Houston Mayor Sylvester TurnerSylvester TurnerSunday shows the preview: CDC school reopening guide arouses debate; Texas wall freeze battles in honor of George Floyd unveiled outside his alma mater school in Houston Houston will send residents up to 200 checks for pandemic relief MORE (D) said on Sunday that he did not believe in a visit to Texas for President biden
Joe BidenNearly 70 dead in states with severe winter weather: report Two more confirmed deaths in Louisiana related to severe winter weather Lawyer who filed a lawsuit to reverse the 2020 election results sent by the judge for discipline MORE it would be a “distraction” after winter storms devastated the state’s power grid.
“We would certainly receive it and it would not be a distraction, [nor] a burden, ”Turner said on CBS’s“ Face the Nation ”program on Sunday.
The mayor told Margaret Brennan of CBS that the areas of greatest need in the city involved restoring plumbing infrastructure affected by the winter weather.
“With so many houses across the city with pipes that burst due to the cold weather and major leaks, major water damage, we need a lot of plumbing materials and supplies now. We have several licensed plumbers, but we could use even more, ”he said.
NEWS: @SylvesterTurner, the Mayor of Houston – a mecca of energy and the 4th largest city in the country – says @margbrennan “We need to open our Texas network,” to allow it to purchase power from generators outside the state. Says the state must pay residents’ “exorbitant” bills pic.twitter.com/pBZvM5IMOW
– Face the nation (@FaceTheNation) February 21, 2021
Turner went on to criticize the state’s autonomous power grid, which was not prepared for winter in such conditions, during much of the radioactive precipitation.
“Everything that happened last week was predictable and preventable,” said Turner, noting that, as a state legislator, he introduced an unsuccessful bill a decade ago requiring the state’s public utility agency to ensure adequate reserves.
“Our system in Texas was designed primarily for the summer heat and not necessarily a winter event … the reality is that climate change is real and these major storms can happen at any time,” he said. “The system needs to be weathered, we need to maintain adequate reserves and we need to open our network in Texas. At the moment, we have a closed network, we cannot obtain generation from outside the state because of our system. “