Ted Cruz Left The Country On United Airlines While Texas Power And Water Collapsed

Texas Senator Ted Cruz just bailed on the state and headed for Mexico, in the midst of a tremendous crisis.

Texas has been through a real ordeal over the past week. Weather turned especially bad six days ago, worsened through the weekend, and a combination of outsized snowfall and single digit temperatures spiked demand for electricity at a time when coal, natural gas, and wind power production all dropped precipitously.

People in the Northeast, the Upper Midwest, and other cold weather regions of the country don’t understand how low temperatures and snowfall could bring down the state. But homes aren’t built for such cold temperatures, they’re built to stay cool during the scorching summer.

Texas is on its own power grid, but the Eastern US grid hasn’t had power to spare. There aren’t long-term contracts either with producers required to deliver power. There are market structure issues, which work well almost all of the time. A decade ago after lesser blackouts recommendations for winterizing were put together but not fully implemented. Due to Covid-19 the grid operator didn’t inspect power plants for winter readiness, either.

Freezing temperatures and lack of power have now spilled over into lack of water. I’ve got no water right now (fortunately I stocked up at the start of the pandemic).

There’s not a ton that Texas Senator Ted Cruz can do to fix the problem now but it’s not a good look, bailing on Texas for a United flight out of Houston to Cancun, heading towards warmth while state utilities melt down.

Cruz wasn’t in Washington, DC. He was in Texas, and he left during the crisis. It’s not as though a federal politician would make a difference here. FEMA is delivering blankets, but when roads are impassable how do many people even get those?

Politicians are mostly blaming each other. The Governor Abbott blames local utility providers, though of course the state’s public utility commission regulates them. Beto O’Rourke, preparing a run for governor, blames Abbott.

Austin’s Mayor did a Facebook live telling everyone to drop their thermostats and turn off lights while wearing a light shirt and with accent lighting behind him. (He told people not to travel for the holidays in a Facebook Live filmed from a timeshare in Cabo.)

Gradually power is being restored to the state’s grid, but it will take warmer weather to lessen power demand, melt ice on roads, and ease repairs to burst water mains and restore power to water pumping stations that have gone dark.

What do you think of Ted Cruz leaving his home state in the midst of the crisis? Perhaps there’s nothing he could do anyway and his priority should be his family, in which case it’s fine. Or maybe you think he should show leadership spend time with his constituents who are suffering?

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you”

    – Noted left-wing, AOC-lovin, libtard Lindsey Graham

  2. There are two kinds of people in the world. People who hate Ted Cruz… and Ted Cruz.

    -Rick Wilson

  3. As if there isn’t enough COVID in Texas, the Senator goes abroad to pick up more mutations and bring them back.

    Backwaters indeed.

  4. Cruz bailed on his people whom are in crisis. Figures, a typical Trumpublican thinking of no one but yourself. Hey, Cruz, you’re nothing but a selfish piece of poo you’re as dumb as you look.
    At best, you should have stayed in Texas and sent your family to the resort. You owe it to the folks in Texas. DUMB ASS!!!!

  5. @dee – you probably don’t believe it, living in the happy right-wing bubble you do, but that is a literal Lindsey Graham (R-SC) quote…use the Google and look it up if you don’t believe me

  6. Cruz is a senator, not a governor or mayor. It’s not his job to fix the power. His job is first to protect the people against their rulers [and] secondly to protect the people against the transient impressions into which they themselves might be led. Him leaving has nothing to do with anything. You all just want someone else to hate. Grow up and mind your own business.

  7. Him leaving has everything to do with it. It is his job to stay in the state and work on solutions to the problems. Idiot.

  8. Ted Cruz did nothing wrong he had a right to leave, he’s not the first Texan to leave during inclement weather and will not be the last. If I didn’t have to work I would have left too.

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