If EV owners in California must return the electricity in their car batteries to the grid during power shortages, they don’t truly own the energy in their EVs. In essence, the state has the power to tell them when to travel. It also has the power to tell them where to travel, because the state is setting up the network of electric charging stations.

This vast attempt at industrial regulation is meant to reduce global temperatures. But even getting rid of all American fossil fuel emissions would only reduce global temperatures by 0.2 degrees Celsius by 2100, according to government models, because increases in emissions are coming from China, Russia, India, Africa, and Latin America.

Industrial energy policy is not the only reason for the migration from California to Texas. California’s high taxes and high cost of housing are also factors. But the contrast between attitudes about transportation, looked at as a right and a key to the American dream, is stunning and a lesson to other states.

[I wrote about this the other day, and got mostly positive feedback. One Twitter responder scoffed that California actually planned on imposing bidirectionality, but as Furchgott-Ross points out, Democrats in the legislature already have bills moving that would require all EVs to provide it. Texans do buy EVs — I see them around — but there’s no way they’ll force them onto the public, nor allow ERCOT to steal the juice out of them. It’s these kinds of policies that have Texans warning California refugees not to expect this state to commit suicide on the altar of progressivism. “Don’t Californicate My Texas” is a real thing. — Ed]