MSNBC host obliterates Fox News for 'lie' that Texas blackouts were caused by wind turbine failures

On Tuesday's edition of MSNBC's "All In," anchor Chris Hayes demolished the false claim from Republican officials that the catastrophic blackouts in Texas are caused by overreliance on wind power.

"This is an awful situation. It's driven by a complex confluence of factors, from extreme weather to an electric infrastructure that's been woefully underdeveloped to the idiosyncrasies of Texas' aggressively deregulated and independent energy market," said Hayes. "But of course, Fox News and other Republicans saw some kind of suffering, some kind of problem somewhere and immediately, without missing a beat, right away tried to turn it into a culture war, in this case against those damn hippy liberals and their clean energy."

Hayes played clips of pro-Trump economist Larry Kudlow saying, "Folks, this is just more proof green energy is not ready for prime time," former Texas Gov. Rick Perry saying, "If this Green New Deal goes forward the way that the Biden administration appears to want it to, then we'll have more events like we've had in Texas all across the country," and Fox host Tucker Carlson saying, "The windmills failed like the silly fashion accessories they are and people in Texas died."

"'Silly fashion accessories,'" said Hayes. "Imagine how stupid you would have to think your audience is, the contempt you have to hold them in, to look into the camera and try to sell them on the idea that windmills don't work when it's cold. After Texas, Iowa is the state with the most wind power in the country. If you've ever been to Iowa in the winter, I can tell you from personal experience, it gets pretty cold in Iowa. Denmark gets nearly half of its energy from wind power. I don't know if you've looked this up, anyone at Fox News, but Denmark, very cold place in the winter."

"You don't have to take my word for it, of course, we have the data from Texas," said Hayes. "Now, Texas has their own energy grid ... a senior director telling Bloomberg today, 'While ice has forced some wind turbines to shut down just as a brutal cold wave drives electricity demand, that's been the least significant factor in the blackouts. The main factors have been frozen instruments at natural gas, coal and even nuclear facilities as well as limited supplies of natural gas. Natural gas pressure, in particular, is one reason power is coming back slower than expected. Wind shutdowns accounted for less than 13 percent of the total outages, and wind generation has actually exceeded the grid operators' daily forecast through the weekend.'"

"It is just a lie that wind turbines, green energy, are the root causes of the problems in Texas right now," concluded Hayes. "It is a lie like Donald Trump won the election, a lie like there was widespread voter fraud, a lie pumped into millions of people's brains as they watch TV. And let's be clear, this is probably as consequential a lie as any about the election, because energy, and how we produce it, is the single biggest issue this country will face in the medium term."

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