Chip Roy Messed With Clean Energy. He Paid the Price.

The ardent anti-clean energy attorney general candidate — better known in Washington as a House Freedom Caucus leader — looked like a shoo-in for Texas’ top law enforcement job.

Fast forward three months, and Roy’s political career is over. He lost by 11 points last night in a runoff to state senator Mayes Middleton.

How did this happen?

It’s rarely one thing that wins or loses campaigns. Millions of dollars were spent on both sides in this race. But it’s fair to say that Roy’s fervent opposition to clean energy cost him — specifically, his insistence that the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits be killed as quickly as possible. Roy was an active participant in making sure the  One Big Beautiful Bill gutted President Biden’s signature legislation. He boasted that his work had guaranteed more than 90 percent of planned wind and solar projects would never break ground.

In one of the rare instances of the clean energy industry playing political hardball, a group of investors formed the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC to run hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads opposing Roy, such as this one:

When President Trump needed Republicans to unite behind the MAGA agenda, Chip Roy stood in the way. Trump himself called Roy an obstructionist for his antics in the House. Roy’s turned his back on MAGA more than once. He certified the 2020 election and endorsed DeSantis over Trump. And had the gall to call us fuckers for supporting President Trump. Chip Roy doesn’t stand with Trump. He doesn’t stand with MAGA. Trump doesn’t want him. Why would we?

Notice what the ads didn’t say. Not a word about clean energy. They ran on Rumble and Truth Social, targeted conservative primary voters, and attacked Roy from the right. The point was to damage his candidacy in the most effective way possible. Mission accomplished.

We need more of this across the country. There’s no shortage of targets — every House Republican voted against clean energy last summer.

This isn’t necessarily a partisan effort. It’s about who’s for clean energy, and who’s not. Period. Democrats in safe districts who block clean energy priorities should face the same pressure. Anyone, regardless of party, who doesn’t champion the industry should fear the political repercussions.

The other takeaway: a logical argument doesn’t win a policy fight in Washington right now. Fear does. The clean energy industry needs to play hardball if they want sustained policy wins and the business certainty that follows. Oil and gas spent $75 million to elect Trump, while clean energy spent a measly $2.5 million in the 2024 cycle. More than cash alone, oil and gas deploys savvy campaigns that build and maintain their political power. As AMPED founder and CEO Steve McBee put it recently, “They’re stealing our lunch money before we get out of bed every morning.”

“I don’t think Chip Roy likes us, but I bet he’s respecting us a little bit more,” said Chris Larsen, one of the investors behind the anti-Roy campaign. “And I think that can inspire the broader solar industry to step up and be a lot more aggressive.”

“By the way,” Larsen added, “it’s kind of fun when you win these.”

Indeed. If you mess with clean energy, you will pay the price politically. That’s the message that needs to reverberate beyond Texas.