Republicans from Texas will use federal funds to pay exorbitant energy bills hitting ordinary Texans after a deep freeze paralyzed the state this week, a senior congressman said Sunday.
Millions of Texans were subject to blackouts because the cold weather overwhelmed an unprepared state network, by design independent of federal oversight. The disruptions have contributed to dozens of deaths and a crisis over safe access to water that continues even as temperatures rise.
On Saturday, President Joe Biden declared a major disaster and released funding to help. On Sunday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC’s This Week the president was “eager to head down to Texas and show his support”. But she also said Biden ‘is very aware of the fact that it is not a light footprint for a president to travel to a disaster area’ and ‘does not want to take resources or attention’.
Reports have surfaced that some Texans whose power remains are now facing huge bills as private businesses try to make money. The New York Times reported on one case in which a 63-year-old military veteran living in the suburbs of Dallas on social security had an electricity bill of nearly $ 17,000, 70 times more than he would normally put together for all utilities pay.
“I can do nothing about it,” Scott Willoughby told the newspaper, “but it broke me.”
Texas Republican Michael McCaul, former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, spoke to CNN’s State of the Union.
“The current plans with the federal bill are to help the homeowners both recover, because we have a lot of water leaks, and a lot of water damage pipes bursting, but also [pay] their electricity bills as well, ”he said.
Host Dana Bash challenged him, saying: ‘I hear you say that the federal government will help to sponsor, and to pay bills in a part that is partly in this mess, because it wants to be separate from the federal. government. It’s a little rich, don’t you think? ‘
McCaul evaded the question, saying Texas should rather prepare for more extreme climate events. The freeze, he said, was “just an example of what we can expect if the United States does not face the climate crisis in the foreground”.
The disaster statement issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, applies to 77 of 254 Texas counties, which led Governor Greg Abbott to say it should cover the entire state.
Psaki said: ‘What is happening here is that the governor has requested a federal disaster declaration. The president asked his team to speed it up. And Fema has determined where … the immediate resources should focus, where the provinces are hit the hardest, so that they can make sure they get to the people in need.
‘It means not only getting people through this emergency, but getting people through the recovery, people who have no water, no heating, need some time to stay, that’s what the big disaster statement is about. will help to address, or it is our hope. ”
McCaul was asked about remarks in which former Texas Gov. and U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry claimed: “Texans would be without electricity for more than three days to keep the federal government out of their affairs.”
McCaul said: “Power sharing would have been useful if we could share with other power networks.” That can not happen, he said, because the Texas network is’ set up … to be independent of federal oversight and regulations. It’s very good with things like cyber security, not as good when it comes to an arctic explosion like this.
“In 2011, the legislature appeared after a very bad freezing point with a dual report with recommendations to the energy companies on how to winterize our operations.”
These recommendations were not followed.
“When it happened, our entire energy system was not overwintering for temperatures below zero,” McCaul said. “This is what we are going to look at, these recommendations that were made in 2011.”
McCaul was also asked about efforts by prominent Democrats, including Beto O’Rourke and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the former of El Paso but the last of New York, to help ordinary Texans. Such actions contrasted with the behavior of Republicans, including Senator Ted Cruz, who flew with his family to Mexico rather than staying in his Houston home, a move for which he was looted.
“I think we need to help, too,” McCaul said, “and we will do so with the federal emergency declaration we received from the president. But I think it’s great that they cross party lines to help Americans first and not just Republicans or Democrats.
‘… I know some get hot. Like when a crisis hits my condition, I’m there. I’m not going on vacation. I know Mr Cruz calls it a mistake and he is in possession of it. But I think it was a big mistake. ‘