Mayor of Houston Sylvester TurnerSylvester Turner Sunday shows preview: CDC school reopening guidance leads to discussion; Texas Fights Winter Break Mural in honor of George Floyd unveiled outside his Houston high school alma mater Houston will send residents checks of up to 200 for pandemic relief MORE (D) said on Sunday that he did not believe a visit to Texas by President Biden
Joe Biden Nearly 70 deaths in states with severe winter weather: report Two additional deaths confirmed in Louisiana related to severe winter weather Attorney filing lawsuit to overturn 2020 election results, referred by judge for discipline MORE would be a “distraction” after winter storms destroyed the state’s energy grid.
“We would certainly welcome him and he wouldn’t be a distraction, [nor] a burden, ” Turner said on CBS ‘Face the Nation’ Sunday.
The mayor told CBS’s Margaret Brennan that the areas of greatest need in the city were the restoration of sanitation infrastructure that had been affected by the winter weather.
“With so many houses in the city with pipes bursting due to the cold weather, and major leaks, major water damage, we need a lot of plumbing material and supplies right now. We have a number of licensed plumbers, but we can use even more, ”he said.
NEWS: @SylvesterTurner, mayor of Houston – an energy mecca and the 4th largest city in the country – explains @margbrennan “We need to open up our Texas power grid,” so it can get power from generators outside the state. Says the state has to pay the residents’ “exorbitant” bills pic.twitter.com/pBZvM5IMOW
– Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 21, 2021
Turner went on to blame the state’s self-contained energy network, which was not winterized against such conditions, for much of the fallout.
“Everything that happened in the past week was foreseeable and preventable,” said Turner, noting that as a state legislature ten years ago, he had introduced a failed bill requiring the state’s public utility to provide adequate reserves.
“Our Texas system is primarily designed for the summer heat and not necessarily a winter event … the reality is that climate change is real and these big storms could happen at any time,” he said. “The system has to be weathered, we have to maintain sufficient reserves and we have to open up just in Texas. Right now we have a closed network, we cannot get an out-of-state generation because of our system. “