U.S. House Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), an outspoken critic of renewable energy sources including wind and solar, on Oct. 1 said backers of such power are not serious about reducing carbon emissions and called wind and solar “silly solutions” to the nation’s energy needs.
“Nuclear would be a far better energy resource than solar and wind if they cared about zero emissions,” Crenshaw said at a virtual Zoom meeting sponsored by Texas Oil & Gas Association, and quoted on the National Windwatch website. “These people are disingenuous to begin with, so it’s hard to argue with people who aren’t really looking for the solutions.”
Crenshaw, a Republican from Houston, said supporters of wind and solar power have developed an almost religious faith in the two energy sources instead of productive proposals.
The Windwatch report said Crenshaw has not denied the reality of climate change and has been calling on GOP members to take it more seriously.
However, Crenshaw blasted solar and wind power as a solution and said they fail to address the need for reliable energy, citing the example of Germany. There, he said, more than $500 billion has been spent to convert fully to wind and solar without success, resulting in the need for natural gas imports from Russia.
“So these things [solar, wind] don’t work,” Crenshaw said. “They’re no solution at all.”
Crenshaw said hundreds of acres of land need to be cleared for installing wind turbines or mining rare minerals for use in solar panels, that result in little return in investment, adding, “just so you can have unreliable energy.”
The report said Crenshaw advocates exploring more efficient ways to capture and make use of carbon, which he said is a smarter idea than letting fossil fuel supplies just sit in the ground unused.
He added that the oil and natural gas industries need to combat false narratives being pursued by renewable energy adherents.
“The first assumption that has to be debunked is this notion that fossil fuels can never be a part of a clean energy future,” Crenshaw said. “That’s, of course, not true. We can always point out the reason that we are at about 1990 levels of carbon emissions is because of the natural gas revolution and the fracking industry.”
Crenshaw said nuclear power also is a better alternative than wind or solar, taking up less space and is more efficient in getting energy power on the grid.
Crenshaw is running for re-election in the 2nd Congressional District, which includes the western part of Houston.
