> Which, to be clear, the interests of the Texas Republican legislators have absolutely nothing to do with the working class refinery jobs and everything to do with the billionaires who own them.
An individual's interests are multifaceted, and align or deviate along different dimensions. Workers have conflicting interests with their employers at a workplace level (e.g. over safety regulations) but convergent interests with their employers at an industry level.
Politics is downstream of economic interests. Democratic rhetoric was positive about midwestern factory workers even as economic dynamics recentered the party around tech and knowledge workers who benefit from globalization. The negative impacts of that hit not only those factory workers (who have been rebranded as "deplorables" as a result of that new economic calculus) but also the local business owners who used to own those factories that are now in China.
> Move a little west and you'll find that central Texas is also a powerhouse for solar and wind, and there are plenty of racially diverse folks building and installing wind turbines in Texas.
Installing Chinese-made solar panels and wind turbines is a huge downgrade from drilling, refining, and exporting American oil. It creates fewer jobs and those jobs are lower on the value chain.