Former U.S Secretary of Energy Rick Perry lost connection during an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson after being invited on the show to talk about the power issues in Texas amid a massive winter storm sweeping through the state.
“He’s proving the point that we’re making,” Carlson said when it became apparent that Perry, who is also the former governor of Texas, lost his connection during the interview.
Connection lost when Tucker Carlson invites Rick Perry to talk about Texas losing power because of wind turbines freezing in the winter storm
“He’s proving the point that we’re making” pic.twitter.com/0GWVmgYXTt
— Daniel Chaitin (@danielchaitin7) February 16, 2021
Carlson was attempting to ask Perry whether the state’s dependence on green energy, specifically windmills, was in part to blame for the mass power outages currently plaguing the state.
“The most basic responsibility of government is to keep the power on, especially when people need it to survive. They didn’t. Why?” Carlson asked Perry before his connection was lost.
After Perry’s connection dropped off, Carlson pointed out that the state’s former governor was currently in Texas.
“I should say that Rick Perry is in Texas,” Carlson said. “He’s in Texas, he has no power. That’s being run, I think, on a generator.”
Carlson then pivoted to another guest, wondering if a “reckless reliance on windmills” is to blame for the current situation in Texas.
Texas fell victim to a rare winter storm that left millions of the state’s residents without power, causing many to blame the state’s frozen windmills for the failure to bring power back as many Texans struggle through bitterly cold temperatures.
While windmills do make up about 25% of the state’s energy production this time of year, some experts have cautioned against placing all of the blame on their failures.
“The performance of wind and solar is way down the list among the smaller factors in the disaster that we’re facing,” said Daniel Cohan, associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University.
Texas residents have now been forced to deal with rotating outages as a “last resort” while the Electric Reliability Council of Texas works to restore full power throughout the state.
