The division of power, McCaul acknowledged, “would be [also] have been useful. We could have shared it with other energy networks. “
He described a 2011 report from the state legislature that contained recommendations “on how to prepare our operations for the winter”, which was never properly implemented. “That’s what we’re going to look at in the future,” he said, “so that it never happens again.”
“The difference between Texas and, say, the Northeast, is that we are not prepared for that,” continued McCaul. “We are not used to that kind of weather.” The grid “was not prepared for winter for temperatures below zero degrees.”
“Everything that happened last week was predictable and preventable,” said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who served on the state legislature in 2011 and introduced a bill that would make the grid wintery, he told CBS News’ “Face the Nation “on Sunday.
To make matters worse, many residents have also received historically high energy bills as a result of the extreme climate – which McCaul said federal funds will help reimburse customers.
An emergency disaster declaration by President Joe Biden “brings federal assistance from the federal government, and that is what Texans need now, so desperately,” said McCaul. “The current plans with federal assistance is to be able to help homeowners” not only to repair their homes, but also to pay “their electricity bills”.
Asked whether the idea of using federal funds to pay for the consequences of the failure of a state network was “kind of rich”, McCaul strayed.
“That’s the deal, [it happened] because we are not prepared for winter, “he said.” We need to move forward strongly and make the investment that they have not made in the past “, implementing the recommendations of the 2011 report.
Climate change, said McCaul, “is real”. The question “is how to deal with this.”
He called for “a Manhattan-type project to deal with clean energy”, referring to the Manhattan Project, for which the United States developed the atomic bomb in World War II.
Asked about the Democrats’ view, in some cases, doing more than Republicans to help the Republican-controlled state, McCaul was complimentary.
“It’s great that they are crossing party lines to help Americans in the first place and not just Republicans and Democrats,” said McCaul of the efforts of former Texan MP Beto O’Rourke and MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN. Y.) to help Texans affected by the storm. “This is how it really should be.”
“When a crisis hits my state, I’m there. I’m not going on vacation,” continued McCaul. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ‘s decision to fly to Mexico for a spontaneous midweek vacation “was a big mistake”.