greg abbott, the governor _ funding. greg abbott, the governor of _ funding.tate of texas. just before we go — an italian hikerfound that man's best friend lived up to his name, after he broke his ankle in the alps. the dog — called ash — stayed with the 33—year—old, who spent a week in the foothills with no phone signal to call for help. he dragged himself to a stream, and said ash kept him warm through the freezing nights and helped to raise his spirits. finally, if in doubt, stay three flamingos apart. that is the message that the adelaide zoo to people paying a visit after months of closure due to the pandemic. staff see the creatures seem pleased to see the visitors, especially the gorilla who loves to interact with humans. everyone was wearing masks. more on our website, that is bbc news, and i am on twitter. you stay with us. —— do stay with us. hello again, we've got mild and windy weather as we head on into the weekend. but for some of us it's also going to work out to be pretty wet. we've got a slow—moving weather front across western areas, and alon

greg abbott the _ provide that funding. greg abbott the state _ provide that funding.king to us. talk us through the level of demand for the houston food bank given the weather conditions and the power outages and the lack of water in the area. this power outages and the lack of water in the area.— water in the area. this is actually _ water in the area. this is actually on _ water in the area. this is actually on top _ water in the area. this is actually on top of - water in the area. this is actually on top of all - water in the area. this is actually on top of all the | actually on top of all the extra work that we were doing because of covid. food banks all around the world are dealing with the financial crisis that that's created. at first letter everybody to shut down and unfortunately low income housing with freezers and refrigerators going out because of power they've got that economic loss. in the united states people who make lower wages tend to not get paid if there is a business interruption. so there is a weeks worth of economic loss there. on top of it wh

and coming up, texas governor greg abbott will join us. he will have the the very latest as he has ordered a full investigation into the ongoing outages out there. huge and sustained support for president donald trump within the republican party.f we are going to explain what that means for the future of the g.o.p. coming up, but first, the mob, the media, their embarrassing love affair with joe biden. it's only getting worse. after five years of never ending lies, smears, conspirac theories, breathless hysteria directed at any and all things donald trump. most of the so-called journalists, fake news people are now taking it easy just like they did with obama. it sounds eerily familiar. remember that question about w president obama, what do you find enchanting? >> during these first 100 days, what has surprised you the most about this office, enchanted you the most about serving in this office, humbled you the most, and troubled you the most? >> let me write this down. [laughter] i've got, what was the first one? >> surprised. >> troubled

governor greg abbott said yesterday that electricity should be soon fully restored across the state and that grocery stores will be restocked now that road conditions are safe for deliveries. but this morning, millions of texans still don't have access to safe or drinkable water. the governor says that so far, nearly 3.5 million bottles of water have been distributed across the state. meanwhile, last week's major winter storm is being blamed for dozens of deaths in texas. in san antonio, a 69-year-old man was found dead inside his home. he had no electricity, and authorities say his bedroom was 35 degrees when he was found. in abilene, authorities say a 60-year-old man was found dead in his home as well as an 86-year-old woman whose daughter found her frozen in the

the state's so-called leaders including governor greg abbott, have been blaming renewable energy forcrisis, even though the state runs primarily on fossil fuels. and this dereliction is hardly new. texas republican leaders have been mocking other states for their natural disasters for years. their favorite scapegoats include a second term congresswoman from queens and a green new deal that doesn't exist yet anywhere in the country. but it turns out the joke was on them. representative alexandria ocasio-cortez actually was involved in this crisis. doing the hard work republicans wouldn't do. while senator cruz was dropping off his family at the ritz carlton in cancun, she raised over $3 million for constituents in the lone star state. so to ted cruz and his fellow republicans in texas, let me say this, the time for rip ocerousy and victim blaming is over. you have spent years ridiculing the idea that government can help and protect people even as you have seized the levers of power to enrich yourselves. and now, even in the middle of rolling blackouts, millions of texans and hundreds

greg abbott went on fox news and he's trying to blame aoc and the green new deal, which is not even in place right now. but the important point here is that this is not a breakdown in the system. this is a system that is broken down by design. a system that did not require the winterization of either the thermal production facilities or any other type of energy production facilities. did not incentivize it either. and a system that is allowing outrageous price gouging, price spikes, just to give you a sense, that went from $30 per megawatt hour to $9,000 per megawatt hour at the very time when texans need it the most. and there was reporting out today quoting one of the natural gas producers that said that this experience had been like hitting the jackpot. these are the folks who are being rewarded. you know, this is a tale as old as time of greed and of cronyism that has led to the breakdown that we're seeing today. >> secretary julian castro and congressman joaquin castro, thank you both very much for joining us from texas tonight. we really appreciate it. thank you. and when we come

