.

From Yale e360:

…in the throes of the energy crises of [the early 80's, California] found a way to decouple profits from the amount of energy used, allowing the utilities to encourage efficiency while guaranteeing a profitable return. Utilities, essentially, were allowed to charge more for each unit of energy, as long as efficiencies improved.

The state seems to be a model for what’s possible, at least in the view of [U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven] Chu, who points out that since the energy crisis, the state’s use of electricity has, remarkably, remained flat on a per capita basis, even while its economy doubled. Electricity consumption in the rest of the U.S. meanwhile went up 40 percent on the same per capita basis.

CensusScope: California’s population grew by over 43% between 1980 and 2000 — from 23,667,902 to 33,871,648.

Sierra Club: California’s population grew by nearly 26 percent between 1980 and 1990, from 23.7 million to 29.8 million, and grew by another 4.1 million persons between 1990 and 2000.

The California Energy Commission’s Energy Efficiency Programs

Check out last Friday’s “What on Earth?”

LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT ON EARTH?…

Interview: Katie Kline, Communications Officer at Ecological Society of America interviewed me via Skype for the ESA’s Ecotone blog. Read and hear it here.

Video: Bebbo and Kito were featured in one of Jim Parks’ terrific Today’s Green Minute episodes. See the video! Learn more about it.