Teh, indeedy

Economist [sub. req.], via Pielke, who quotes the article:

California's greenhouse-gas emissions per person are on a par with those of Denmark. Relative to the size of its economy, they are lower.

Not having a subscription, I can't tell whether the red-state-blue-state difference is because Democratic party policies encourage energy conservation or whether generally energy-conscious voters tend to vote Democrats into office. In effect, it probably doesn't matter if it's the egg or the chicken.

I mentioned an observation to Nothstine the other day that the east coast is "far behind" the west coast. What I meant to say was that real societal progress is being made in California--and by extension in neighboring Oregon and Washington, the economies of which are tightly linked to California. People outside of that region cannot even begin to comprehend how that's possible. The above figure showing California's per capita electricity consumption is one indication thereof. This can be extrapolated further to the question of why shouldn't California have the nation's first primary election? New Hampshire and Iowa are clearly no longer states that give us any indication of who we are as a nation and where we are headed. Besides, there's libertarians and farmers in Cali as well.