Texas Representative Louie Gohmert thinks exploding birds are a sign of the apocalypse for the United States.
The congressman was talking about it during a recent appearance on far-right propaganda outlet OAN. And while it sounds absurd, it actually is a legit phenomenon that occurs near one of the world’s biggest solar farms out in the California desert. But leave it to Gohmert to undermine his own message with senseless hyperbole.
The TV segment was apparently centered around President Biden’s infrastructure deal. The host asked the congressman from Texas’ 1st congressional district about how this was just “taking us to the Green New Deal.”
That’s when Gohmert brought up the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility at the border of California and Nevada.
He started talking about how birds get incinerated by flying in the path of the giant mirrors that magnify the sun into concentrated bursts that then power up the plant’s turbines. Thousands of birds each year, the “flamers” as Gohmert incorrectly called them, explode over the desert facility, sending “bird guts all over the mirrors.”
(Workers at the solar farm refer to the poor feathered victims as “streamers,” not “flamers.”)
He then wrapped up his excessively graphic answer by warning that these exploding birds will wind up ruining America. The exact quote?
“This is the green stuff that’s just out of control and it’s gonna bring the nation down.”
Watch and listen to Gohmert’s entire answer here.
This may surprise some of you, but Gohmert is actually right about the dead birds. It’s been happening for years at the solar farm, which is located in the Mojave Desert. By flying in the path of the solar panels, the birds face heat as high as 900 degrees Fahrenheit and are instantly killed. According to reports in 2014, shortly after the $2.2 billion facility was built, around 6,000 birds are killed each year. The plant has been working to find ways to reduce the number of birds killed by the solar panels.
What makes no sense is how Gohmert thinks this unique phenomenon can be blamed on legislation that had nothing to do with the building of the solar farm (it was built from loans given by the Obama Administration).
It should also be noted that the Green New Deal does not actually exist as a written legislation. It just doesn’t. But that bit of slightly useful information doesn’t stop Republicans like Gohmert from bringing it up any chance they get as some sort of legislative bogeyman.