Texas needs a “Manhattan-type project” to deal with climate change and provide clean energy, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said on Sunday.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” McCaul declared it’s no longer a question of whether climate change is a reality.
“I think it's real. I think the question is how to deal with it,” he said. “I think innovation, technology, a Manhattan-type project to deal with the clean energy is a way to go.
McCaul lamented the state wasn’t “bringing in micro nuclear devices to produce a ton of energy with zero carbon emotions,” and said it’s “ideas like that that we can put forward” to deal with climate change.
His remarks come in the wake of a winter storm that devastated the power grid in the Lone Star State — and McCaul said the storm underscores the need to "winterize" its system.
The disaster can be traced to Texas’ status as an island in the U.S. electrical system. Utility executives have argued the Texas grid would be less reliable and more vulnerable to blackouts if it were fully connected to the rest of the country.
Then in 2011, after millions of Texans lost power during the Super Bowl, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation did a study on how Texas could “winterize” its energy infrastructure. It didn’t happen.
“We were not winterized,” McCaul told CNN.
“We have more energy in this state than any other state in the United States, and arguably more than any in the world, and yet, here we are without energy. How does that make sense? And we can blame it on wind and solar, but that's about 25% of the grid as 75% is natural gas and coal. They were all frozen in their operations.
“This winterization idea that I've talked about was set forth in the 2011 report is something that I believe we need to strongly move forward and make the investment that they failed to do in the past. We have to make that investment now.”
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