California has some of the most comprehensive and ambitious clean energy policies in the world, with a recently passed law requiring 100-percent carbon-free electricity by 2045,1 and an executive order aiming for economy-wide carbon neutrality by the same date. Using strong policies to encourage energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean transportation, the state is making…

Most economic theorists assume that energy efficiency—the biggest global provider of energy services—is a limited and dwindling resource whose price- and policy-driven adoption will inevitably deplete its potential and raise its cost. Influenced by that theoretical construct, most traditional analysts and deployers of energy efficiency see and exploit only a modest fraction of the worthwhile…