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Why has a heavily Republican city in Texas, chock full of climate change sceptics, become the first city in the South to be powered entirely by renewable energy? And why, just a few miles away, has a small town consisting of a lone truck stop and a deserted dirt road they call 鈥淢ain Street鈥�, become the richest area in the entire United States?

As Donald Trump pulls the US out of the Paris Climate Accords, and talks up the use of fossil fuels, we explore the unexpected reality of the energy industry in the 鈥渙il state鈥�, which, on its own, would be the 10th largest economy in the world. We speak to the beneficiaries of the Eagle Shale fracking boom: migrant workers making $120,000 a year working on oil fields, and cattle-ranch owners who became millionaires overnight, thanks to the 鈥減ennies from heaven鈥� that arrive via a monthly payoff for the mineral discoveries made on their land.

We also from hear from locals who are victims of the 鈥渂oom and bust鈥� cycle of oil, and whose life in the tough and remote McMullen County is anything but prosperous.

An energy policy expert tells us why the Paris Agreement was 鈥渏ust a cute piece of PR鈥�, and that why it comes to Texas, it鈥檚 鈥渕oney, money money鈥�, not politics or science, that has propelled the second biggest US state to become the nation鈥檚 largest wind energy producer - and may yet make it the largest solar producer too.

To the sound of a country and bluegrass concert on the 鈥渕ost beautiful town square in Texas鈥�, we hear from staunchly conservative residents who are nonetheless proud of the local clean energy revolution, and the cheaper utility bills that have followed, and from a veteran city manager who has become a reluctant icon of liberal environmentalists.

Plus, we explore why despite its acrimonious politics, the pragmatism shown in the small towns of the Lone Star State could provide a blueprint for energy policy in the age of Donald Trump.

(Photo: McMullen County)