On Saturday, Bill Gates said some of the deaths due to the severe winter weather that affected Texas could have been averted by the weathering of power plants.
In a Saturday evening interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the billionaire philanthropist argued that Texas’ natural gas plants were not built to withstand the extreme weather, causing millions across the state to lose power and fight icy temperatures.
As of Saturday, about 70 people have died in Texas and other states affected by the winter freeze, including car crash victims, carbon monoxide poisoning, drownings, house fires and hypothermia, according to The Associated Press.
Abbott has been criticized for claiming that the there were outages with renewable energy sources, though Texas Electric Reliability Council officials they said that problems with various sources, especially natural gas, have contributed to the problem.
“Our wind and solar went out and collectively accounted for more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that pushed Texas into a state where there was a lack of power across the state,” Abbott he said earlier in the week during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity
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Gates, a green energy advocate, backed down on the claim.
“This is not due to renewable dependency,” Gates told Cooper Saturday. “These are largely natural gas plants that haven’t been weathered. They could have been.”
“It cost money and compensation was made, and it didn’t work, and it’s tragic that it has caused people to die,” he added.
Gates went on to say that climate change could be considered the leading cause of extreme weather events, adding that greater reliance on renewable energy could prevent future disasters similar to the winter storm.
“It’s ironic to blame renewable energy and not realize we’ll have to deal with it unless we get everyone to reduce emissions,” Gates said.
Critics have condemned Abbott and Texas’ overall readiness for the winter storm, with five Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee writing in a letter to the Republican Party governor on Friday.
“TThis week’s events show that there are significant shortcomings in preparations and more needs to be done to protect communities disproportionately affected by winter power outages, ”they wrote.
The letter was written in response to a report by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation that said electricity generating companies “were not adequately prepared for the winter “, specifically citing inadequate insulation and failure in the training of operators and maintenance personnel. in winter preparations.