While I’m not specifically arguing against your conclusion, there are a few narratives that to me point unfortunately to a systemic cause.

One is the book why nations fail, which among other causes points to circumstance and initial conditions. There was an interesting freakonomics podcast interviewing the mayor of, I think it was Dallas, and why Dallas was so successful, and the problem with California isnt sort of generic leftness but the specific organization of power structures that supports Nimbyism in a way that Texas doesn’t.

Plus the irony the EPA was formed by Nixon and the modern California environmental act was formed by Reagan?

The conspiracy theorist in me might suggest that in fact some of the environmental protections are explicitly right leaning to prevent progress.