How Texas Turned Green

On this week’s Political Climate, former FERC Commissioner and Chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission Pat Wood discusses competitive power markets and how a red state became a green energy leader.

Julia Pyper August 20, 2020

Julia Pyper

Senior Editor
Greentech Media

Julia Pyper is a Senior Editor at Greentech Media covering the energy transition. She is also the host and producer of the Political Climate podcast. She previously reported for E&E Publishing, and has covered clean energy and climate change issues across the U.S. and abroad, including in India, Haiti, Israel and the Maldives. She holds degrees from McGill and Columbia Universities. Find her on Twitter @JMPyper.

Texas, home to much of the U.S. oil and gas industry, has become a clean energy superpower. The state already leads the nation in wind-power generation, and solar is booming there as well. Last year, Texas generated more electricity from renewable energy sources than from coal.

Now, as the coronavirus pandemic delivers a blow to the state’s struggling oil and gas industry, wind and solar production remain on a trajectory for continued record growth. The rise of renewable energy isn’t the only notable change taking place in Texas; the state’s politics appear to be shifting too. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is polling very close to President Trump, who swept the state in 2016.

How did Texas become a clean-energy leader? What are the politics behind this rise? And what are the politics in Texas likely to be more broadly going forward? Could a growing green economy turn this red state blue?

Political Climate speaks to Pat Wood, former head of the Texas Public Utility Commission named by then-Governor George W. Bush and former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where he led FERC’s responses to the 2000-2001 California energy crisis and the 2003 Northeastern power blackout. Wood compares the Texas and California energy systems and weighs in on the Golden State's recent blackouts.

Finally, co-hosts Brandon Hurlbut and Shane Skelton make a new election bet.