Then again, it will be hard to enforce. Lighting needed for security is exempt, as are businesses that can show they have already reduced their lighting, making it hard for law enforcement--which has said it will not be engaging in any extra enforcement effort under the order--to determine who is and isn't complying.

Businesses are simply expected to make a good faith effort to lower their power use, and many already have been. The Westfield Shopping Town Valley Fair and the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto have long since curtailed their power use, and on a broader basis, the California Retailers Association and the California Motor Car Dealers Association have said their members will comply with the order.