Moving swiftly to respond to the resignations of the chair and executive director of the California Air Resources Board that prompted criticism from environmentalists, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday appointed Los Angeles resident and leading environmental regulator Mary Nichols as the board chair.
Pending confirmation by the state Senate, Nichols, a Democrat, would take the helm of an agency in turmoil. Last week, Schwarzenegger fired board chairman Robert Sawyer, ostensibly because under his leadership, the board approved a delay in implementing clean air rules for the Central Valley. Sawyer himself said Schwarzenegger was displeased with the aggressive pace the board was taking in implementing the greenhouse gas reduction law on industry.
Then, on Monday, the board’s executive director Catherine Witherspoon resigned. In an interview, Witherspoon blasted Schwarzenegger and his top deputies for interfering to slow down board initiatives to regulate construction equipment and implement the greenhouse gas reduction law.
Nichols, 62, and currently director of the UCLA Institute for the Environment, has a long history as a top environmental regulator. She previously served as chair of the California Air Resources Board from 1978 through 1983, during which time the board passed several landmark initiatives, including tightening vehicle exhaust standards. She also served as assistant administrator for Air and Radiation for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton administration.
In 1999, Nichols was tapped by then-Gov. Gray Davis as Secretary for California’s Resources Agency. Shortly after taking the post, in a highly publicized episode, Davis chastised her for being too zealous in siding with environmentalists in a court case involving the Central Valley water project.
Shortly after leaving the Davis administration in 2003, Nichols was appointed by newly elected Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the board of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; she served as president of that board for one year.
