A Journey to the Heart of Energy in America: The Convergence of Diverse Temporalities in the West Texas Landscape

Abstract

This work emerged through ethnographic research conducted in West Texas’s tract of the Permian Basin. Contrasting the traditional teleological narrative of a fluid and linear renewable energy transition, I discuss the immense intricacies of transforming our nation’s energy resources. I explore this complexity through its intersectionality with land, local livelihoods, extractive economies, communal relations, and cultural identities. Through anthropological considerations of change, belonging, and coexistence, as they are experienced in these West Texas communities, I uncover the complexity of our nation’s energy transition, blunting the idealization of a linear transformation while offering hope for our energy future.