California Dreaming

I have spent the past week on vacation in California. Let me start by saying that I think about California very fondly. I spent the first 10 years of my married life, as well as the first 10 years of my career in the energy business in California. Three of my children were born here. I like California. To be honest, there isn't much not to like.

But California is different. California reminds you of that neighbor in your youth. Tall, blond, athletic and popular. Life was easy for them outside the classroom. In the classroom no one knew whether they were smart or not, because being smart wasn't cool in any case. They charmed the teacher. On tests and homework they had eager and willing help from those wanting to enter their golden circle. They breezed through college and just when faced with the uncertainty of the "real world", a remote elderly aunt passed on leaving her entire fortune to them. Despite their undeniable superiority, they weren't arrogant or bad mannered. They were just very likable. And it seemed the world had been created to be their private country club.

They lived in a different world. And that is California. We in the Rocky Mountains cherish the beauty of our mountains, but California has mountains too. Higher ones in fact. Everything that we have, they have more of it. Not only do they have more of it, but it is better too. We can only look on in helpless admiration and envy.

In the past, we made a curmudgeonly virtue of our envy. We put bumper stickers on our cars telling Californians to go home. But we have admitted our envy and little is now seen of that misplaced defiance. We now fund advertising campaigns for Californians to come and rescue our falling real estate values by buying our houses as vacation homes.

One soon learns that California is a green state. They are making great strides in reducing carbon emissions and becoming "sustainable". Everywhere there are signs and reminders that California is seeking environmental purity. My daughter and son-in-law live in a large city in Southern California. While the city is in near bankruptcy with dangerously failing infrastructure, they will be severely penalized if they do not properly sort their garbage into various "recyclable" bins.

Given California's history, I am sure that they will successfully meet their goals for carbon reduction and "sustainability". Driving through California one sees many utility corridors. Great corridors where large pipelines and electrical power lines bring our energy into California for their use. Not that they really need the energy, just like everything else, they have more energy reserves than we do. They just have chosen not to use theirs. After all, producing energy can make such a mess.

And to add insult to injury, foreign energy sources compete to supply California as well, thus keeping us in our place. If we don't help the popular kid cheat on the pop quiz, we will lose them as a friend and have to eat lunch with the rest of the nerds.

Looking at California, one can only conclude that God plays favorites.