As chair of the Air Resources Board, Mary Nichols plays a central role in deciding where Californians get their energy, what fuel goes in their cars and how their homes are built. She also oversees the state’s ambitious program for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, one that analysts say could be a model when world leaders hold their environmental summit next year in Paris.
Although California already has some of the strictest pollution regulations in the country, Nichols is helping to lay the groundwork for more.
“It’s on people’s minds right now,” Nichols said. “While the momentum is strong is the right time to act.”
State lawmakers are discussing further rules on pollutants such as methane, setting new emissions goals for the decades ahead and increasing the efficiency of moving water around the state. New policies from the Brown has signaled his desire for new climate-change initiatives, and his partnership with Nichols dates to the 1970s, when he made her chair of the Air Resources Board for much of his first two terms as governor.
Eventually, she joined forces with Schwarzenegger, who had won her over, and they developed the cap-and-trade program, which requires polluters to buy credits to emit greenhouse gases.
That program, and California’s status as the world’s eighth-largest economy, have given Nichols outsized influence for a state regulator. Supporters describe her as a “rock star.”
Still, there’s been near-constant resistance to cap-and-trade, said Virgil Welch, a political advisor to Nichols. He characterized the opposition’s position as: “If we fail at this step, we’ll try the next step. We’re going to try and stop you every step of the way.”
Opponents are reluctant to criticize Nichols publicly. The Western States Petroleum Assn., which has backed a web of groups battling cap-and-trade, declined to comment.
Allan Zaremberg, president of California’s Chamber of Commerce, which has sued over the cap-and-trade program, was circumspect.
“She doesn’t always agree with the same solutions we might have in mind. But it’s always good to have disagreements with someone you can respect,” he said.
Republicans in the Legislature remain opposed to cap-and-trade. And a crop of moderate Democrats lately has been more eager to embrace business interests than environmentalism. They include Assemblyman Henry Perea (D-Fresno), who expressed concern that cap-and-trade would lead to higher gas prices by raising the cost of doing business.