JERRY BROWN: ‘NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE COERCIVE POWER OF THE CENTRAL STATE:’

PARIS—One of the goals of Californians who traveled to Paris for climate talks this week was to showcase green-energy businesses that are succeeding in the state.

But on Monday it was the “coercive power” of government for which Gov. Jerry Brown was seeking credit. . .

“You do have to have, at the end of the day, a regulation, a law,” he said. “Progress comes from well-designed regulatory objectives that business then follows.”

Because government is always so much smarter than everyone else.

It gets better:

Later, at the site where world leaders are meeting to negotiate a climate pact outside of Paris, Brown urged a small crowd to “never underestimate the coercive power of the central state in the service of good.”

“You can be sure California is going to keep innovating, keep regulating,” the Democratic governor said. “And, shall I say, keep taxing.”

Controversially, many green-energy businesses benefit from government subsidies or policies to reduce greenhouse gases.

At a news conference Monday evening, business owners chuckled when asked if their companies would be viable without government support.

K.R. Sridhar, chief executive officer of the fuel cell company Bloom Energy, said, “There’s almost nothing in the post-industrial age, no business, no industry that ever got started or ever flourished without policy support, without subsidy and without federal support.”

Remember: You didn’t build that.

But at least for now, you can flee: