Fwd: Blue California and red Texas are green powerhouses

[Loretta Lohman]

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	Blue California and red Texas are green powerhouses
Date:	Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:07:06 +0000
From:	Yale Climate Connections <what...@yaleclimateconnections.org>
Reply-To:	Yale Climate Connections <what...@yaleclimateconnections.org>
To:	lorett...@gmail.com

Plus, our reporting sparks a proposal for a data center moratorium in Montana.

This newsletter is supported by readers across the U.S. and around the world. Will you join them today?

Happy first day of spring!

A quick thank you: I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you for reading, donating, or talking about our reporting with others.

Your support – no matter what form it takes – is making an impact. I learned this week that Karin Kirk’s reporting for Yale Climate Connections has led a Montana lawmaker to call for a moratorium on new data centers in the state. In a letter to state leaders, state Rep. Scott Rosenzweig, a Democrat, criticized Montana’s largest utility for heavily redacting its agreements with data center developers – an issue that Karin reported on earlier this month.

Rosenzweig wrote that the redacted information must be disclosed so that the public can understand the potential effects of proposed data centers on the environment.

He also called for the utility, public service commission, and data center developers to participate in public hearings.

“They should address concerns honestly in open, public forums,” he wrote.

– Sara Peach, Editor-in-Chief

How blue California and red Texas became green powerhouses

Dana Nuccitelli reports:

Despite their polar-opposite politics, California and Texas have achieved the same distinction: They’re both national leaders in producing renewable energy.

Wind and solar today account for 40% of power generation in California and 30% in Texas, well above the national average of 17%.

California and Texas alone account for more than one-third of the U.S.’s solar and wind power generation and over half its battery storage capacity – shares that continue to grow.

The policy approaches used by California and Texas differ dramatically.

“California has used centralized state control to achieve lots of wind, solar, and storage, while Texas has accomplished the same outcomes via open-access and competitive choice,” said Beth Garza, senior fellow with R Street’s energy and environmental policy team and former director of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Independent Market Monitor, in an email.

Simple dollars and cents continue to propel the expansion of renewable energy in the two states.

“The economics of solar and energy storage as new resources drive them to the top” in California’s state power purchases, said Brendan Pierpont, Director of Electricity at Energy Innovation, in an email.

And in Texas’s free market system, “wind, solar, and energy storage are leading the way because they’re winners economically,” there as well, he added.

Comparing the states’ energy policies

California established a renewable portfolio standard in 2002. This policy required that in-state utilities supply 20% of total electricity generation from renewables by the end of 2010. That standard was subsequently increased several times, most recently in 2018 to require that 60% of the state’s power be renewable in 2030, and 100% zero-carbon by 2045. California is on track to meet its goals if rapid in-state clean energy growth continues.

Texas established its own renewable portfolio standard in 1999, three years ahead of California, but with much more modest goals. Texas’ initial standard mandated that utility companies in the state add just two gigawatts of renewable power capacity by 2009, which amounted to less than 2.5% of the state’s total. That standard was later increased to 5.9 gigawatts by 2015, or about 4% of Texas’ total power capacity.

But in 2005, the Texas state legislature took a different tack by passing a law establishing competitive renewable energy zones. These were regions identified as having high potential for wind power but that required a network of electrical transmission lines to deliver those electrons to population centers. Between 2008 and 2019, Texas built 3,600 miles of transmission lines in these zones, which accounted for nearly one-quarter of all new transmission built nationwide during that period.

This policy proved prescient, as wind became the cheapest source of new power generation in the U.S. in 2011. The wind energy industry grew and thrived in Texas, which today generates more annual wind power than the next three states combined.

Two contrasting ways for clean energy to win

The California and Texas examples illustrate that whether the power sector is heavily regulated by climate-minded policymakers or unshackled in a permissive free market, clean energy now dominates new electricity deployments. That’s because solar and wind have become the cheapest sources of new electricity, battery costs to firm up their intermittency have likewise plummeted, and they don’t face the same supply chain limitations as natural gas turbines. Clean energy is the cheapest and fastest option to meet today’s rapidly growing demand.

The biggest obstacles in meeting that growing electricity demand nationwide come in the form of slow permitting and interconnection processes, exacerbated by an old power grid with insufficient electrical transmission capacity. But Texas has illustrated that when those constraints are lifted, unleashed cheap, clean energy can meet rising power demand, even in a conservative state where lawmakers might prefer to see fossil fuels proliferate. Read the whole story.

It's up to us to tell the truth.

Mainstream news organizations from CBS to the Washington Post have laid off dozens of climate journalists since the Trump administration began. But our team isn't giving up on the truth – in fact, we're telling more Americans than ever the facts about climate change. Will you help us do it by becoming a donor today?

Donate

Your moment of hope

🎙️Cold winters are no match for modern cold-climate heat pumps

In fact, several chilly Nordic countries lead the world in heat pump adoption.

Other stories you may have missed

🎙️As heat pumps gain popularity, winter electricity demand is growing

But efficiency upgrades and ‘demand response’ programs can help keep costs down.

Pick your weather poison this week: Tornadoes, blizzard, record rain, wildfire, or summerlike heat

When you get a wildly contorted jet stream on a human-warmed planet, expect wild results.

Your cartoon of the week

Tom Toro is the author of the cartoon collection "And to Think We Started as a Book Club..." and the creator of the comic Substack "Undiscovered Masterpieces."

This email was sent to lorett...@gmail.com why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences Yale Climate Connections · Yale Center for Environmental Communication · 195 Prospect St. · New Haven, CT 06511 · USA