Californias sweeping climate change policies cost a fortune for no benefit

“The science is settled.” It’s Sacramento’s answer to every climate question.And if we’re talking about economics, also known as the “dismal science,” that’s right: California’s climate change policies have failed.They impose huge costs, for no apparent benefit to the planet.Climate science can tell us the Earth is warming.What it doesn’t measure is freedom: how much of yours a policy is worth, or whether imposing it on you is worth the cost.Those aren’t scientific questions.

They’re political ones — and in a free state, liberty is supposed to be the default position, not something you win back mandate by mandate.California met climate change with a machine, not a single law: Cap-and-trade, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, renewable electricity mandates, clean-car rules, building electrification, methane regulations, land-use policies designed to get you out of your car.That’s the short list.Start with gasoline.In January 2026, the California Energy Commission put the Low Carbon Fuel Standard at about 17 cents a gallon and cap-and-trade at another 25 cents — 42 cents every time you fill up.Then there’s your electricity bill: a 60% renewable mandate by 2030, and a 2045 target of zero-carbon power that could add roughly 6% to system costs — before it even reaches your grocery bill.Multiply that logic across housing, appliances and manufacturing, and you get dozens more mandates like these, in places you’d expect and plenty you wouldn’t.Energy abundance is itself a form of climate protection: The people best protected from heat and drought are the ones who used the most of it, not the least.No formula takes carbon dioxide in the air and spits out the right gasoline tax or water heater rule.

At some point science ends, and judgment — made by voters’ elected officials — begins.Do any of these actually work? I doubt it, and nobody in Sacramento has ever had to prove otherwise.The Legislative Analyst’s Office says it knows of no...