texas governor greg abbott made the rounds on texas television news programs to say it's a total failure of the organization known as ercot that runs the state's power grid. he called for an investigation and executives to resign. >> ercot stands for electric reliability counsel of texas and they showed they were not reliable. >> reporter: most of texas runs on its own power grid separate from the rest of the country. state leaders designed it this way to avoid federal regulation. ercot officials decided the decision to take power away from millions of homes spared a system wide failure that could have take months to repair and left more people freezing. >> if we had waited and not done outages, not reduced demand to reflect what was going on on the overall system, we could have drifted towards a blackout. >> reporter: according to ercot officials, equipment failures at oil and gas plants account for the largest amounts of power knocked offline and right wing pundits used the texas freeze to blast the reliability of wind and solar power. in the middle of this crisis, governor abbott went

chris: millions of people were affected by the power outages in texas this week, and the governor, greg abbott, blamed it on alternative energy sources. here he is. >> this shows how the green new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america. if the biden administration is going to try to eradicate fossil fuels in the united states, every state is going to constantly have channels like what -- challenges like what america is seeing take place in texas right now. chris: the governor says that wind you turbines especially fad and created this crisis. your response. >> well, it's not at all true. the failure to weatherize some of the nuclear sensors, the natural gas plants and even some of the wind are responsible for their power shortage, and the wind is a tiny part of it. it was mostly the thermal generators that went offline because they hadn't been weatherized. obviously, wind works in north dakota, works in alaska. we know how to weatherize wind turbines. the wind does come and go, but what was shut down, the vast majority, was thermal plants here. so, you know, there is a re

>>> so here's the breaking news, president joe biden speaking with texas governor greg abbott about the storm, hundreds of thousands of people in texas still without power tonight, bundling up to fight off another fight of freezing cold it happens and adding to the misery, around 13 million texans are facing a water crisis. either they don't have water due to broken pipes or lack of water pressure or they're being warned to boil water before they use it. and senator ted cruz returning to texas tonight admitting that flying to cancun for a long weekend while millions of his fellow texans are suffering was a mistake. let's bring in now omar jimenez, live in austin, texas tonight with the latest, omar, good evening to you, hundreds of thousands of texans without power, 13 million don't have access to clean running water. the conditions are improving. i know it doesn't sound like it but what's being done to deal with this massive crisis tonight? >> reporter: don, those that have power back are more thankful for it than they've ever been but those that don't are huddling together for another

she said, and again, texas resident in houston, it's greg abbott. they failed. that's what she said. and she gets so frustrated when she hears from conservatives saying, well, it's the wind turbines and green energy. and it's not that at all. we know what it is. coal, natural gas. that stuff froze. and it froze because they didn't take care of it. they didn't winterize it. it was up to the states. and so him trying to cast the blame on the green new deal and the squad and all that stuff, it's just absolutely ridiculous and embarrassing. >> even in a crisis. >> can you believe it? >> today -- yesterday was fat tuesday. today's ash wednesday. you know, hence this. the reason it's so good, i did it. the priest wanted to put it on our head because they don't want to touch anybody right now or you could get your own little packet and do it yourself. >> i'm not catholic but i went to catholic school. my fiance's catholic. but i usually get it and i come away with the big smudge. >> i was at the church right around from your house. you know what? and i got hit on the w

he gets re-elected, and like greg abbott, the governor, is. since we talked last night, don, i was proud of abbott for at least admitting and taking some personal responsibility. but erco is not going to be -- you know, the electric -- you know, the electric council here is going to be under a lot of trouble this year because, you know, all of their generators have frozen. they should have been winterized, and they weren't. and it's going -- the blame's going to go around the state because now we've got water, sanitation. you're going to have people dying because they don't have electricity that needed different types of, you know, things to keep them going. they needed the energy, fires. things happen when you have a big manmade disaster. this wasn't a winter disaster. this was done by the electric reliability council of texas, who is dysfunctional during the crisis. >> i want to get your take on this, and folks at home, look at your screen. i don't think you can see it unless you're watching on your phone, douglas. but today we saw people wa

texas governor greg abbott calling for an investigation into the state's power grid while stressing thence of fossil fuels. >> it shows fossil fuel is necessary for the state of texas and other states was the biden administration will try to eradicate fossil fuels in the united states, every state will have challenges like what takes place in texas right now. >> reporter: the author of green fraud will join us to discuss the energy failures that led to this deadly situation. todd: thank you. jillian: us marshals increase the reward as the search intensifies for person of interest in a yale graduate student's murder. kevin jan was found dead in newhaven connecticut earlier this month. police are offering 10,$000 for tips that can lead them to a researcher from mit, as he is laid to rest by the connecticut national guard. >> towards conway calling for the lincoln project to be shut down, former counsel to kellyanne conway for cofounded the organization in 2019. sexually harassing 2 dozen young men including myers who worked for the organization. jillian: white house revealed president bid

