California’s complicated five-year transition to a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions recently hit a political snag that caused some environmental groups to question the motives of Gov. Arnold Schwarzengger’s administration. A political shakeup at the state agency charged with implementing the system surfaced July 2, but the governor’s team quickly rallied and at least one major environmental group on Friday reasserted its strong support for Schwarzenegger.

“Any suggestions that question Gov. Schwarzenegger’s commitment to our environment are incorrect,” said Fred Krupp, head of the national Environmental Defense, in a prepared statement. “[We have] worked closely with the governor on the path-breaking legislation to curb global warming pollution, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) which he signed into law last year. I can personally attest to his green credentials. He has earned them, and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise.”

A few days earlier, the chairman of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), a gubernatorial appointee, was fired. Then on July 2 the agency’s executive director, a 27-year employee, resigned in protest.

Fabian Nunez, the Speaker of the lower house Assembly who sponsored the cap and trade legislation last year, called the CARB shakeup a “fiasco” and he held a hastily called legislative hearing on the matter Friday, inviting two of Schwarzenegger’s top aides to appear. He stressed that he didn’t want the apparently political infighting to impact the state’s fight against global warming.

The Assembly panel called for the unfettered implementation of AB 32 by CARB, with Nunez leading the charge during a four-hour Natural Resources Committee meeting which Schwarzenegger’s top aides, including Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy, did not attend. A statement from Nunez’s office after the hearing indicated Kennedy and others may be subpoenaed to a future hearing.

“The Natural Resources Committee is considering methods to ensure that CARB is not subject to undue political interference,” a Nunez spokesperson said after the hearing. “Allowing CARB members to serve fixed terms as opposed to serving at the pleasure of the governor was one proposal.”

Schwarzenegger announced late in the afternoon of July 3 that he had named a well-respected environmental leader and former state and federal administrator, Mary Nichols, 62, to head CARB’s board, a position she held more than a quarter of a century ago in then-Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown’s administration.

Nunez then issued a prepared statement praising Nichols for her “personal integrity and outstanding credentials,” but he indicated the governor’s move only “repairs some of the recent damage done to the [CARB] board and its history of independence.” He said Nichols’ appointment was “only part of the equation we need if AB 32 is to be implemented in compliance with the law.”

Nunez said Schwarzenegger’s administration needs to stop what he called “undermining the gold-standard global warming legislation,” along with assuring that CARB has the independence it needs to effectively implement the complex new law.

Environmental Defense immediately released a statement praising the governor’s choice of Nichols, calling the Yale Law School graduate someone who has “the environmental experience and leadership necessary to guide the pioneering efforts of CARB.” Nichols currently heads UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and is on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) five-member oversight board appointed by the city’s mayor, another board that she has sat on twice. The CARB job is a full time job — so it is assumed she will leave the UCLA and LADWP positions — and she must be confirmed by the state Senate.

The environmental group, which was a leading player in getting AB 32 passed last year, issued another statement Friday, reiterating that Nichols’ appointment should resolve any uncertainties. It said she “has the qualifications and experience needed to take CARB, and California’s environmental movement along with it, to new historic levels of environmental protections.”

Schwarzenegger called Nichols “the perfect fit,” noting she has the right combination of experience and knowledge in air quality management. The governor reiterated his mantra of late that there are “few issues facing Californians that are more important to our children’s health.”

Schwarzenegger’s administration allegedly has pressured CARB to ease future GHG-reducing requirements in the construction industry, which depends heavily on diesel-powered equipment.

In a report in the July 3 Los Angeles Times, the CARB chief executive, Catherine Witherspoon, lambasted Schwarzenegger and his administration for repeated political interference. As a result, the worsening political climate “could hamper California’s efforts to implement its landmark Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) and other tough air pollution controls, legislative leaders and some observers said,” according to the Times report.

Schwarzenegger’s press spokesperson and an AB 32 supporter leaving a top environmental position in the administration have contended that far from indicating that the governor is trying to sabotage full implementation of the global climate change law, the administration is really concerned that CARB is not moving fast enough.

“What’s important for the administration is to make sure the right leadership is put in place at the air resources board and that this state is able to aggressively meet its AB 32 commitment and clean its air,” said Adam Mendelsohn, the governor’s deputy chief of communications, as quoted in the Times report.

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