Schwarzenegger 'Blocked Own Green Policy' 

DAVID USBORNE / The Independent (UK) 4jul2007

[More on Arnold Schwarzenegger]

The executive director of California's air-quality board, which is responsible for implementing the state's landmark environmental emissions law, has resigned amid allegations that the office of the Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has been deliberately getting in the way of its work.

The unexpected ruckus is deeply embarrassing for a governor who has visited capitals worldwide, including London last week, touting his state as an example to everyone because of its supposed commitment to cutting noxious emissions by 25 per cent by 2020.

Catherine Witherspoon announced she was stepping down from the board just days after the Governor fired its chairman, Robert Sawyer, on the grounds he was dragging his feet in imposing the cuts on industry. He, however, has claimed the contrary - that he was moving too fast and that aides to the Governor were trying to hold up measures that would hurt business.

The Governor's administration has "lost its way on air quality," Ms Witherspoon said after her departure. She said the charge that she and Mr Sawyer were not doing more to implement the new law, the Global Warming Solutions Act [California AB 32—Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006], was nothing if not "Orwellian - a triumph of appearances over reality".

Indeed, Mr Sawyer released transcripts this week of voice-mails he had received from aides to the Governor requesting that the board, at a recent meeting, limit itself to adopting three new measures on cutting emissions, when it had four on its agenda.

"Every signal the board got from the Governor's office staff was, 'Slow down, don't hurt industry, don't get ahead of us on greenhouse gases'," Ms Witherspoon said. "They were ordering us to find ways to reduce costs and satisfy lobbyists." She added: "I'm happy to be going out with a roar and not a whimper. My objective is to make sure people understand what is going on so it can be straightened out."

Consumer groups and Democrat leaders have been quick to express their disappointment. "The Governor has made his name across the world as the jolly green governor, and now we have the regulators saying his inner circle has pressured them to go slow because the big industries don't want us to go too quickly," said Jamie Court, of the Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights.

The Democrat leader of California's State House, Fabian Nunez, also decried the loss of the two members of the board. "The only reason why they're gone is clear: the administration was tying their hands behind their backs in not allowing them to do the job that they needed to do."

Critics of the Governor say he is resisting imposing mandatory caps on industry in favour of market mechanisms to reduce emissions, in part because of his past dependence on them for campaign contributions.

So far, Mr Schwarzenegger has attempted to stay out of the fray. "I don't get caught up in this dialogue," he said.

Mr Sawyer has insisted he was fired because he defied the Governor's order to shelve the offending fourth measure, which will require the car industry to develop new types of paint that better absorb heat and therefore lessen the need for air conditioning. The three other measures involved reducing methane emissions from dumps, banning the sale of replacement refrigerant for car air conditioners, and requiring oil companies to produce petrol with a lower carbon dioxide component.

source: 4jul2007

Schwarzenegger Taps Nichols to Lead Air Resources Board

EVAN HALPER and JANET WILSON / Los Angeles Times 4jul2007

Mary Nichols held the state leadership post under Jerry Brown and was a Davis official.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sought Tuesday to quiet turmoil at the state's air board and reassert his commitment to the environment by appointing an official from past Democratic administrations to the board's top position.

Mary Nichols will take over the embattled Air Resources Board, which she chaired 30 years ago under Gov. Jerry Brown. She also served as secretary of resources under Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and as a high-ranking environmental official in the Clinton administration.

Her appointment follows the recent departure of two top board officials who both complained publicly that meddling by the Schwarzenegger administration on behalf of business interests limited their ability to adopt effective regulations for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality.

"There is no one more qualified, more committed and more able to lead our efforts on climate change and air quality," Schwarzenegger said at a news conference in the Capitol.

Nichols replaces Robert Sawyer, who says he was fired after pushing to implement more aggressive action to curb global warming than the administration supports.

Although administration officials said Sawyer was fired for not being tough enough, the displaced chairman's assertions were backed up by the former executive officer of the board, Catherine Witherspoon, a longtime veteran of the agency who quit Monday.

