Earlier this year the Los Angels Times reported on a nationwide effort by environmental groups like the National Resources Defense Council to shut down all construction of all coal power plants everywhere in the United States. The group claimed they had stopped 65 plants from coming online. But coal is not their only target. Today the Los Angeles Times reports that the NRDC just succeeded in stopping 13 natural gas power plants in southern California. California already imports more energy than any state in the country and as a result has some of the highest energy costs in the country, including the second highest commercial sector energy prices (Hawaii has the highest).

Over the next decade, America will need another 135 gigawatts of power. But only 57 gigawatts are planned. Unless environmentalists are defeated in the courts, Congress, and statehouse nationwide, $4 a gallon gasoline is going to be the least of our economic problems.