The author and environmentalist Naomi Klein spoke in a New York Times column Sunday that Republicans attack the Green New Deal as the disaster struck in Texas because the popular push for a comprehensive transformation of the U.S. energy system poses a real threat to the deregulated, fossil fuel-dependent status quo that leaves the Lone Star State vulnerable has to extreme weather driven by the climate crisis.
“Texans are living through the collapse of a 40-year experiment in free market fundamentalism, one that has also stood in the way of effective climate action,” Klein wrote. “Fortunately, there is a way out – and that’s exactly what Republican politicians in the state fear most.”
Klein characterized the ongoing crises over power, water and food in Texas as a result of an ‘energy market for free for all’ resulting from a fatal series of decisions [that] was made in the late ’90s, when the now defunct, scandal-ridden energy company Enron led a successful effort to radically deregulate the Texas electricity sector. ‘
“As a result, decisions on the generation and distribution of power have been taken away from regulators and, in effect, handed over to private energy companies,” Klein wrote. “It’s not surprising that these businesses prioritize short-term profits over priority investments to maintain the network and build retrenchments for extreme weather. Today, Texans are at the mercy of regulatory-allergic politicians who did not require energy companies to plan for shocks or to protect them from infrastructure (renewable and fossil fuels). “
In the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri, ordinary Texans are beginning to see the direct impact of deregulatory pressure on their material well-being, as electric companies hit them with $ 17,000 bills – ‘a consequence,’ Klein argued, ‘of raising prices to the grille too late. of the market. ‘
With the exception of her previous work on ‘the shock ladder’ – a term she coined to describe how the right-wing disasters of the past used to force through unpopular privatization and austerity agendas – Klein noted that ‘large-scale shocks .. become ideal moments to smuggle. in unpopular free market policies that tend to enrich elite at the expense of all. ‘
“I regularly quote a guru from the free market revolution, the late economist Milton Friedman,” Klein wrote. “In 1982, he wrote about what he saw as the mission of right-wing economists: ‘Only a crisis – real or perceived – produces real change. When the crisis occurs, the actions taken depend on the ideas. which I believe is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable. ‘
Klein said the difference between past shocks such as the Sept. 11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the 2008 financial crisis and the current Texas emergency, is that “Republican ideas are no longer lying around – they are in ruins.”
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has attacked the Green New Deal – a proposal that has not even been implemented – in an appearance on Fox News last week because he knows that his promise to ‘create millions of unions to build shock-resistant green energy infrastructure, passage and affordable housing’ for Texans ‘is extremely attractive because they’ suffer from the overlapping crises of unemployment, homelessness, race injustice, crumbling public services and extreme weather, ”Klein wrote.
“All that the Republicans of Texas have to offer, on the other hand,” has continued oil and gas dependence – which is causing more climate disruption – along with more privatization and cuts to public services to pay for the waste of their state, which we can expect from them. to imprint the weeks and months ahead. ‘
As The Houston Chronicle reported last week, Republican members of the Texas legislature are already signing that ‘one of the most immediate reforms they will strive for is recalibrating the state’s electricity network to ensure more fossil fuels are in that mix and less renewable energy sources. . ‘
But Klein claims that “unlike when the Republican Party started using the shock ladder, his free-market playbook is no longer new.”
“The horrors currently unfolding in Texas reveal the reality of the climate crisis and the extreme vulnerability of infrastructure to fossil fuels in the face of the crisis,” Klein wrote. “Of course, the Green New Deal finds fierce attack. Because for the first time in a long time, Republicans are facing the same issue they claim they respect, but never really wanted: competition – in the battle of ideas.”
In recent days, such as General dreams reportedly, progressive groups such as the Sunrise Movement by the youth and Greenpeace USA have made the case that a Green New Deal, unlike the GOP attacks, is bad enough to help Texas recover fairly from the current emergency and builds the resilience needed to withstand future climate-driven disasters.
“Many people across the country are realizing for the first time that fossil fuels are not only polluting, they are unstable. Millions of Texans are currently being let down by coal, oil and gas,” Greenpeace climate campaign Ashley Thomson said last Thursday. .
On Monday, activists with the Texas Sunrise Movement are expected to gather at state capital in Austin to demand immediate relief for struggling Texans, the resignations of Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas.), And the passage of a Green New An action that “will make our state and country more resilient to future disasters, and create millions of good unions in the process of transforming these necessary structures.”
“Texas is the perfect example of what happens when our politicians provide for fossil fuel drivers instead of the young people who have been shouting from the rooftops for years and warning of an impending climate crisis like this,” said Chante Davis, a 17-year-old. -year-old, said. former Sunrise Movement leader and Houston resident.
“I’ve survived storms three times in my life in my 17 years,” added Davis, whose family moved to Texas after Hurricane Katrina. “We need change, and the Green New Deal is the obvious, urgent solution. As our communities come together to fill the void left by our government, we must invest in our leaders to create jobs that address the crises we face. do, address directly. “
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