texas governor greg abbott has called for an investigation and for the company's executives to resign. but abbott himself is under fire. critics accusing him of deflecting responsibility by placing blame on renewable energy sources. >> this shows how the green new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america. >> reporter: changing his tune just hours later. >> the companies that generate the power, their operations have frozen up or have trip wired and are nonoperational. that is the lead reason why there is a shortage of power. >> reporter: beto o'rourke disagrees. >> our renewable energy portfolio actually outperformed the forecast, regardless of what greg abbott and other republicans and right-wing media are saying. >> reporter: now, ercot does say these rolling blackouts will likely continue. i spoke to a man in this neighborhood and he specifically told me he has power for three hours and then he's in the dark for eight. three on, eight off. three on, eight off. he of course says it's difficult, but thankful for those three hours. ercot saying they're going to try

>> no, the fault of this lies on rick perry and the current governor greg abbott. they and their team passed the regulations that tell people whether or not they need to winterize. they chose not to tell companies to winterize, that they need to winterize which in a regulatory environment for a commodity is telling people not to winterize. they're now trying to blame it on a company called ercot that governor abbott hired. they can easily fire that company and hire another one. if they don't take responsibility and fix this and by putting in winterization guidelines for gas lines that are frozen underground and for energy generators that haven't worked because they're not winterized, this will happen again. the fault lies with those two individuals alone. >> just so -- go ahead. >> there also is a group called the railroad commission that are three elected officials that oversee gas pipelines. they do shoulder the responsibility for not modernizing the gas pipeline system. but it is actually -- plenty of blame to go around, but at the top of the food chain it is th

it goes back to governor greg abbott, the buck stops with him. he appoints public utility commission, they appoint 15 members, 5 of and don't even live in texas. the chairman lives in michigan, the last chairman in california, one in germany, one in canada. that too is running the texas grid. they did not contract, knowing we were facing one of the most severe winters we ever had. they are supposed to send inspectors by law to make sure these power plants are winterized, they didn't do that. republicans run texas. i'm definitely one. we dropped the ball on this, everybody on that board on to be fired, and -- mike: the senior director of systems operations has this take on the situation. >> a lot of well heads freezing up and potential backup regulation, so that we have enough gas. mike: is much of this because texas hasn't winterized its energy infrastructure? >> that is part of it. they haven't winterized it. we have the wrong people running the show. the legislature called an investigation and hearings, that is great, you are day late and a dol

governor greg abbott of texas. staying in that state.e affecting those attempting to cross into the us. the storm has impacted migrants. immigration has still, in a sense, continued in the sense that, you know, federal authorities have reported that they have had to go into the rio grande to try to protect migrants who have been trying to cross, despite freezing temperatures, and authorities have been worried about their officers and migrants alike getting hypothermia and, you know, other migrants who are still waiting to seek asylum in mexico have been braving this cold weather, basically in tents, and so a lot of immigrant groups have been trying to help them stay warm. do we know how many people have been trying to cross the border in such terrible weather? i don't have any big figures but there have been a few reports in the last week or so from different field officers for federal authorities. the case that i mentioned earlier was from the eagle pass area and another really significant case that wasn't here on the border but was nor

greg abbott is not familiar with that saying. maybe he and his administration should have kept on top of ercot to make sure that the grid would withstand winter storms and the blast of arctic air across most of the state. maybe so, right? governor. buck stops with him. it could not. and now millions of people are suffering in freezing temperatures. no relief in sight for days. the other major problem in getting heat to the people of texas, most of the state's power grid is not connected to the national grid. republican lawmakers made that decision over the last few decades to keep federal regulators at bay. that's why they did it. so they didn't want to regulate it. didn't want regulation. don't want nobody telling them what to do. now it sure looks like oversight was needed there, right? sometimes you don't know more than the generals or the experts. but former texas governor rick perry had the audacity to say this. texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their busines

