Guardian: In the depths of the Great Recession three years ago, California's chief fiscal officer John Chiang gathered his deputies and posed a question: "Is there any way we can put capital on the ground in California to put people back to work in ways that would make sense for the long term?"
After some debate, they settled on what they called "the holy grail" energy efficiency. Retrofit projects would employ many of the 100,000 construction workers looking for work and put money into the pockets of...