Government picking winners in private industry, on the assumed basis of their environmental benefits, is open to great misjudgment. The federal government’s waste of $535 million on a single company, Solyndra, is hard to refute. When government gives money to individual companies, it almost never does a better job than the free-market system. California should resist the temptation that occurs regularly to create special tax or other incentives to attract or to retain a single company, or industry. There is too much room for abuse in selecting the beneficiaries of governmental assistance.

Far better is for California to lessen its regulatory burden, lower its taxes, heal its litigation system, and improve its infrastructure – steps that will attract economic activity and the jobs it creates across many different fields.