Silicon Valley Goes Green: The Origin of California’s Climate Regime

Abstract

California presents a puzzle for scholars of US climate politics. In the early 2000s, it passed the country’s strongest climate laws despite the presence of the very factors that ostensibly explain their failure at the federal level: a fragmented system of government with multiple veto points, an active interest group landscape, and a major fossil fuel industry. Moreover, this was achieved under a Republican governorship in a state defined by automobile dependence. Scholars in political science and economics explain California’s exceptional policy emergence by reference to unique “focusing events” in the state, the leadership of elected officials, and the support of a broad advocacy coalition in Sacramento. This article presents an alternative explanation grounded in Gramscian political sociology. It marshals new evidence to argue that the political mobilization of Silicon Valley was the crucial factor in the emergence of California’s climate regime. Silicon Valley’s economic power, extraordinary potential to serve as the engine of a high-tech “green” capitalism, and its lead position in a new business-environmental bloc allowed it to overcome the resistance of the fossil fuel industry and to present climate policy as a winning economic strategy. This suggests that a credible plan for spurring growth, supported by significant fractions of capital, is necessary for achieving comprehensive climate policy.