North Dakota's energy lessons for California

◼ If California adopted similar approaches, perhaps the state's fiscal health would once again be the envy of the nation. - Brian Calle/Orange County Register

California's economic slide is one of choice and consequence, not of necessity. The state still possesses the resources for prosperity, even today, but policies advanced by ideologues and political zealots in the state capital have tarnished the Golden State.

North Dakota, by contrast, illustrates, as it rapidly becomes the economic envy of the nation, how a different approach to public policy bolsters economic activity and job creation.

North Dakota reaps the vast economic benefits of traditional energy procurement and production as well as agricultural spoils, while the Golden State reels from ideological obstinacy where its legislators kowtow to special interests and frolic in dream world where green jobs save the day. North Dakota's approach to energy policy has created a boon allowing the state to achieve notable economic accomplishments, especially as the rest of the nation, and world, lags....

The opposite is true of California, where people and businesses are fleeing the state en masse. Outward migration resulted in a net loss 129,193 residents in 2010, according to a recent Los Angeles Times analysis of United States Census data. More people want to get out than want to move in. The percentage of people born other states now living in California is the lowest it has been since 1900.... - read the rest.