The author has a pretty radical and completely unsubstantiated anti-environmental outlook. He claims that California energy prices are so high because of "liber

The author has a pretty radical and completely unsubstantiated anti-environmental outlook. He claims that California energy prices are so high because of "liberal" policies including extremely important (but honestly still fairly modest) regulations to help stem carbon emissions - however, California energy prices have been far above the US average for decades [0] and the impact of carbon regulations on the consumer have been minimal, and certainly have nothing to do with California's poverty rate. (Note that most of the east coast lives in states with similar regulations [1], and there too costs have not been pushed onto the consumer). As to the argument that a ban on plastic bags is causing California's poverty because it hurts the workers in the factories that make them... I think the ridiculousness of that idea stands on its own. California has a poverty problem. It's driven by things like the housing crisis and high consumer prices. Not because we provide any kind of support the poor or the environment. [0] http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-electricity-capacity/static/img/la-fi-g-electricity-capacity-web.jpg http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-electricity-capacity/s... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Greenhouse_Gas_Initiative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Greenhouse_Gas_Initia...