the governor, greg abbott, says every source of power in the state has been compromised.national correspondent ed lavandera. he's joining us from dallas right now. ed, the situation is dire for millions of people right now. >> reporter: it is, wolf. and the sad news here once again tonight is that there's no real clear timeline on when things are going to get better and get everyone back on line. there are about 680 power plants across the state. 180 of those roughly have been taken off line by this winter st storm. the deep texas freeze is inflicting pain and frustration across the state. for three days millions of people have been unable to heat their homes, temperatures dropping to life-threatening levels and causing chaos. linda shoemaker had to leave her home for a warm shelter to protect her 101-year-old mother. >> my mother said, i'm going to stay home and, you know, cover up with all my quilts. i said, mother, you could freeze in the middle of the night. >> reporter: the bitter cold has now turned to heated anger over the catastrophic failure of the state's power

just moments ago, the texas governor, greg abbott, said he signed a major disaster declaration that's awaiting approval by president biden. he also said that power has now been restored to nearly 2 million homes. but tonight, 325,000 remain in the dark for the fourth straight day, as record cold temperatures stretch across the state. governor abbott is now pledging to reform the state's energy agency, and he's saying, and i'm quoting now, texans deserve answers about why the shortfalls occurred. >>> and more severe weather is on the way. 100 million people are in the path of a major storm and winter weather alerts extend from the u.s. southwest all the way up to the northeast. let's get straight to texas, though, right now. our national correspondent ed lavendera is in dallas for us. ed, governor abbott has just signed a major disaster declaration. tell us about that. >> reporter: yeah, it's going to be another long night here. but after four days of taking a political beating over this disaster in texas, the governor says he accepts responsibility for the situation at ercot, the stat

greg abbott has called for an investigation and for the company's executives to resign. but abbott himself is under fire. critics accusing him of deflecting responsibility by placing blame on renewable energy sources. >> this shows how the green new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america. >> reporter: changing his tune just hours later. >> the company that generate the power, they're operations have frozen up or have trip wired and are nonoperational. that is the lead reason why there is a shortage of power. >> reporter: beto o'rourke disagreers. >> we outperformed the forecast, regardless of what greg abbott and what other republicans and right wing media are saying. >> reporter: and the rolling blackouts are expected to continue throughout the day in this neighborhood, someone told me they were at three hours on and eight hours off. they're expecting to get shorter but at the moment they don't have any guarantees, kate. >> that is the worst part of it. camilla, thank you so much. >>> this just coming into cnn right now, senator ted cruz, he is now

republican governor greg abbott is trying to blame renewable energy, congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez and the green new deal -- which is an even place yet -- for his state's blackouts. we'll go to houston to speak with professor robert bullard, known as the "father of environmental justice," about the disproportionate effect on low income communities and communities of color, which have also been hit harder by the pandemic. then as covid-19 infection rates go down, the cdc says it is too soon to lift mask mandates. >> the bottom line is this. masks work and they work best when they have a good fit and are worn correctly. amy: we'll speak with infectious disease specialist dr. monica gandhi about which masks to wear and how to wear them and how many. then we look at mounting pressure for president biden to cancel student debt. >> president j biden has a remarkable opportunity to unite broad coalition of individuals together behind cool student loan -student loans. it would not only the cumbrancabout,ut set of the conditions that got us a president trump in the first place. amy: all tha

texas governor greg abbott has called for an investigation and for the company's executives to resign. but abbott himself is under fire. critics accusing him of deflecting responsibility by placing blame on renewable energy sources. >> this shows how the green new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america. >> changing his tune just hours later. >> the companies that generate the power, their operations have frozen up vor have trip wired ad are nonoperational. that is the lead reason why there is a shortage of power. >> reporter: beto o'rourke disagrees. >> or renewable energy portfolio actually outperformed the forecast, regardless of what greg abbott and other republicans and right-wing media are saying. >> reporter: now, ercot says those rolling blackouts will likely continue. they're trying to make that period where people are in the dark a lot shorter, but there are no guarantees. alisyn? >> thank you, camila, thank you very much for all of that reporting. joining us now is the austin mayor, steve adler, and ft. bend county judge, k.p. george. he is just outside

governor greg abbott said yesterday that electricity should be soon fully restored across the state andt grocery stores will be restocked now that road conditions are safe for deliveries. but this morning, millions of texans still don't have access to safe or drinkable water. the governor says that so far, nearly 3.5 million bottles of water have been distributed across the state. meanwhile, last week's major winter storm is being blamed for dozens of deaths in texas. in san antonio, a 69-year-old man was found dead inside his home. he had no electricity, and authorities say his bedroom was 35 degrees when he was found. in abilene, authorities say a 60-year-old man was found dead in his home as well as an 86-year-old woman whose daughter found her frozen in the backyard. and the family of 11-year-old christian pavon is suing the state's grid operator and power company after his mother found him dead in their freezing mobile home. the boy's believed to have died due to hypothermia after his family's home lost power. just absolutely awful conditions in texas. >>> and there's another major

