It appears there is no limit to what the Republicans will blame on “woke” and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Throughout the last week of January, dozens of states were hit by a devastating winter storm that caused everything from downed trees to widespread power outages. Thousands of Tennessee residents are still without power, so, of course, Tennessee Republicans have blamed “wokeness.”
I just love that such deeply unserious people control the levers of power.
According to NBC News, there’s bipartisan agreement that the Nashville Electric Service has greatly mishandled its response to the winter storm. It’s been 11 days since the storm hit, and approximately 6,000 customers are still without power. There have been communication errors, where people have been falsely told their power was restored, and tragically, some deaths. A 39-year-old man and a 92-year-old man were found dead in Davidson County from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning due to prolonged use of generators.
It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle you’re on; that’s objectively bad.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, a Democrat who appointed the board that oversees the Nashville Electric Service, has called their response “unacceptable” and commissioned a formal review. Apparently, Nashville Republicans don’t need a review to see what went wrong, as they’ve already found the answer.
“Nashville Electric Service was so focused on woke policies and DEI that it failed at its most basic responsibility: keeping the power on,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn wrote on X.
“Nashville Electric Service’s lack of a strategic disaster relief plan, pro-tree canopy policy, and being more concerned about a DEI contract renewal – all of which jeopardized public safety – requires executive management to be fired and the board to be replaced,” Tennessee’s Republican House speaker, Cameron Sexton, wrote on Facebook.
Rep. Jason Powell, a Democrat from Nashville, filed a bill requiring electric companies serving 10,000 customers to implement grid-resiliency plans, but rejected the idea that DEI had anything to do with the poor response by Nashville Electric Service. “Marsha Blackburn knows it wasn’t DEI that caused this to happen,” Powell said.
Nashville Electric Service CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin held a news conference acknowledging the shortcomings in the company’s response to the storm. “Accountability is important,” she said at a news conference on Tuesday. “Right now, we are in active recovery. We have plenty of time to do an after-action review and evaluate things we could have done better.”
Listen, I’m not saying that Nashville Republicans should be singing the praises of Nashville Electric Services. Clearly, they were not doing their jobs the way they should be, but using this as an opportunity to once again attack DEI is the laziest kind of politics.
Especially considering that, despite so many of their constituents living in areas traditionally affected by climate disasters, the Republican Party continues to not address the growing threat of climate change. Even as devastating climate events have increased in both frequency and severity over the last several years, the EPA under President Donald Trump has repeatedly taken actions that are likely to exacerbate the problem.
Two things can be true: Nashville Electric Services didn’t rise to the challenge, but policies implemented by the current administration will likely lead to more situations like this in the future. If Nashville Republicans really want to protect their voters, they should spend more time addressing the issue of climate change instead of yapping about DEI for the 87,000th time.
SEE ALSO:
Winter Storm Delays Flights And Leaves Thousands Without Power