Witherspoon said she and her staff were routinely pressured by the administration to soften crackdowns on heavy diesel construction equipment and other machinery after industry officials complained.

The governor appoints the board members with the consent of the state Senate; the board is meant to be independent of the administration.

The appointment of Nichols, one of the state's first environmental attorneys, is likely to blunt complaints from administration critics that Schwarzenegger's actions on the environment are not living up to his bold promises.

"She's superb, and she will be an independent person," Sawyer said. "I would find it hard to think of a better person…. She's a lawyer, and she knows the Clean Air Act probably as well as anybody in the state."

He said that under Nichols' previous tenure as air board chairwoman, historic regulations were implemented on unleaded gasoline, catalytic converters and other matters that helped cement the board's national reputation for toughness and innovation.

Nichols has been involved with the environmental movement since its infancy. She has worked as a senior staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Law in the Public Interest, where she initiated some of the first test cases under the federal Clean Air Act and California air quality laws.

According to her biography at UCLA's Institute of the Environment, where she is director, Nichols also co-founded the first environmental justice working group, a multiethnic forum for leaders from traditional environmental and community-based organizations to address issues of environmental equity. She also serves on the board of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

"I am pleased that I am going to be in a position now, after all these years working in the environmental movement, to help restore and burnish the credentials of our Air Resources Board," Nichols said. "It is one of the premier environmental agencies in the world."

She is the latest of several former high-level Davis administration officials to be hired by Schwarzenegger in recent years.

"I'm running out of people to kibitz with," Davis joked Tuesday. "They are all busy working for Arnold."

Davis described Nichols as a "strong, polite, thoughtful environmentalist" who will safeguard the board's independence. "She doesn't mind people calling her, and she will hear them out, but she is going to make her own decisions."

But Democrats and some environmentalists, while praising her credentials, questioned whether Nichols would be able to restore confidence in the board.

"You can have the best person at the helm of the board, but if the administration is trying to micromanage it on a day-to-day basis, it won't make a difference who is in charge over there," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles). "It will lose credibility and become politicized."

On Friday, the Assembly will hold a hearing to look into the allegations made against the administration by Sawyer and Witherspoon. Schwarzenegger said his chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, and Cabinet Secretary Dan Dunmoyer, who are accused of meddling, will refuse Democrats' request to testify.

Schwarzenegger said the accusations against his staff "are not fair. I think they are doing an extraordinary job."

Much of the controversy stems from an ongoing dispute in Sacramento over how the board should implement landmark legislation to curb global warming, signed by Schwarzenegger last year.

The governor is a strong proponent of a cap and trade system that would let companies that can't meet a cap on greenhouse gases buy emissions permits from firms that have cut their pollution below allowed levels.

Democrats are wary of such a system and want to see tough regulations put in place before opening any discussions on allowing companies to sell emission credits.

Senate Leader Don Perata (D-Oakland), who will oversee confirmation hearings for Nichols next week, reasserted in a letter to the governor Tuesday that he believes the global warming legislation emphasizes "strong regulation over market mechanisms" and signaled that the Senate may not confirm Nichols if she disagrees.

Nichols expressed confidence Tuesday that the board "can find appropriate ways to make trading part of it" without undermining tough regulations.

In her role at the DWP, however, some activists have been underwhelmed by her willingness to force the city to buy renewable power.

"There may have been some environmentalists who were less than exhilarated with her performance here," board President H. David Nahai said. But, he added, "the fact is, she has an immense amount of knowledge and experience."

source: 4jul2007

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-air4jul04,0,718682,print.story?coll=la-home-center

New Air Board Chief Named

PETER HECHT / Sacramento Bee 4jul2007

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday turned to a former top environmental official for Democratic Govs. Jerry Brown and Gray Davis to replace the ousted chairman of the state Air Resources Board.

Schwarzenegger's decision to hire Mary Nichols, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment, comes after he fired the former board chairman, Robert Sawyer.

The move is being closely watched to gauge the governor's commitment to carrying out California's tough anti-global warming law, Assembly Bill 32, approved last year.

