A Match Made in Texas

The state’s oil and gas sector is increasingly turning to renewable energy to power its operations while some of the right wing “think tanks” they fund work against their interests

Credit: Stantec

Oil and gas companies have been buying clean Texas energy for years. They do it because it’s good business. Renewable resources such as solar and wind power provide low cost electricity in areas like the Permian Basin, where oil and gas companies need power — lots of power — to run their operations. 

Some oil and gas interests also have been funding right wing “think tanks” for years, in part to support policies that help their companies.

But the attack dogs they’ve funded are coming after the affordable energy they increasingly want — and need — to buy.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation is the prime example. Presenting itself as a guardian of oil and gas, TPPF is in the midst of a years-long crusade against the clean energy generators that are lowering customer bills and expanding the state’s energy leadership.

Unfortunately for their benefactors, the right wing fanatics they have so generously funded see the coming decade as a zero-sum cage match, with oil and gas on one side and renewables on the other.

But that doesn’t match the reality.

Groups like TPPF are actively working against industry’s interests by ignoring their bottom line. And if the zealots win, then Texas’ oil and gas industry — and all Texas consumers — will lose badly.