Joel Kotkin reports on California's most powerful religious movement:
To satisfy the gentry’s urgent need to feel noble and better than others, we are embarked on an ever-more extreme jihad to battle global warming, with the state, pursuant to an executive order from Gov. Jerry Brown, committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 – and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 – versus the previous mandate of reaching 1990 levels by 2020. It seems clear that we are about to wage a war of increasing intensity on climate change, surely not at the expense of depriving Google executives and other oligarchs their private jets, but certainly down to the last affordable single-family house or decent factory job.
There's more:
For one thing, the fixation on carbon-free energy has led to much higher electricity prices, 43.5 percent above the national average in December 2014 according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency. This is bad news for industries that need electricity, and is one reason why many manufacturers go elsewhere.
It’s not too great for commuters, either. As of May 12, California’s average cost per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $3.73, the highest in the country – including even Hawaii and Alaska – and more than a dollar higher than the national average, $2.66. Gas prices on average are still about 21 percent lower than a year ago in the U.S., but 11 percent lower in California.
The state’s climate policy, particularly in its new, more militant form, also is likely to reduce California’s job creation. Although enjoying a brief resurgence, California employment has consistently underperformed other states over the longer term.
California's dangerous religion has costs.