when millions of texans lost power, governor greg abbott blamed keep -- clean energy for the greatest but lost in the narrative is the reality that renewable energy has been a boon to texas. in a new piece, arm editor and chief emeritus writes about where the growing source of jobs is. how may jobs will texas benefit because of this clean energy? matthew: it is great to be with you. well, it is early days really. but when you look at not just texas, but really everywhere in the u.s., the fastest growing industry or sector after e-commerce and we all know what e-commerce is, amazon and so forth, is renewable energy ahead of everything else. what does that mean? wind turbines in texas, and those jobs have been multiplying almost exponentially. but, it is also solar, and biofuels, and all kinds of things. the reason is that there is a convergence of the consumer, people's preferences, and the corporate america, and if you look at where corporate america is hiring, look at the russell 3000, again small companies alight. -- alike. most of the new jobs that we are seeing are going to what w

. >> reporter: governor greg abbott said the dangerous lack of power is not the state government's fault but a failure by ercot. >> ercot stands for electric reliability council of texas. they showed they were not reliable. >> reporter: some 90% of the lone star state's power is managed by ercot. they operate mostly independent of other federal power grids and, thus, mostly alone in its efforts to restore power quickly and safely. >> the operators acted with judgment based on their training to prevent an event that would have been even more catastrophic than the terrible things we've seen this week. >> reporter: ercot said the bulk of the blackouts are due to plants shutting down during the cold. >> the gas powered generation is still offline because of either mechanical issues or the lack of the supply of gas. >> reporter: but abbott isn't letting the state's lucrative fossil fuel industry taking the blame and now facing backlash for green energy facilities. >> our wind and solar got shut down and they were collectively more than 10% of our power grid. it shows fossil fuel is necessary

. >> texas governor greg abbott calling for an investigation and power failures the left millions in a dark deep-freeze with more winter weather on the way. >> the former president back online. "fox and friends first" continues. ♪♪ we love this. todd: to raise money for charity this is one of the songs that was played. if you want to embarrass me, let me know. the challenge for social media, we will get one done. you are watching "fox and friends first" on wednesday morning. jillian: president joe biden's first townhall since taking office. todd: scandals rocking the democratic party go unmentioned. jillian: what did the president have to say? >> the president taking that plan on the road to sell to the american people but was with on the minds of many milwaukee and this was when schools will reopen. >> those schools may only be open one day a week. >> that is not true. that was a mistake in communication. k-eighth grade are the easiest to open. the goal is 5 days a week. todd: the mistaken communication was a reference to the statement by his press secretary last week. >> his goal t

texas governor greg abbott made the rounds on texas television news programs to say it is a total failure of the organization which runs nearly all the state's power grid. he has called for an investigation and for executives to resign. >> it stands for electric reliability council of texas. and they showed that they were not reliable. most of texas runs on its own power grid, separate from the rest of the country. state leaders designed hit the way to avoid federal regulation. the officials insist the decision to take power from millions of homes using controlled outages spared the entire state from a system wide failure that could have taken months to repair and left even more people freezing. >> if we had waited and not done outages, not reduced demand to reflect what was going on in the overall system, we could have drifted toward a blackout. >> reporter: according to ercot, officials at oil and gas plants account for the largest amounts of power knocked offline. despite that, right wing pundits have used this to blast the reliability of wind and solar power. in the middle of this cri

porque estaban los el gobernador del estado greg abbott.ejo de confÍa bild elÉctrica de texas. las compaÑÍas de energÍa tratan de restablecer el servicio de docenas de plantas generadoras que se congelaron durante la tormenta. las interrupciones intermitentes son necesarias para salvar la red de un colapso total. algo que habrÍa sucedido de no apagar porciÓn de la red elÉctrica. >>> si hubiÉramos permitido que ocurriera un apagÓn catastrÓfico el problema serÍa de meses. >>> se espera que el suministro estÉ entre hoy y maÑana. pero en algunos casos no serÁ hasta el fin de semana. >>> informÓ la secretaria de prensa. la casa blanca tiene pensado enviar generadores de energÍa. gasolina, agua y sÁbanas. para que lo usen los que mas lo necesitan. f mÉxico siguen con cortes de energÍa elÉctrica debido al mal tiempo en el sur de texas. a fegt la distribuciÓn de gas natural ya estÁn trabajando para el quer viz se normalice lo antes posible. >>> con la poca luz que entra de las ventanas. don lenardo poco a poco atiende a sus comenzales. >>> su resta

