Green Energy in Texas

Among the articles in the April Smithsonian was an interesting piece about the most populous city in America that is fully powered by renewable energy sources.  While the city that previously held the title, Burlington, Vermont, home to Senator Bernie Sanders, is no surprise, the current leader is a city of 67,000 people located in Texas.  Yes, Texas.

The article details how the mayor of Georgetown, Texas, a lifelong Republican, did the math after becoming mayor in 2014, and within 2 years Georgetown was completely powered by wind and solar energy.  What is even more startling is that Georgetown isn't producing this energy on its own, but is purchasing the power from Adrian, Texas, 500 miles away, and Fort Stockton, Texas, 340 miles distant.

There are two keys to this situation,  First, Georgetown owns the utility company that serves the city, so it can negotiate and purchase from suppliers without interference from a mega utility or some such middleman.  Second, and even more vital, Texas has invested heavily in expanding its network of transmission lines, without which long distance deals to buy energy would not exist.

Of course, powering a much larger city with renewable energy sources only would be much more difficult and take more time, which is why cities like Atlanta has set its goal to be entirely powered in this fashion by 2035, San Francisco by 2030.  But the point is that it can be done, if we plan, begin investing in the infrastructure now, and continue to monitor progress.  Yes, it will take long term thinking, unlike Mayor Ross's two year plan, but will reap huge benefits in money savings, a cleaner environment, and a reduced entanglement with the areas of the world that provide most of our fossil fuels.   

And, oh yes, more jobs.

Because, as the article also details, investment in clean energy has surged in the last decade, topping $50 billion each of the last four, as has the number of employees working in the wind and solar industries.  As of 2016, there were about 50,000 employees in the coal industry, a little over 100,000 in the wind industry and over 250,000 in the solar industry. 

Lest you think that it is only blue states that are increasing their percentage of electricity derived from renewable fuels, as of 2016, Iowa was #1, followed by South Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma with North Dakota, Minnesota and Nevada also in the top 10.  Andy, before you claim it can only be done by the less populated states, California is 5th and Texas 14th on the list.

To me, what it comes down to is the political will to "do the math", a paradigm shift that embraces the change to renewable energy sources rather than fighting it or claiming it is not possible, and, perhaps most important in these times of conflict rather than cooperation and the resurgence of tribal thinking that focuses on us vs them rather than we, the belief that we can harness nature without destroying it, reorganize our economy with minimal upset, and create policies that focus on results more so than the origin of the idea, individual, party or country.