The Economist 14Mar2020

20 United States The EconomistMarch 14th 2020

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support from working-class whites, who

favoured him by large margins over Mrs

Clinton, and from young people. Mr Sand-

ers’s protectionist trade policies may have

been particularly popular in declining

post-industrial cities such as Grand Rapids

and Kalamazoo.

Much of that Sanders coalition from

2016 has not stuck around. In post-indus-

trial Kent County (which surrounds Grand

Rapids), his vote share fell by 18 points

compared with 2016. In Kalamazoo County,

it fell by 17 points.

Cracks in the base had already begun to

show. Suburbanites and young voters had

failed to turn out in Super Tuesday states in

the revolutionary numbers that he has long

promised. Until now, though, it was not

clear whether rustbelt whites would give

him enough support to keep his hopes

alive. But across Michigan his vote share

slipped by larger amounts in counties with

higher concentrations of white adults

without a college degree. It plunged too in

the sparsely populated areas of the state

(see chart).

Although these voters were willing to

cast their ballots for a self-described social-

ist in 2016, that was probably because they

disliked Mrs Clinton more. Given the

choice between Mr Biden and a far-left

ideologue, they picked the moderate this

time round.

The primaries are now all but over. Mr

Biden emerges from the latest contests

with a 145-delegate lead, according to our

projections of how remaining delegates

from partially-reporting states will be allo-

cated. Barring disaster, Mr Biden will prob-

ably go on to win a large majority of dele-

gates in next week’s contests. Polls put him

ahead in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and

Ohio—worth 577 delegates in total.

Mr Sanders’s campaign will not have

been for nought; he has moved the party

left on the issues he cares about most. Ulti-

mately, though, Democrats just did not be-

lieve he could beat Donald Trump. 7

Bern notice

United States, Michigan, Democratic primaries

Change in Bernie Sanders’s voteshare,2016-20

By county, percentage points

Sources:USCensusBureau; pressreports;TheEconomist

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0

-10

-20

-30

706050403020

Share of adults who are white and

have no college degree, %

Vote share, % points

O

ver the past few years Dewey Engle,

an 81-year-old retired highway worker

who lives on the outskirts of Tahoka, a

small farming town in west Texas, has ac-

quired a new view from his back porch.

Dozens of wind turbines hum 300ft over

the cotton fields behind his bungalow.

Some people might be disturbed by the

sudden arrival of such monstrous ma-

chines practically in their garden. Mr Engle

says that his only problem with them is

that they are not on his modest patch of

farmland, so he does not get any royalties.

“I would love to have that money coming

in,” he says. “I’d like to have ten of them.”

The wind farm at Tahoka is owned by

Orsted, a Danish energy firm which en-

tered the American market less than two

years ago. It comprises 120 turbines, each

capable of generating enough power for

1,000 homes. At next door Sage Draw, an-

other 120 turbines are still being erected

and hooked up to the Texas grid. Fracking,

another industry which has transformed

parts of western Texas over the past decade,

is now in trouble. But turbine blades will

not stop spinning. Drive from Lubbock to

Sweetwater, and for almost the entire jour-

ney the horizon bristles with windmills in

every direction. The vast majority were put

up in the past ten years. Texas now meets

20% of its sizeable electricity demand with

wind. If it were a country, the Lone Star

State would be the fifth-biggest in the

world in its production of wind energy.

Curiously, America’s renewable-energy

boom has been strongest in Republican-

controlled states like Texas. Democrat-

controlled places like New York have poli-

cies intended to attract investment, for ex-

ample pledges that state governments will

buy only green power. But Texas has lots of

wind and sun and rather fewer Nimbys.

President Donald Trump, who has spent a

small fortune trying to fight a wind farm

within sight of his Scottish golf club, evi-

dently cannot stand turbines. At rallies he

likes to rant about how they kill birds. But

for many of his supporters, particularly in

rural areas, wind turbines and solar panels

are a boost to ailing economies. In Lynn

County, of which Tahoka is the seat, 77% of

people voted for Mr Trump. Could the

boom persuade Republicans that decarbo-

nising might be an economic opportunity,

not just a cost?

In recent years turbines have sprouted

across the American plains; proportion-

ately, Kansas and Oklahoma both rely on

wind more than Texas does. For some years

now, one of the fastest-growing job catego-

ries in America has been “wind-turbine

technician”. Nor is the boom confined to

wind. Investment is pouring into solar

plants and battery systems, especially in

the sun-soaked south-west. The growth in

numbers of solar-panel installers has now

overtaken that of wind-turbine techni-

cians. Taken together, solar and wind ener-

gy make up 55% of the new electricity-gen-

TAHOKA, TEXAS

A renewable-energy boom is changing the face of an oil-producing state

Climate change

Green Texas