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A campaign by rightwing lawmakers in Texas to limit renewable power projects has failed, underscoring the state’s commitment to all sources of energy as it strains to meet exploding demand.
A package of bills that would have derailed renewable power projects throughout Texas died on Monday after failing to secure enough votes to advance in the state legislature.
The legislation’s demise was a blow to champions of fossil fuels who hoped to capitalise on President Donald Trump’s pledge to unleash a new era of American energy dominance.
The defeat of the anti-renewable bills in Texas, the nation’s leading oil and gas producer, contrasts with the lack of support for renewables in Trump’s Washington, highlighting the state’s long reliance on clean energy sources.
An unlikely coalition of renewables groups, manufacturers and oil and gas companies opposed the bills. “It might as well have been the ‘Lobby Employment Act of 2025’ based on the number of lobbyists hired to fight it,” state representative Jared Patterson, one of the bills’ authors, wrote in a post on X.
“Good sense prevailed,” said Bryn Baker, senior director of market and policy innovation at the Texas Energy Buyers Alliance, a trade group. “For Texas to compete globally, we need all the energy sources on the table.”
At the federal level, senators are debating whether to axe tens of billions of dollars in Joe Biden-era tax breaks for green energy, and Trump’s policies have halted efforts to expand renewable power sources.
Some Republican senators whose states have benefited from green energy and manufacturing investments are pushing back against proposals passed by the House to remove incentives in order to pay for the president’s tax cuts.
In Texas, the package of three proposed laws would have required solar and wind projects to purchase gas-fired backup generation, limited where renewable projects can be built and required that half of all new power plant capacity must come from gas-fired generation.
Cheap and reliable power has become crucial in Texas, at a time when the state is faced with an explosion in population and a booming economy. A winter storm in 2021 cut power to 69 per cent of all Texans and reinforced the need for an “all of the above” energy policy.
“You can’t kill renewables and grow data centres in Texas in the next five years. It’s just not possible,” said Kay McCall, chair of Renewable Energy Alliance Houston.
The bills came at a critical moment for Texas. The manager of the state’s electricity grid, Electric Reliability Council of Texas, estimates peak demand will nearly double by 2030 because of a rise in population, manufacturers and data centres. In February, it predicted the state’s power demand could surpass its supply next summer.
Judd Messer, Texas vice-president of Advanced Power Alliance, a renewable energy trade association, said: “Without a competitive, diverse energy mix, Texas risks not only struggling to keep the lights on, but also missing out on significant economic development opportunities.”
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Wind and solar energy account for about a third of its electricity. Texas leads the country in wind power generation and total electricity production, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Opposition to the bills crossed party lines and demographics across the state. Recent polling showed Texas voters largely support renewable energy, regardless of party affiliation. In a March poll, 72 per cent of voters were favourable to renewable energy, and more than 60 per cent of Republican voters were in favour of it, according to a poll by Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation.
“Texas has an energy dominance,” said Doug Lewin, president of Austin, Texas-based Stoic Energy Consulting. “Why would you give it away for ideological reasons?”
Additional reporting by Jamie Smyth in New York
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