Pete Buttigieg promises $2 trillion bill will help winterize Texas energy
TEXAS - With a $2 trillion infrastructure bill squarely on America's table for consideration, President Joe Biden has delegated the job of principal salesman to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
FOX 26 asked Buttigieg if the proposal would deliver the infrastructure needed to make the Texas Gulf Coast more storm resilient.
"Absolutely this package contains major resources for resilient infrastructure, that means everything from improving the assets we have already got to building new assets that can make our communities more robust against, let's face it a very high likelihood we are going to be having more severe weather," said Buttigieg.
While Biden's "American Jobs Plan" would target aging roads, bridges, airports, and waterways with $620 billion in upgrades, the proposal has drawn conservative fire for its heavy investment in so-called "human infrastructure" like job training and subsidized elder care.
"If you don't want to think of it as an infrastructure, fine, we can agree to disagree on definitions, but let’s agree that it's good policy, and let's get it done," said Buttigieg.
RELATED: ERCOT: Energy conservation appeal has ended
As for the deep trepidation felt in the Lone Star State over a rapidly contracting fossil fuel industry, Secretary Buttigieg urged flexibility.
"I think sometimes there is a misperception that we asking people to do something completely different, that if you've spent twenty years in oil and gas that we suddenly ask you to become a computer programmer. What we are really asking you to do is to be ready for the ways your industry, the energy industry is going to continue to evolve and we are going to create jobs as we do it," said Buttigieg.
Buttigieg says there are potentially billions of dollars in the plan to help weatherize the Texas grid and safeguard against another deadly winter blackout.