When it Comes to Electricity, Should America Look More Like California?

The Contra Costa Times seems to think so. But Jack Smith at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram disagrees.

Here's some atomic insight from Rod Adams:

Though many people point to California as an energy conservation success story, the path that it has taken to get there is not one that can or should be followed by the rest of the US.

The first step is to locate as many people as possible in a temperate climate where neither heat nor air conditioning is needed. That is not an option for states like New York, Illinois, Florida or Texas where the climate is a little less mild.

The second step is to push out as much manufacturing business as possible. Chemicals, metals production, aircraft manufacture, chip fabrication, and even server farms take too much power, so they should be discouraged by ever tighter and more expensive regulations, heavy property taxes and rising electrical power costs.

After a few decades of such policies, most of these concentrated electricity consumers will have found other places to do their business, allowing the state to claim energy efficiency improvements. Of course, this path is sort of being followed by the rest of the states in the US, but it is not one that is recommended for continued prosperity.