data west the governor here, greg abbott in - the governor here, greg abbott in texas, _ the governor some were _ start somewhere, they need power and some were tojust start somewhere, they need power and some were to just get warm start somewhere, they need power and some were tojust get warm —— warm. basic— some were tojust get warm —— warm. basic needs — some were tojust get warm —— warm. basic needs is _ some were tojust get warm —— warm. basic needs is what you need right now _ basic needs is what you need right now. go _ basic needs is what you need right now. ,., . basic needs is what you need right now. ., ., basic needs is what you need right now. ,., ., ., ., basic needs is what you need right now. ., ., ., ., now. go and get warm, omar, thanks for 'oinin: now. go and get warm, omar, thanks forjoining us. — now. go and get warm, omar, thanks forjoining us, thanks _ now. go and get warm, omar, thanks forjoining us, thanks to _ now. go and get warm, omar, thanks forjoining us, thanks to coming - now. go and get warm, omar, thanks forjoining us, thanks to coming to i forjoining

. >> reporter: the last thing to ask, quickly, if i was governor greg abbott standing right here, what would you say to me about what you need and should have moving forward? >> we need to look at ercot. there needs to be accountability for this. this was entirely too long. we understand this can happen with storms. we're not prepared for this at all in austin. but for this sort of destruction that happened and people, so many people who have been without water for as long as they have, someone needs to be held accountable. >> reporter: we wish you all the best. i understand you're doing what you've got to do, like so many people across texas. more than 15 million across the state have had their water disrupted in some way. this is what you've got to do, fred. >> it's a huge number. i love hearing from the kids, though, they are part of the problem-solving for the family right now, and they're really delightful expressive. good luck to the family there. omar jimenez, thank you so much. >>> the weather disaster in texas has not only broad hardship to the lonestar state, it's also brough

texas governor greg abbott trying to figure out what went wrong. we do know he's holding an investigation for ercot, the agency that governs the state power grid and trying to figure out why power prices spiked so drastically causing some consumer bills to go from a hundred dollars to several thousand. in the meantime, municipalities all across the state trying to bring the weather systems online but until then, millions forced to boil their water or boy it bottled. >> so how did texas get here? it might help to understand how our power grids work. across north america there are three major power grids, the western interconnect, the eastern interconnect and the texas interconnect. in texas power is managed by the electric reliability council of texas or ercot. it dictates how power is distributed based on availability and demand. experts compare them to air traffic controllers but for an electric grid. ercot was built in 1970. back in 1935 the federal power act gave the federal government authority to regulate power companies that engaged in inters

but nonetheless, governor greg abbott taking responsibility for the current status of the organizationhat manages the grid here. in addition to that, he's promising or essentially saying that he hopes and anticipates that by the end of the night, all texans would have power. but for people who are having to deal with this mess, they simply need to see it to believe it. >> this is what we came back to. >> our whole apartment! look at the -- y'all, i can't not believe this. >> reporter: anger boiling over as texans endure more pain. millions are now facing a new problem. major water disruptions. this woman's apartment in dallas, flooded. >> we ain't got [ bleep ]. everything that we brought here, we don't have nothing, y'all. >> reporter: broken pipes, failing systems, piling onto the pain texans have felt since sunday. the white house has declared states of emergency for texas and oklahoma with 22 million from texas to louisiana now under hard freeze warnings. >> we're just left sitting in a cold, dark room in the middle of the night with a crying baby and an in-pain wife. that's what h

governor greg abbott says he takes responsibility for the issues at ercot. they run the state power grid system. he leveled a new round of attacks on the executives at ercot who says they assured him there would be enough power to get through the winter storm. ercot officials said they had to make the decisions they made because they were seconds if not minutes away from a catastrophic failure that could have taken months to repair. christine and laura. >> ed lavandera, thank you so much. >>> first came poor judgment, then came the lies but no one saw the text chain among friends. ted cruz now admits his trip to cancuns as millions of fellow texans struggled without power was a mistake. travelers first spotted him on a cruz on wednesday. for hours silence, then the senator tried pinning the trip on his kids claiming, quote, when school canceled for the week our girls asked to take a trip with friends. wanting to be a good dad i flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. cruz even told nbc he was dropping his kids off even though he was

