On Friday evening, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) posted a video to his Twitter account trolling Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech at the United States Naval Academy graduation and commissioning ceremony from May 28.
Harris, the first woman in the academy’s 175-year history to give the keynote commencement address, touched on cybersecurity, the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, and climate change in her speech. But, it was her comments on the implementation of solar and wind energy into the military that caught Crenshaw’s attention.
“You are electrical engineers, who will soon help convert solar and wind energy into power. Convert solar and wind energy into combat power,” Harris said to the crowd.
Unimpressed, Crenshaw responded, explaining how the navy is powered by nuclear energy. Specifically, aircraft carriers and submarines that use “naval reactors” for power, while emitting zero carbon emissions.
Crenshaw didn’t stop there. In the next clip, he responded to Harris’ claim that any Marine would rather carry around solar panels than batteries in their supplies for their missions.
“Just ask any Marine today, would she rather carry 20 pounds of batteries or a rolled-up solar panel? And I am positive she would tell you, a solar panel. And so would he,” Harris said.
“We don’t carry 20 pounds of batteries in the field anymore,” Crenshaw promptly said in the video. “That’s like decades-old technology.”
While carrying 20 pounds of batteries is outdated, Crenshaw explained that the practice of utilizing batteries for combat energy is not. Batteries are the most reliable source of energy, especially for night missions, when something like solar energy would be unreliable.
“We’re not gonna have some yoga mat of solar panels added to our already heavy pack just to make you feel good about green energy,” Crenshaw said. “Look, if you want to put solar panels on top of a truck or something, fine. But this is the military. We’re gonna use gas, and we’re gonna use batteries, because that’s what’s actually reliable.”
Watch the full video here:
My reaction to woke VP Harris graduation speech at the Naval Academy....along with a few fact checks. pic.twitter.com/3KDN0gmZFd
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) June 4, 2021