Roy frustrated over Texas' lack of nuclear development: 'We are a stupid, stupid people'

Local Government
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U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) | U.S. Representative Chip Roy Press Office/Facebook

U.S Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) has taken aim at his state for failing to build and invest in more reliable forms of energy generation, including nuclear and natural gas, and instead has moved toward relying more heavily on renewable energy.

Roy voiced his frustrations recently on Twitter, quoting a tweet by Conservative Voting, which tagged GOP members in both the House of Representatives and Senate about people's resistance to green energy in other areas.

"Yet the United States — and more specifically, TEXAS— is not building gas, nuclear, & coal... and are expanding this crap," Roy said in his tweet on June 3. 

Roy's tweet was in response to a Bloomberg article that said as more governing bodies were moving toward renewable energy generation, the European Union was faced with pushback over renewable energy generation by the people who live in Europe.

"You want lower CO2 & power, build nuclear & natural gas— and export that stuff. We are a stupid, stupid people," Roy tweeted. 

Since 1999, no state has added more renewable energy to its grid than Texas, a report from the Energy Alliance said. The added renewable energy was fueled by more than $24 billion of federal, state and local subsidies. 

A recent Rasmussen poll showed that 53% of voters "favor building new nuclear power plants in the United States." The survey also found that 31% oppose new nuclear power plants. Of those numbers, 21% strongly favor new nuclear power plants while 14% strongly oppose them.

Additionally, the poll showed that approximately half of the respondents believed it was possible for America to generate all the power it needs from nuclear power plants, and 57% of the respondents thought it was important to reduce America's dependence on foreign countries for energy.