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Just a stupid question.... Why does California have the "dirtiest" air? Certainly they have a high population, but it's also a HUGE state.

Quite honestly, I don't think anyone has a problem with fuel efficient vehicles - so long as we don't have to sacrifice power. I would love it if my Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab Magnum V8 360ci truck got 50 mpg. Unfortunatley, the technology is just not there.

What's the answer? It's going to take someone a whole lot smarter and better educated than me to figure that one out.

We have the largest population and the largest economy of any state, and since the economy is tied closely to energy production, and energy production releases pollutants... it's not hard to reason out unless you're a watermelon. Oh, and we have a bunch of oil refineries down in the LA basin and up by the port of Richmond.

Why does California have the "dirtiest" air?

Your use of quotes is appropriate. We might have the "dirtiest" air, but that doesn't mean that the air is all that dirty. Air quality over the past quarter century has improved dramatically. When I was a kid, I remember days when you couldn't clearly see the other end of the school parking lot 150 meters away. Now, we never have smog that bad. (Smoke from run-away forest fires in areas where the greenies wouldn't allow cutting, perhaps, but not smog!)

I don't know the exact figures, but the overwhelming majority of California's population is in the coastal urban Southern California megalopolis. Ventura County blends into Los Angeles County blends into Orange County blends into San Diego County as virtually one continuous city.

If you look at a map, you'll find that is a relatively tiny portion of the state, and yet the bulk of its population is there.

Most of the state by volume is pure desert land, which has little value without connections to a major urban area. And few Californians want to live far from the beach, especially since the seaside climate is by far our best. The further inland it is, the more miserably hot it gets in summer, and the chillier the winters.

I live in the San Fernando Valley, which is inland, and it's very hot. I would much rather live in the cooler Westside or Western Orange County, but housing is incredibly expensive there - prices range from 50% more expensive than where I live to, well, many times more. And most people would consider housing here expensive.

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