California Leads the Way in Energy Utility Exodus

California's senate just passed the carbon emissions cap bill, and if the House follows through, which it will probably do, the state of California will see another energy crisis like we did with the market-based energy trading scheme which booted Gray Davis out of power. Reducing man-made greenhouse gas emissions is a good thing, but any plan which makes it expensive for energy utilities to operate will succeed, by forcing the utilities to move or scale back their operations, not by innovation. Also troubling is the carbon trading mechanism which would be installed. Carbon emissions trading has already hurt New Zealand's economy, a signatory on the Kyoto Protocol, and studies on Australia's plan to install carbon emissions trading between their states show the economic cost being borne by the consumers instead of the utilities. It is already difficult for the energy industry to operate here because of heavy regulation, and the current structure of the emissions cap bill will further retard their operations, to the detriment of California residents.