Schwarzenegger, whose public campaign against climate change has drawn him international attention, tapped Nichols to lead California efforts to reduce its greenhouse gases 25 percent by 2020.

Nichols, an environmental policy lawyer, was chairwoman of the Air Resources Board under Brown in 1978. She later served as secretary of the California Resources Agency -- which oversees forestry and fire protection, water, fish and game, and state parks -- under Davis.

In naming Nichols to the post, Schwarzenegger said he selected her to lead his effort "on clean air and climate change" based on her "30-year record of fighting for the environment.

"She was unafraid to make bold decisions. She was fearless in introducing new technologies, and getting past old excuses, to clean up our air," the governor said.

The Schwarzenegger administration has portrayed the governor as irked that Sawyer backed the Air Resources Board's June 14 vote to support a waiver giving San Joaquin Valley polluters until 2024 to comply with federal Clean Air Act restrictions. Sawyer's firing prompted the ARB's executive director, Catherine Witherspoon, to resign Monday.

But environmentalists and Democrats criticized the characterization of the personnel moves as a cover story for an administration that was micromanaging the air board and working too closely with industry lobbyists.

As Sierra Club spokesman Bill Magavern praised Nichols' appointment Tuesday, he charged that the governor's anti-global warming agenda had been bogged down amid meddling by Schwarzenegger aides that undercut the independence of the ARB.

"When Sawyer wanted to move more aggressively (on clean air standards), he was smacked down by the governor's staff," Magavern said. "Now the governor has made it clear that he wants to move forward aggressively, and those are his marching orders to Mary Nichols.

"I hope everyone in the administration will be singing from the same song sheet."

Appearing with Schwarzenegger at the Capitol Tuesday, Nichols said she was assured during meetings with the governor that the ARB will act independently and that she will have "all the tools I need" to enact reforms to combat global warming and protect public health.

"I've come to a very comfortable understanding that the Air Resources Board can do its job and do it in the historic way that it has -- with independence and good judgment," Nichols said.

Nichols served as an assistant administrator for air and radiation for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Clinton. She also has worked as a senior staff attorney for the National Resources Defense Council and the Center for Law in Public Interest and was executive director of the Environment Now Foundation.

Schwarzenegger has built a green image by taking on the Bush administration and threatening to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for not giving California permission to set its own tailpipe emissions standards.

But California's own air pollution agency drew criticism from environmentalists when Sawyer, a retired UC Berkeley professor, said San Joaquin Valley polluters needed more time to comply with federal clean air standards.

Sawyer said he backed the delay because needed pollution control technologies wouldn't be available for on-road trucks until 2010 and construction equipment until 2014. He said industries need a decade-long "turnover time."

But V. John White, a lobbyist for several environmental organizations, said he believed Sawyer was doing the bidding of administration aides "micro-managing him, calling him up and telling him what to do."

"It's hard for me to reconcile that they wanted him to be stronger and tougher than he was," White said. "I simply don't believe that story."

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, a leading proponent of AB 32, had charged that Sawyer and Witherspoon left their posts because "the administration was tying their hands behind their backs" and not allowing them to fully implement the law.

On Tuesday, Núñez issued a statement praising Nichols' "personal integrity and outstanding credentials" and said he hoped her appointment as ARB chair would "repair some of the recent damage done the board and its independence."

Núñez has scheduled a Friday "oversight hearing" to review whether the ARB is being allowed to operate independently. Núñez spokesman Steve Maviglio said the committee sent a letter Tuesday requesting testimony from Schwarzenegger administration officials, including Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy and Cabinet Secretary Dan Dunmoyer.

Asked whether he would make his aides available to testify, Schwarzenegger on Tuesday instead invited the speaker to come to his smoking tent at the Capitol.

"My friend, Speaker Núñez, is always welcome to come down to our tent and ask any question," he said.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the governor wasn't refusing to let his top aides testify. Yet McLear indicated it is unlikely they'll appear.

"I think it would be unprecedented to send staff members to testify at a legislative hearing," said McLear, who said he hadn't seen the request for their testimony. "But we would be happy to send a representative for the administration to talk about protecting the environment."

source: 4jul2007