Liam Denning and Jeff Davies write:

The standard political color code for renewable energy holds that green mixes with blue but clashes with red. A detailed look at local realities says otherwise.

Enersection, a new company based in Houston specializing in data-driven insights on the US energy system, has presented them in compelling charts and other graphics (you can access its site here). Bloomberg Opinion partnered with co-founder Jeff Davies to take a deep dive into the energy and emissions landscape at the congressional district level, using data from the Energy Information Administration’s monthly electricity report (EIA 860-M).

The picture that emerges will probably surprise you.

The House minority leader and likely Republican speaker-in-waiting, Kevin McCarthy, has complained that Democrats prefer to leave US oil and gas resources in the ground, even if it means begging for “batteries from China.”

Nothing particularly earth-shattering there. What’s interesting, though, is that a lot of those begged-for batteries look set to land in California’s 23rd Congressional District, represented by McCarthy. Indeed, geolocating the EIA data shows that his district ranks No. 1 in the nation for planned and operating grid-battery projects. McCarthy’s district also ranks first for planned and operating utility-scale solar capacity and second when you combine wind, solar and batteries. That is one green deep-red district.

McCarthy’s district captures a broad disconnect between facts on the ground and political identities when it comes to green energy. [Continue reading…]