For decades, analysts warned that California must build more power plants. But politicians there paid more heed to environmental groups which first attacked the idea of building coal-fired power plants, then graduated to an anti-nuclear stance.

• As of March 1970, 200 environmental groups had mushroomed in the San Francisco area alone.

• One study back then claimed that conservation in home appliances, and in heating and cooling would cut California's consumption of natural gas and electricity by 30 percent -- and peak demand would drop by half in 10 years.

• In 1975, Jerry Brown -- who opposed both coal and nuclear power -- became governor, and in 1978 he backed a state moratorium on building nuclear plants.

• As a result, it took 17 years to get the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant up and running -- and costs jumped 12-fold from $500 million to $6 billion.

"After the experience with Diablo Canyon," comments Miro Todorovich, executive director of the pro-nuclear Scientists and Engineers for Secure Energy in the 1970s and 1980s, "no utility in its right mind would build a power plant in California."

This explains why California produces less power per resident than any other state and imports one-quarter of its energy from places as far away as Quebec.

Source: David Isaac, "California's Recipe for Energy Crisis: When Demand Booms, Forget Supply," Investor's Business Daily, January 22, 2001.