California Dreaming

This document consists of a letter and a subsequent note written by Amory B. Lovins, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, addressed to The American Spectator. Lovins refutes claims made by writer William Tucker regarding the causes of the California electricity crisis, specifically challenging Tucker's assertions that Internet growth drove a surge in electricity demand and that the state suffered from a lack of generating capacity.

• Amory Lovins disputes the claim that Internet growth caused electricity demand to soar in California, stating that the Internet's electricity use is minimal and that California's per-capita electricity use remained relatively flat for 25 years. He notes that California's electrical consumption grew at an average rate of 1.15% per year during the 1990s, which was half the rate of economic growth.
• Lovins argues that the California electricity crisis was not caused by a shortage of generating capacity, but by market failures. He points out that the state experienced rolling blackouts at 29 GW in winter 2000/01 despite having met a peak load of 53 GW in summer 1999. He attributes the crisis to "botched restructuring," concentrated market power, and strategic bidding by seven firms that held two-thirds of the competitive bidding space.
• Lovins asserts that his policy recommendations—focusing on electricity efficiency, cost-effective cogeneration, and renewables—were successful and would have forestalled the crisis if they had not been abandoned in the mid-1990s. He states these efforts added over 15 GW of resources by the early 1990s and that nonhydro renewables provided one-tenth of California's 1999 generation.
• Lovins claims that the trend in the energy market is moving away from large central thermal power stations toward smaller, onsite, and local generation because it is more economical, reliable, and lower-risk.

APA

Lovins, A. B. (2001). California Dreaming. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E01-17_CalifDreaming.pdf

Chicago

Lovins, Amory B. California Dreaming. RMI, 2001. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E01-17_CalifDreaming.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Lovins |first1=Amory B. |title=California Dreaming |publisher=RMI |date=15 May 2001 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E01-17_CalifDreaming.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{lovins2001california, author = {Lovins, Amory B.}, title = {{California Dreaming}}, publisher = {RMI}, year = {2001}, month = may, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E01-17_CalifDreaming.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }