It’s interesting seeing the juxtaposition of approaches to energy policy around the world, especially between those places where electricity and mobility are taken for granted – which seems to breed a certain ideological resentment of its abundance – and those where that abundance is now existentially threatened.

Take California, for instance. The sheer volume of lunacy emanating from that place is enough that the state is swiftly becoming a caricature of itself, to where it’s almost unsportsmanlike to keep picking on it. The Golden State has been struggling mightily to keep the lights on all summer, the result of previous policies that have strained the grid to the point that Californians are perpetually living on the edge of a blackout. So what does California Gov. Gavin Newsom do? Roll back some of the ludicrous mandates that created the problem?

No, last week the good governor doubled down on the insanity, signing some 40 executive orders to exacerbate the problem. Those included ones to raise the state’s renewable electricity mandate to 90% by 2035 and 100% by 2045. There were also orders to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to 85% below 1990 levels and to achieve so-called “Carbon-neutrality”, both also by 2045.

“We’re not only doubling down”, he declared, “we’re just getting started.”

Well, this ought to turn out splendidly.

Or consider closer to home, here in Colorado. Earlier this week officials reported to the Air Quality Control Commission that the state was quite far behind on its chimerical greenhouse-gas reduction goals for 2025 and 2030, prompting the AQCC’s Elise Jones to evoke the same “double down” language. Naturally, every Luddite group in the state chimed in. They didn’t suggest that perhaps the statutory goals perhaps need to be a little more in line with physics and reality – oh, golly, no. Instead, they clamored on about how the regulatory screws need to be tightened on Colorado businesses and consumers, who clearly aren’t being charged enough for gas and electricity. They came up with gems like calling for the state to advance the timeline to shut down coal plants while simultaneously refusing to allow electric companies to build new natural gas fired plants to fill the hole in generation left by the coal plants they dismantle. There was no suggestion (at least not any serious one) about how to fill that gap. After all, light comes on magically when you flip the switch… just get the magic from a different place. Simple.

Now contrast this approach to what is happening today in much of Europe, which is facing an impending energy crisis heading into the brutal winter season. For years, places like Germany approached the energy question not much differently than California and Colorado do today: they banned fracking, banned coal, banned nuclear and adopted chimerical carbon goals. They could get away with this because they had access to as much Russian natural gas as they could buy.

But now, as part of the fallout of Russia’s war on Ukraine, those taps are being turned off. Energy policy is no longer an academic matter. It’s the prospect of millions being without heat and power at Christmas. France is okay: they’ve relied on nuclear power for years. A couple countries like Iceland and Norway are geographically blessed with large-scale hydropower. What about the rest?

Well, Britain’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss is already taking steps to reverse the UK’s myopic fracking ban, so they can have access to their own ample supply of oil and gas from the North Sea. But Germany provides the clearest examples of what happens when reality slaps you awake.

Earlier this month, Germany’s government announced it will keep two of its three remaining nuclear reactors running, which were scheduled to be shut down by the end of this year. It’s not really much of a step, but significant for a coalition government which includes the Green Party, whose roots are in the 1970s anti-nuclear movement.

Perhaps even more telling is the fact that Germany has been returning coal-fired power plants to full service, one after another, for the past several weeks.

It is unfortunate that it takes an impending crisis to snap political leaders out of their ideologically-induced delirium and nudge them toward realistic and workable policies. One can hope that it will not take a similar existential threat for Colorado and California to actually become serious about energy policy, but then one can hope for a lot of things.

Kelly Sloan is a political and public affairs consultant and a recovering journalist based in Denver.