsible for supplying power to more than 25 million Texans—issued a “conservation alert” and called upon its consumers to reduce their power usage.
Deregulation and Republican control in Texas is killing people. It is far past time to #TurnTexasBlue. We can start by removing @GovAbbott in 2022.
— AMHotFlash (@AMHotFlash) June 15, 2021
Quite predictably, ERCOT’s announcement was met with intense backlash on Twitter, especially as the memory of February’s winter storm remains fresh in the minds of many Texans.
Wake up Texas! Today is June 14th and we were under a heat advisory in the Dallas area! On July 14th, this day will be a cool day in comparison. 700 people died during the blackout in February. Nothing has been done to the grid and we’re on the verge of another blackout.?? pic.twitter.com/JmMJtA7JPP
— AMHotFlash (@AMHotFlash) June 15, 2021
Reduce our energy? FU.
— Wendy (@wendyc78757) June 14, 2021
I lived in Texas my whole life. I have never heard of issues like this or seen it get this bad.
Join the national grid or fix this shit.
Some users placed blame on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who tweeted last week that “Everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas" by reforming ERCOT and start plans to prevent future energy crises.
Everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 8, 2021
Today, I signed bills into LAW to reform ERCOT & weatherize & improve the reliability of the state's power grid.
Thanks @KHancock4TX, @DrSchwertner, & @chrispaddie for your leadership on these issues. pic.twitter.com/sXH5NTZ4Jq
All the outrage from progressives against Governor Abbott is misguided, though. ERCOT is an independent system operator and, as a nonprofit corporation, has a CEO and Board of Directors who are responsible for keeping the lights on, not Abbott, although the Texas state legislature has an oversight role. The individual currently in charge, ERCOT CEO Brad Jones, only came into his position last month after his predecessor, Bill Magness, was terminated for failing to notify state officials about possible blackouts during February’s winter storm.
What's more, most of the people blaming Abbott and calling for a movement to #TurnTexasBlue are proponents of more unreliable green energy sources, which have not yet developed—at least not in Texas—to the point of being as dependable as fossil fuels. During the February power grid failure, the extreme cold disproportionately impacted renewable sources such as wind and solar.