David Byrne explores how Texas became No. 1 in the US in wind power

David Byrne (yes, that David Byrne, of the band Talking Heads) runs an online publication called Reasons to be Cheerful. Yesterday, Byrne published a feature that he authored that explores “how a conservative, oil-pumping state became one of the world’s biggest generators of wind power.” And that state is Texas. Byrne’s feature is a fascinating piece, because as regular readers of the Electrek Green Energy Brief know, we report regularly on how Texas leads the United States in wind energy generation.
But Byrne explores how this red state came to embrace green energy. You can read the whole piece here, but here’s an excerpt: West Texas is oil country. But there is something else going on in West Texas: It is a world capital of wind energy. Last year, Texas got more of its energy from wind — 23.4% — than any other US state. In fact, if Texas were a country (which some might argue it is) it would rank fifth in the world in wind power generation, just behind Germany and India.