[maxerickson]

I wonder how much the difference in residential heating/cooling really matters.

For example, I looked at natural gas consumption, in Texas industrial use is off the charts, residential is reasonably in line with California (on a per capita basis).

https://www.eia.gov/state/seds/data.php?incfile=/state/seds/...

Of course that is only enough to say that it is necessary to take a closer look, by the time everything is added up it could well be that living in California is substantially better.