The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
Stephen Moore, in the Wall Street Journal, on yet another aspect--the war against energy production--of the collapse of the Golden State:
While North Dakota's oil production has tripled since 2007 (to more than 150 million barrels in 2011), the Golden State's oil production has fallen by a third in the past 20 years, to 201 million barrels last year from 320 million in 1990. The problem isn't that California is running out of oil: In 2008, when the USGS estimated four million barrels of recoverable oil from the Bakken, it estimated closer to 15 million barrels in California's vast Monterey Shale.
Rather, California's problem is politicians—at the behest of their green-energy allies—deciding to wall off the state from developing evil fossil fuels....[w]ith its prohibitive environmental regulations, state cap-and-trade law, costly renewable energy mandates and 40 years of prohibitions on almost all offshore drilling....This month, according to North Dakota's Department of Mineral Resources, California is no longer America's third-largest energy-producing state—leapfrogged by North Dakota.
A population of 38 million is being held hostage, to overstate the case only a little, by the unwillingness of a few tens of thousands in Malibu, Santa Monica, and Venice (yes, Rob's neighborhood) to risk cluttering their ocean views.
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Comments:
Aug '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
I assume Texas is the #1 oil-producing state.
What's #2? I would have guessed North Dakota.
Is it Alaska?
May '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
Reminds me of a famous quote around 1858 about South Carolina:
Too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.
Except California is large enough...
Expect more freeloading lunatics to head your way...
Meanwhile, where's that Homes section of the Bismarck Tribune?
Edited on March 11, 2012 at 10:32pmJun '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
What can you threaten a North Dakotan with? Exile to Siberia? They vacation in Siberia.
Jul '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
In California, we're battling over which Tax Increase Initiative should be on the ballot.
'Nuff said.
Mar '11
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
One would like to believe that is the case but you underestimate how liberal this state is. Already every statewide office of significance is held by a Democrat and after the next electoral cycle it is almost guaranteed that Democrats will have two-thirds control of both state Houses.
A majority of citizens here are well and truly "Drinking the Kool-Aid". Looking over to Detroit I can see the future and it is not pretty.
Dec '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
Misthiocracy: I assume Texas is the #1 oil-producing state.
What's #2? I would have guessed North Dakota.
Is it Alaska? · 52 minutes ago
No, Alaska is first both in total and per capita. Texas is second.
Aug '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
Annexation by British Columbia?
Aug '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
Jerry Broaddus
Misthiocracy: I assume Texas is the #1 oil-producing state.
What's #2? I would have guessed North Dakota.
Is it Alaska? · 52 minutes ago
No, Alaska is first both in total and per capita. Texas is second. · 2 minutes ago
Thank you. Your No-Prize is in the mail. ;-)
Oct '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
Roberto, right on. I think the GOP in the state is on the verge of extinction. They couldn't even fill a banquet hall at the convention with 250 warm bodies.Peter, what if we split California in two, using the San Andreas as the border? There must be some kind of correlation between being on the Pacific plate and liberal craziness.
Aug '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
You should change your username to Max Zorin.
May '11
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
Shortly after the Reconquista, both offshore and onshore drilling will be opened up to the Chinese.
Dec '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
I would like to remind you all that the one thing that Progressives crave more even than environmental protection is tax revenue. We have already seen Democrat politicians in California fly to Texas to see firsthand how those strange people in that strange state manage to attract and retain businesses and thus fund their State government. We are near a tipping point where the politicians in Sacramento will decide that fracking the Monterey Shale will allow them to pay off more of their special interest constituencies than it will alienate. (And who else do the tree huggers have to vote for in California anyway?)
Oct '11
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
It seems to me we in California are well beyond the tipping point. I had room for optimism before our 2010 elections, but that was crushed. We vote for Barbra Boxer and high speed rail, not for fuel we all need and use on a daily basis. Environmentalism is the reigning religion here even in the face of overwhelming evidence of the harm the extremists cause. Our judges and polititians let the great Central Valley go fallow, because we have smelt to protect.
Edited on March 12, 2012 at 12:26amOct '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
The few remaining Californians, and that includes Peter and Rob, will soon be leaving and landing in Colorado, already suffering from coastal pollution, and possibly even North Dakota and Texas and other still free states.
Unfortunately, living there there this long, the unmistakable taint of liberalism is still on your persons.
Be sure to wipe your feet before you emigrate across our border.
Dec '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
Tom Wilson
It seems to me we in California are well beyond the tipping point. I had room for optimism before our 2010 elections, but that was crushed. We vote for Barbra Boxer and high speed rail, not for fuel we all need and use on a daily basis. Environmentalism is the reigning religion here even in the face of overwhelming evidence of the harm the extremists cause. Our judges and polititians let the great Central Valley go fallow, because we have smelt to protect.
Ah, but Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown were elected largely on the strength of union support - public and private unions. Both types require business activity and taxes to survive. The new tipping point will occur when the unions tell the environmentalists to buzz off and demand that their members keep their jobs - which will only happen with opportunities like the Monterey Shale.
Remember, the problem with socialism is that it eventually runs out of other people's money. Given that imperative, the politicians in California will have to resort to letting other people make more money, so they can take it from them.
Dec '10
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
raycon: The few remaining Californians, and that includes Peter and Rob, will soon be leaving and landing in Colorado, already suffering from coastal pollution, and possibly even North Dakota and Texas and other still free states.
Unfortunately, living there there this long, the unmistakable taint of liberalism is still on your persons.
Be sure to wipe your feet before you emigrate across our border. · 4 minutes ago
Nah, I'll head for Oregon. It's already been Californicated.
Feb '12
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
Peter: The Monterey/Santos Shale play would not affect ocean views! The bulk of the play is in the southern Central Valley, where there is some of the worst unemployment in the State. This is such a no-brainer fix for the State - drives me crazy that it is not at the top of the list for Sacramento. And it is mostly oil, and not natural gas. Great article by Moore!
May '11
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
Wouldn't it require water to exploit?
Jan '11
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
ctlaw
Wouldn't it require water to exploit? · 2 minutes ago
Use the water they cut off from the central valley and ship via high speed rail.
Aug '11
Re: The Fall of California (and the Rise of North Dakota)
Had a long discussion about this with a friend today. How does California come back from the brink, or has the tipping point been passed. Lots of people fleeing the state, and if the majority of those who remain are solidly Democrat, then how do conservatives ever get back in control and roll back the crazy?