For California, Success as Environmental Pioneer Means Others Must Follow

Anthony York describes why California Governor Jerry Brown "needs other states and the federal government to adopt key elements of California's environmental agenda, such as reaping more energy from renewable sources and capping greenhouse gas emissions, if those programs are to be successful here."

"The state's aggressive pursuit of environmental goals has provided a new impetus for green jobs and federal subsidies," York explains. "But the programs are costly to businesses, raising the price of their energy and forcing them to upgrade to cleaner manufacturing technologies."

"If others don't go green, California could become an outlier, saddling businesses with costly new power while neighboring states continue to use traditional, cheaper energy, experts say. If the efforts under way in California spread to become the new normal, however, all will benefit from economies of scale."

"In Washington, Brown pushed for others to join in. 'We can't do it alone,' he told state leaders gathered for the National Governors Assn. meeting. 'We need other states.... We need China. We need India.'"