The Daily Beast
Another GOP representative fled Texas – via private jet – at the height of the deep freeze crisis
State legislator KPRC 2Texas Gary Gates lost power at his home in Fort Bend County on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning he boarded his private jet into the magical land of Orlando, Florida. His untimely escape happened the same day, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and his family flew to Cancún, just as the extreme winter storm was turning into a single crisis in a generation in Texas. Millions were left without light or running water while temperatures dropped below freezing, killing at least 30 people. Gates, a Republican, said he made the decision after his pipes burst, 30% of his house flooded and he started to see mold. My wife is still recovering from an illness she has been fighting for two weeks, and my adult daughter’s room, which is mentally handicapped and still lives with us, has flooded, ”said Gates. Ted Cruz went to Cancún. This rapper gave Houston free water. Gates told local TV station KPRC 2 Houston in an interview that he needed to get to a place where he would have “reliable energy, reliable internet and reliable phone service” to continue his professional duties. He could not stay with the other daughter, he said , who had also lost power. Apparently, Florida was the second best solution. But adding confusion to an already baffling decision, a Fort Bend Star reporter tweeted that Gates’s chief of staff told him that Gates flew to Orlando for a business meeting. I spoke with @GatesforTexas team leader today. Gates, owner of Gatesco Inc, the manager of several apartment buildings in Houston, was on a business trip and was meeting with a “big supplier” in Orlando and returning tomorrow. https://t.co/OzhgrIIbGj— Stefan Modrich (@StefanJModrich) February 18, 2021 The lawmaker said he attended a meeting with a supplier of his Florida property management business, but denied that it was pre-planned . He also said the Fort Bend Star source was not his real chief of staff. “Many of the constituents were in the same situation and didn’t get a chance to get on a plane and leave town,” Cynthia Ginyard, president of Fort Democrats for Bend County, told KPRC 2. No, you cannot bring the water back. But you can be there, “she said. The constituents were also furious when they found out about their representative’s escape.” It really would have been nice to have a state representative helping out on the ground, working at a heating center, packing food, etc. . instead of (flying) right away on a private plane when things get tough, ”Brian Walz, a Gates member, told The Houston Chronicle. “My neighbors were unable to do that when the pipe burst.” “I think Gates took over from Senator Cruz,” reported the Chronicle that someone wrote on Facebook. The lawmaker returned home on Friday. ‘Manufactured disaster’: The death toll in Texas has continued to rise since the brutal cold. Cruz and Gates are not the only Republican leaders under attack during the winter storm. Democrats went nuclear on Friday, accusing Republican state leaders of leaving Texas vulnerable to disaster through years of neglect and corporate loyalty. “Republicans … left the state of Texas because of their incompetence or literally, like Ted Cruz flying to the beaches of Mexico when everyone here is freezing without power and without water”, Rep. Julián Castro (D-TX), the ex Mayor of San Antonio, told MSNBC. Republicans in Texas have taken a market-oriented approach to utilities, resulting in an uniquely isolated power grid that is not connected to other state networks and is not subject to federal regulations. State legislators from the Republican Party previously opposed mandatory winterization of the networks. Conservative Governor Greg Abbott also chose nominees for the Public Utility Commission, which regulates the state’s power grid manager, the Texas Energy Reliability Council (ERCOT). These nominees promptly abandoned a multi-year contract with a nonprofit organization that independently monitored the commission’s work and helped enforce state protocols, such as the HVAC guidelines, reported the Houston Chronicle. Abbott retracted his initial accusation that the crisis was caused by a collapse in renewable energy sources, but he continues to blame ERCOT for the crisis. Marc Veasey (D-TX) said Republicans like Abbott were “almost blaming the Green New Deal” – referring to proposed climate legislation that is not yet law. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top news in your inbox every day. Subscribe now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. To know more.