MSNBC host Chris Hayes criticized Fox News and the right-wing media for falsely blaming wind turbines as the cause of the debilitating power outages that plagued Texas, accusing “these charlatans” on Tuesday of promoting “a painful one.” “cultural war idiocy” in an effort to demonize cleansing energy.
With much of Texas plunged into darkness as historic winter storms escalate, demand for electricity has skyrocketed, and the right-wing media has blamed most of the blame on the state’s wind farms. Pointing to images of frozen wind turbines, Fox News linked Joe Biden’s drive for green energy to the catastrophe in Texas, although the state gets most of its energy from fossil fuels.
Starting his MSNBC prime-time program, reviewing the devastation in the Lone Star State, Hayes noted that more than four million Texans were left without power amid freezing temperatures on Tuesday.
He then turned his attention to those who wanted to explore the issue for political gain.
“This is a horrible situation. It is driven by a complex confluence of factors, from extreme weather conditions to an electrical infrastructure that has been woefully underdeveloped to the idiosyncrasies of the independent and aggressively deregulated energy market in Texas, ”he noted.
“But, of course, Fox News and other Republicans saw some kind of suffering, some kind of problem somewhere and immediately – without missing a beat – immediately tried to turn it into a cultural war, in this case against those damn liberal hippies and its clean energy, ”added the progressive host of MSNBC.
Reproducing a montage of Fox stars blaming windmills solely for deadly downtime, while claiming that wind power does not work in sub-zero temperatures, Hayes pointed out how utterly meaningless these claims were.
“Imagine how stupid you would have to think your audience is, the contempt you have to contain them, look at the camera and try to convince them that windmills don’t work when it’s cold,” he exclaimed. “After Texas, Iowa is the state with the most wind energy in the country. If you’ve ever been to Iowa in the winter, I can tell you from experience, it’s very cold in Iowa. “
Adding that Denmark, a country with very cold winters, receives half of its energy from the wind, the All in The host then quoted the senior director of the Texas Electric Reliability Council, who said on Tuesday that the ice that forced some wind turbines to shut down was the “least significant factor” in Texas blackouts.
“It is just a lie that wind turbines, green energy, are the roots of the problems in Texas now,” said Hayes, comparing the statement to the “Big Lie” that the election was “stolen” from former President Donald Trump.
“Let’s be clear, this is probably a lie as consistent as any other about the election because energy and how we produce it is the biggest problem this country will face in the medium term,” he continued.
Noting that power grids are “complicated” and “mysterious”, Hayes said that from time to time a disaster occurs that reminds us that the grid is the “base of modern civilization – and also the key to overcoming climate change”.
“Republicans and the right-wing media want to take every political issue and turn it into a painful idiocy of cultural war,” said Hayes. “And there is an interest in doing so. Fossil fuel companies want that too. They want to turn into a cultural war, as libs don’t want you to have power. “
Despite saying that there is no reason why we cannot “create a modern energy infrastructure that is more resistant to climate change and also cheaper and also serves people better”, Hayes concluded that “the biggest obstacle will be these charlatans who will take advantage of all opportunities to lie to people for profit and power. “