. >> reporter: texas golf greg abbott has ordered an emergency investigation into what went wrong andprevent it from happening again. all of texas' 254 counties have been impacted. the storm is already expected to be more costly than hurricane harvey's $19 billion worth of insurance claims. chris? chris: casey stegall reporting from dallas. casey, thanks for that. the deep freeze in texas and the breakdown in the state's power grid have renewed questions about climate change and how we produce the energy we needment needment -- we need. i sat down earlier with bill gates who's out with a new book, "how to avoid a climate disaster," and we began with the troubles in texas these last few days. bill, welcome back to "fox news sunday." >> great to talk to you. chris: millions of people were affected by the power outages in texas this week, and the governor, greg abbott, blamed it on alternative energy sources. here he is. >> this shows how the green new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america. if the biden administration is going to try to eradicate fossil fuels in th

we have the politics of this, too, governor greg abbott walking back comments, blaming 14 energy fore crisis and you want to hear what the former governor said on this, too, with more on the way with the mid-atlantic and east, sleet and freezing raynhamering more than 100 million people. i'm hallie jackson in washington along with our team on this thursday morning. morgan chesky is in dallas. we will be joined in a moment by a couple live guests from texas as well, morgan, yes, we are seeing improvement in the number of power outages? more people are getting their power back. more are in for a difficult day yet again today. >> yeah, halle, are you exactly right. it almost feels like they are trading one crisis for another. at last check, about a half million texans still without electricity. yet, we have 7 million people across the state facing border while advisories. the sad part is there is no definitive time table as to when power will be fully restored. all of this as we stand if 25 degrees in dallas. a few degrees warmer down in houston. we are not out of the woods despite ther

texas governor greg abbott called an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss skyrocketing consumer energy bills in some cases following the storm, biz less than $100 are approaching 10,000 the governor and his team are working quickly to alleviate is >> amazing to see people boiling snow to get clean water. morgan, thanks so much, there in dallas. >>> federal investigators today will be on the scene outside of denver trying to figure out what went wrong after the engine on a packed united plane broke apart mid air and rained debris on neighborhoods below. nbc megan fitzgerald is in broomfield, colorado, with more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, willie it was a terrifying flight for those passengers and crew members on board shocking for neighbors here in this community just outside of denver who watched as that debris came crashing down. >> oh, my god! >> reporter: high above denver saturday, it looked like the sky was falling! 328, heavy airc >> reporter: a terrifying sight for those in the plane and on the ground aircraft just experienced engine failure. need to return >> repo

a little joke about our polarization when he says he didn't want to ruin governor greg abbott's reputation> donald trump will be making his first public appearance since leaving office on stage at cpac. the question really is whether see if it's of what it used to be. is it really about the conservative movement or is this year going to be just all things trump? the events under way in orlando, there's more than 800 miles from its usual home. many of the speakers and panels are pushing the president's lies about election fraud. five years ago trump skipped cpac because his conserative credentials are in question. now it's been reshaped completely in his image to the point of the cpac is unrecognizable. conserve tichl synonymous with loyalty to trump. mitch mcconnell who called it a disgraceful dir ligs of duty. >> i've got four members that are planning on running for president plus some governors and others. should be a wide open race and fun for you to cover. >> would you support the president if he was the nominee? >> the nominee of the party, absolutely. he has publicly been distancing

you also see at the bottom of the page, the question about republican governor greg abbott and whether he might be in national interviews and local interviews talking out both sides of his mouth. here to talk to us about the crisis and democratic congressman colin alyard. colin, great to have you today. i want to get to the accountability issue. you've been asking these questions on your twitter feed and i know you've been online with the power consortium. why were the generation units not prepared for this weather event? why was there no plan to responding for an emergency loss of some power generation? why was the public not notified sooner about potential outages and the need to take emergency steps to mitigate their own usage? why were ercot's predictions for the peak winter so far off? i know you've been on the phone trying to get those answers. are any of the answers satisfactory? >> thank you for having me on, john. thank you for highlighting what's happening in texas. i want to make sure your viewers know that at one point 4 million texans were without power in one of the colde

yeah, the dynamic is that the state government and the governor greg abbott are quite often at odds with the large cities in the state which tend to be more democratic leaning, more liberal, and so we saw this back with coronavirus and mask requirements and those kind of things where the state would come in and really hamper the local officials' ability to do their job or do what they think is needed on the ground. and so it is not too surprising that there would be that same kind of tension even in as something as horrible as this. you would hope that everybody could put that aside and just do the job that needs to be done. >> i want you to also listen to senator ted cruz of course, he took that trip to cancun. this is what he says he took away from the reaction to that trip. >> we're at a very divided place in our country where people are screaming vitreal and hate. and you know what, i think that is a sad sign of where we are. i don't do that to other people. you don't see me screaming at people i disagree with that they need to resign. and one thing that i'm most dismayed at, this wh

