Texas was the nation’s leader in renewable energy construction last year. according to a reportThis week’s release by American Clean Power Association continues a promising trend in a country that is heavily dependent on fossil fuels for planet warming.

Texas was the top producer of wind, solar, and energy installations projects, with 7,352 megawatts installed in Texas. This is significantly more than California’s 2,697 megawatts storage projects. Other top-producing states were Oklahoma, Florida and New Mexico.

Texas was also more storage-aware than other states, with nearly 20,000 megawatts. California came in second at almost 14,000 megawatts.

Texas’s rise in renewable energy use is not due to human-caused global warming concerns, but because renewable energy options like wind and solar are relatively inexpensive.

Republicans for decades have overseen the the energy sector in Texas, which still ranks tenth in the country for fossil fuel consumption, as nearly 90% of its energy is derived from fossil fuels and only about 7% derived from renewable sources.

Texas is able to avoid federal regulation and has its own electricity grid, which is almost completely disconnected from the rest. In 2021, the system crashed due to high demand and freezing utility plants. Energy prices rose after that storm. triggered the state’s worst blackouts in decades.

The state grid went down during which time Gov. Greg Abbott and other conservative leaders from the state were there. falsely blamed the outagesrenewable energy sources such as solar and wind. But, the majority of outages are temporary. stemmed from problems with limited natural gas production and frozen supplies at natural gas, coal and nuclear facilities, and not from solar and wind failures.

More generally, the U.S. Energy Information Administration data shows that energy from fossil fuel production is responsible for over 80% of the nation’s total consumption, despite growing investments in renewables.

According to an American Clean Power Association report, the U.S. installed 27773 megawatts last year of solar, wind and energy storage. This is a decrease of 3% over the prior year. The combined cumulative wind, solar, and energy storage capacities reached 200,000 megawatts. This is equivalent to 200 gigawatts. Also, solar power increased 19% while energy storage grew 196%. Meanwhile wind fell 25%.

Heather Zichal CEO, American Clean Power Association stated that the US has reached a landmark in clean energy. She said, “We have surpassed over 200 gigawatts and it shows we can do even more with strong support from the public.”

Zichal noted that the U.S. had made an incredible accomplishment, but more must be done to attain the climate goals and other targets the country requires.

House Democrats recently reupped callsPresident Joe BidenThe House has already passed the Build Back better Act, which includes $555 billion for climate and clean energy investments.

Climate legislation is the most significant federal investment ever made in clean energy. It would allow the U.S. to meet Biden’s promise to cut emissions by half from 2005 levels, and reach halfway towards meeting his pledge of halving them by 2030. according to the nonpartisan analysis firm Rhodium Group.