Depoliticizing the energy transition: Reflections on the “Texas model”

Abstract

Texas has become an unlikely protagonist of the global energy transition. The most common explanation given for Texas's renewable energy (RE) boom is that the state imposes few restrictions on capital. The apparent success of what the authors of a Columbia Business School report call the “Texas Model”—lax permitting rules for energy projects and a deregulated electricity market—is frequently taken as evidence that “economics, not politics” can shift electricity production away from fossil fuels at the pace required to keep planetary heating to tolerable levels. For “transition optimists”—political and business leaders, researchers, and journalists who contend that an energy transition is possible without social, political, or economic upheaval—Texas has become a crucial symbol, standing in for the salutary power of free markets and the possibility of achieving a low-carbon future without political conflict. Drawing on journalistic writing, political commentary, and economic studies pertaining to energy transition in Texas, this article suggests that the “Texas Model” underpins an influential narrative about global energy transition—one that views market forces, rather than political choices, as the decisive factor driving a shift to renewables. It shows how authors construct the Texas Model by assembling a set of facts about Texas's regulatory regime into an argument (a) supporting deregulation as strategy for adding renewable electricity capacity and (b) contending that capitalism is uniquely capable of resolving the climate crisis. However, Texas's RE projects are increasingly used to support data center, cryptocurrency, and oil industry expansion, suggesting that Texas's RE boom ought to be seen as a supplement rather than a challenge to high-carbon forms of political economy. The article concludes that the Texas Model ultimately functions as a “piece of fantasy” that speculatively resolves the enduring contradiction between the energy demands of capitalism and the ecological requirements of human well-being.