how's it going this morning
well Dana I gotta say the forecast
doesn't really look good you talked
about more snow on the way we could pick
up another two to four inches tonight
and into tomorrow morning and some parts
of Texas are going to be getting
freezing rain which is actually much
worse that adds to all of the ice and
the snow that is already on the ground
and on the roadways causing so many
accidents temperatures are not expected
to get above freezing until at least
Friday for much of Texas this will
continue putting stress on the state's
electrical grid I can tell you this
morning nearly 4.2 million Texans 4.2
million still have no electricity at
this hour many families taking turns to
warm up in their cars as wind chills
overnight dropped below zero again
the power outages making things
difficult I can't cook anything and like
I said most of the things are closed or
I don't want to risk going out because
people are not able to drive in the the
roads that are not treated properly
in Oregon ice continues to be the
primary issue from this winter storm
more than 220 000 people are still
without power some structural damage is
also being reported because the ice is
just so heavy while in Kentucky look at
this several inches of snow coated
roadways and made for some dangerous
driving conditions officials say several
fatal car accidents have resulted from
extreme weather in that state schools
are pretty much canceled in all of these
states experiencing the winter blast as
uh people just struggling to get warm
Dana thank you Casey we'll stay on top
of it the blackouts that are in Texas
are being made worse by the failure of
wind turbines many freezing in the icy
weather cutting output in half and it's
raising questions about the Lone Star
State's increasing Reliance on renewable
energy Fox News contributor and Wall
Street Journal columnist Bill mcgarn
joins us now welcome Bill hey I want to
show you the Wall Street Journal
headline this morning Ed board a deep
green freeze power shortages the Folly
of eliminating natural gas and coal and
let me just read to you from that piece
gas and power prices have spiked across
the central U.S while Texas Regulators
ordered rolling blackouts Monday as an
Arctic blast as Frozen wind turbines
herein is the Paradox of the less
climate agenda the less we use fossil
fuels the more we need them your
thoughts this morning Bill
yeah I think it's just a matter of
Common Sense look everyone would like
clean energy but the fact is that the
fossil fuels are far more reliable and
we have a hardened infrastructure to use
them so I think there's a role but I
think they've expanded way too far look
nature is always going to give us cold
snaps and heat waves and the question is
whether our power grid can take it and
clearly they've over expanded it seems
that the the goal is to have the um the
fossil fuels marginalize the ones that
are reliable and have more of the
dependence on say wind turbines and we
see how that works out I think there's a
role for these other fuels but I think
it's a mistake to subsidize them and
artificially you know increase the
supply there at the you know this has
real consequences for people I think one
person's already died
I think the line from the Public Utility
Commission chairwoman is uh quite
telling she says the wind turbines are
all Frozen I mean that is really
something else when you have so many
people suffering I think to your point
about green energy I was looking at this
earlier today Tesla was founded in 2003.
it sold its first car in 2009 so that's
12 years ago but really the popularity
of Tesla only took off
arguably over the past two years maybe
even 18 months ago I think to be the
point to be made their bill is that the
consumer will dictate what they want and
do not want and if they want it that
thing can go as high as he as as high as
the market will take it
well I I wish the consumer would dictate
what they want because I think consumers
would choose reliable power sources
instead of what we have I think you know
energy is a highly regulated market and
uh you know a lot of these people
insisted on these wind turbines and they
you know maybe they do a respectable job
in normal circumstances but we need
things to be reliable and reliability so
far the Renewables cannot match the old
fossil fuels in terms of reliability
right until then we're seeing it you
know in a very dramatic way until either
the laws of physics change or the
technology improves that will be the
case hey you wrote you wrote about the
minimum wage and the headline in the
Wall Street Journal is the human cost of
a minimum wage that workers have more to
fear from well-meaning polls than from
capitalism in the last minute we have
here Bill tell us a little bit more
about your approach
well the example that I was using is out
in California in Long Beach the city
council passed an ordinance tacking on
four dollars in hero pay four dollars an
hour for Supermarket workers well the
idea was to fatten their paychecks
instead Kroger announced that they were
closing two stores putting as many as
200 people out of work and that wasn't
technically a minimum wage but it
functioned the same way and I think what
what a lot of the proponents don't
realize is that the people who are
liable to be laid off the CBO says that
the 15 an hour proposal they're
considering now would lose uh 1.4
million jobs they're at the very bottom
they're the most vulnerable workers you
know even the New York Times back in
1987 said the ideal minimum wage is zero
because it recognized that it really
hurts the most vulnerable workers so I
just think before the government sets a
one-size-fits all you know uh as though
the conditions in West Virginia are the
same is in Manhattan we ought to think
about the consequences for real people
Bill thank you Bill mcguran on all that
today uh to be continued thanks Bill