Senator and blobfish disguised as a person Ted Cruz does not believe in climate change. For that reason, the climate activists of the youth-led Sunrise Movement have made the pretty reasonable assessment that he is likely not negotiating in good faith when it comes to policies that would address the climate crisis. To hammer home the point, a group of protesters showed up outside Cruz's Texas home Monday to call out their senator amid a brutal heat wave — and to send a message to President Biden to stop negotiating with climate deniers. Despite the Houston Police noting that the protest was peaceful, several members were arrested for trespassing.
According to a report from BuzzFeed News, between 60 to 70 demonstrators showed up for the event after a 400-mile march, and came equipped with signs that were meant to send a message to an audience of one: Biden. The group called on the man in the White House to stop trying to find a middle ground with folks like Cruz and other members of the Republican Party who refuse to accept the reality of climate change. The goal was to encourage Biden to push forward with his infrastructure plan that includes significant spending on clean energy initiatives, including massive investments in wind and solar power and retrofitting buildings and homes to be more energy efficient.
These are, of course, all things that Cruz opposes. He has called the infrastructure package "Green New Deal-lite" and has complained that "only 5% of Biden's infrastructure bills is roads and bridges" — a thing that is both untrue and an incredibly narrow view of what infrastructure is. For instance, Biden's plan designates about $100 billion to modernizing and weatherizing the electrical grid, and Cruz of all people should recognize that to be essential infrastructure. After all, his state's grid has failed twice in the past six months, first from extreme cold and recently due to extreme heat from an ongoing heat wave that is taking a major toll on the southwestern United States.
Cruz, who has mocked other states when their grids experienced blackouts during extreme weather events, has had shockingly little to say about his own state's troubles dealing with heat. Last week, Texans were asked by the state's grid operator to conserve energy and avoid turning on their air conditioning even as the state experienced record high temperatures. When the grid was similarly pushed to its limit by an unexpected winter storm back in February, Cruz fled to Cancun with his family. Meanwhile, millions of Texans were left without power, and at least 150 died.
Despite all of this, Cruz still has the audacity to try to torpedo the Biden administration's infrastructure plan. He's not even involved in the group of senators who have worked to craft a bipartisan infrastructure bill — and while that plan is likely to be underwhelming for those concerned with climate change, it's at least an effort to find middle ground. Cruz would rather take some cheap shots on Twitter than actually try to secure funding to help his state's clearly inadequate electric grid.
Which brings us back to the protesters who marched their way to Cruz's property. The group, which was described by police as "extremely peaceful," is done with Cruz and and wants others to be done with him, too. Now if they could just rescue Cruz's poor poodle Snowflake, who looks like she's being held hostage every time she shows up in photos.
