A Cooler Heads Coalition Briefing: California’s Energy Policies: a Model for the Nation?

When: Friday, April 4th

Noon—1:15 PM

Where: Room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Washington DC

The State of California has developed an array of demand-side energy policies over the past several decades. More recently, California’s legislature has passed legislation that mandates drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Key
lawmakers are now promoting California’s energy and global warming
policies as a model for the federal government and other States to
follow. Thomas Tanton’s talk will review California’s
policies and show that they have had significant costs as well as other
detrimental effects and are likely to have even higher costs and even
worse effects in the future. California’s policies have
led to the highest electricity and gasoline prices in the continental
U. S. and contributed to the de-industrialization of California. While per capita electricity consumption has remained flat, total electricity demand has increased 65% since 1980.

Mr. Tanton’s talk is based on his new White Paper
for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, California Energy Policy: a
Cautionary Tale for the Nation. Copies will be available at the event and online at www.cei.org.

Thomas Tanton is a Fellow in Environmental Studies
at the Pacific Research Institute and an Adjunct Scholar at the
Institute for Energy Research. He is also President of T2 & Associates, an energy technology consulting firm. Mr.
Tanton has over 35 years’ experience in the energy, economy, and
environmental fields. As the General Manager at the Electric Power
Research Institute from 2000 to 2003, he was responsible for the
overall management and direction of collaborative research and
development programs in electric generation technologies, integrating
technology, market infrastructure, and public policy.

Until 2000, Mr. Tanton was Principal Policy Advisor with the California Energy Commission, where he began his career in 1976. He
developed and implemented policies and legislation on energy issues of
importance to California, U.S., and international markets, including
electric restructuring, gasoline and natural gas supply and pricing,
energy facility siting and permitting, environmental issues, power
plant siting, technology development, and transportation. He served as lead advisor on energy and infrastructure to California’s task force on 21st Century development. He
has testified before several state legislatures and Congress, and
provided expert witness testimony in power plant siting cases.