Who’s the greenest state of all? Texas!

“They’re starting to put their thumb on the scale to restrict new wind and solar generation,” says Josiah Neeley, Texas Director and Resident Senior Fellow in energy for the R Street Institute, a think tank. “It hasn’t had a big effect yet, but you can see they’re becoming less open to it…”

Most of the bills have failed, but not all. “Some of this stuff is actually going through, including restrictions on where wind and solar farms can be sited,” says Neeley. Local politicians, too, have in several cases tried to block new wind and solar farms, though so far state courts have sided with the energy developers. Meanwhile, the state, which is still the biggest oil producer in the U.S., recently slapped a $200-a-year fee on electric vehicle owners…

But wind and solar energy may have already become too big and beneficial to kill with partisan politics. “All the rhetorical hostility from public officials doesn’t seem to be impeding its advancement,” says Neeley. “Renewables have lowered electricity prices, and that’s going to keep it expanding.” He adds that the federal tax credits, which run through 2035, will likely swamp whatever costs the state legislature tries to add on to renewable ventures…

Of course, if partisan politics grows ever more nasty and irrational, Republicans might yet find a way to derail the renewable industry’s torrid expansion, warns Neeley. “The sky’s the limit when it comes to bad policy,” he says. “It’s always possible somebody steps in to do something to throttle growth.”