and governor greg abbott also pointing people to donate to the american red cross and also sell facial army, reporting in dallas tonight marking martin news nation. >>i was just so tough to look out from texas. all right back here at home though a live look outside along the san francisco embarcadero picture perfect night outside. actually had a picture perfect day as well. those. >>palm trees in adds to the ball me 5 that we've got going on here lawrence, but it's still in texas that is frigid but yeah not normal yeah, normal on. that thank goodness they moved out of the freezing point now today. they have highs actually up in the 60's. >>in the dallas area but that's a far cry from where they are just a week ago. 5 days 6 days of below freezing temperatures in the state so looks like that coming to an end but we're getting ready for unbelievable weather here we've got a taste of that today, but it's going to be a whole lot warmer out there right now you've got some high clouds up above you see right here that are beginning to make their way into the bay area more that on the way for

had you had people, like for instance, governor greg abbott.m the moment alan west took over the texas gop made very clear that, you know, his views and leadership in the party was not representative of the, you know, enterprise he wanted to lead in texas. instead, alan west has made very clear that, you know, his party in texas believes that the election was stolen and that voter fraud is their number one -- verbatim, number one issue moving forward. when greg abbott releases his legislative priorities for the session a couple of weeks ago, his number three item was, quote, election integrity. >> right. >> again, that's sort of the winking and nodding, but in some ways, chris, i think post-cold war republican vernacular is not especially equipped to deal with this moment. this is no longer quibbles over, say, obamacare or the marginal tax rate. this is very fundamental things like, do you believe that the person who is holding office today in the white house was credibly elected? that's the divide in the gop right now that i think the state pa

, making matters worse, officials can't tell customers when the power will be back on, governor greg abbottind, cold natural gas and nuclear power plants are off line at one point win production dropped from 42 to 8% the governor says the state was prepared for the snow, but the bitter cold overwhelmed the electrical grid. this would be. like a week long in alaska at 100 degrees plus without any air conditioning, which they don't have because they don't need the further north. the midwest is digging out as well with up to 2 ft of snow reported in some areas and in the pacific northwest. they're dealing with major ice damage and limited resource is after a summer of wildfires, all their money's been used up trying to rebuild from the fire, so they don't have those reserves here in texas governor greg abbott has ordered an investigation. and into how these power outages began, and whether they could have been avoided. that's the latest from dallas. casey steagall. fox news, the blockhouse in texas are sparking a blame game over how parts of such an energy rich state have been without power fo

. >> but to the purveyors greg abbott and friends on fox news is a vehicle for the political objections. they are trying to convince american that is the state of j.r. ewing and the houston oilers was actually covertly turned into a lefty bastian of green energy and that's the source of the problem. >> unbeknownst to most people the green new deal came to texas, reliant on windmills and then they broke because that's what happens in the green new deal. millions are still without power tonight. >> yes. while you weren't looking, hear that quote? unbeknownst to most people texas became a hippie commune. totally reliant. he actually said that. about texas. was it unbeknownst to the republican leadership of the state who have occupied nearly every statewide office in decades? did alexandria ocasio-cortez ten years parachute into the state of texas to put up windmills under the cover of night? how stupid does tucker think his audience is exactly? it's just a lie. it's not a dishonest mischaracterization. it's a lie. texas does have a lot of wind power but only a fraction of texas energy in t

this is greg abbott, the governor of texas. one of the things we learned is the sort of looking top to bottom, to get people back not only in their homes and with their power and just about 200,000 are without power to four million without pow area couple days ago. the water and food shortages going on here and are out of control. there's also been an effort to try to find out what happened to the famous texas electricity grid, this electric reliability council that had a domino like series of failures at the time and a lot of people were very surprised it went down. originally they finger pointed that it was wind turbines that failed. the fact of the matter was, natural gas sources began to get overtaxed, overused and the demand that they too were going down in sort of one fail swoop after another. people called for investigations into this to understand what happened. again, in texas a real black eye on the state that is known as being a state with probably the most pure power sources across the board, how something like this

this tweet to greg abbott, for your lack of oversight, vision and investment planning the texas power grid cut but let's make a texas law to make mark cuban's basketball team to play the national anthem. obviously people can walk and chew gum but it seems like there are way bigger issues amidst this emergency and even in the medium term. >> look at governor abbott's state of the state speech, which he gave within the last few weeks. he listed five top priorities. in them are election fraud, given the fact that we had the safest, most secure elections in american history. there really is no election fraud concern in texas, certainly not a top five priority. you had this effort to make texas a gun sanctuary state. nowhere mentioned in those top five priorities was covid or the vaccination rollout or the need to protect our fellow texans against natural disasters like these. as you mentioned, climate change and the changing in the frequency and severity of natural disasters, from hurricane harvey to this cold blast right now to future weather disasters. we know this stuff is coming. what