Free Republic

A California academic whose criticisms of science behind the nation’s most expensive diesel emissions rules has won a legal victory and effectively erased his termination. James Enstrom, an epidemiologist and researcher at UCLA for 35 years, learned last week he had won $140,000 and retains his ability to keep an office and use laboratory facilities on campus. He’ll also have the ability to gain an appointment to perform additional research. “It’s gratifying to get any kind of decision against the university,” Enstrom told Land Line Magazine by telephone Monday. “It’s really a brutal process. They go out of their way...

The woman who led California through the development and implementation of some groundbreaking environmental policies could soon be headed to Washington, D.C. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announced her resignation this week, and already people are speculating about who will next head the agency. One name on nearly every pundit's short list: California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols. Nichols would be a controversial pick, as would most any candidate with a strong environmental record. She was rumored to be a finalist four years ago, but President Obama picked Jackson, a chemical engineer who had served as former...

When President Barack Obama announced an agreement to double fuel-economy requirements Friday, standing with him were industry executives and environmental, public health and labor leaders, all of whom, remarkably, had signed off on the deal. But the real credit for this historic achievement, which is expected to cut oil consumption by 1.5 million barrels per day and eliminate half of all carbon pollution nationwide, doesn't go to the White House. Instead, thank California. For decades the state has set the nation's clean-energy agenda; it's been the tip of the spear in the fight for higher fuel standards. Its huge automobile...

Oh this is delicious sweet irony…they adopted a plan but didn’t bother to make a complete environmental review like any other project in the state is required to do. That’s what they get for ramrodding the thing. From the:Calif. cap-trade plan dealt blow by S.F. judgeWyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento BureauFriday, February 4, 2011(02-04) 04:00 PST Sacramento - –The California Air Resources Board violated state environmental law in 2008 when it adopted a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gases and again last year when it passed cap-and-trade regulations, a San Francisco Superior Court judge has ruled in a tentative decision. If...

`Caesar's wife must be above suspicion." - Julius Caesar, 62 B.C. Julius Caesar, the Roman ruler, made that statement while divorcing his wife Pompeia when she was accused of having an affair with his colleague, Clodius Pulcher, a charge that was never proved. If there's one California agency that needs to be as pure as Caesar's wife, it is the Air Resources Board, whose huge powers have made its 11 mostly anonymous members among the most nationally influential of California officials. Until very recently, there's been no reason to doubt the purity of the ARB. Its actions have reduced smog...

Now that California’s Prop 23 to suspend the AB32 global warming law has failed, you get some real clarity from the players. If you ever doubted that our current crop of “save the planet” bureaucrats think they are above answering to the very citizens that pay their salary, this quote should put any doubt you may have had to rest.From public TV station KQED’s “climate watch” blog: “They didn’t know who they were messing with,” said Mary Nichols, when the first numbers came in from the polls. Wow. Just wow. Hubris maximus. Lady, you need a reality check.Read the holier...

With voters headed to the polls Tuesday to decide the fate of California's climate change law, regulators are pressing ahead with a key part of the statute that puts limits on how much the state's companies can pollute. The California Air Resources Board today will unveil new rules and regulations for a cap-and-trade program. It will set a ceiling on the amount of carbon that refiners, power companies and major manufacturers can emit each year. While details of the regulations aren't yet available, ARB officials have already indicated that they plan to take a pro-business approach. They will initially give...

California grossly miscalculated pollution levels in a scientific analysis used to toughen the state's clean-air standards, and scientists have spent the past several months revising data and planning a significant weakening of the landmark regulation, The Chronicle has found. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/07/BAOF1FDMRV.DTL#ixzz11lygIi8k

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked the state’s air-quality enforcers to postpone a rule to require 33 percent of the power used by utilities to come from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy. Schwarzenegger asked the Air Resources Board to delay until September its adoption of the new regulation, which had been expected this month. The Republican governor said he made the request because of “ongoing discussions with legislative leaders to develop a bill that I can sign.” If those negotiations don’t prove fruitful, the ARB “will be ready and able to adopt the regulations at that time (in...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California is planning the next stage of clean car standards even as U.S. President Barack Obama announces federal plans based on the state's model, its top climate change official said on Tuesday. Obama on Tuesday set 2016 mileage and carbon emissions goals for U.S. fleets, which will be codified by the federal Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency. "California will be immediately getting to work on what the standards should be for beyond 2016," Mary Nichols, who chairs the California Air Resources Board, said in a telephone interview. She expects "a much more stringent...

California's Air Resources Board on Thursday approved a first-in-the-world regulation to minimize the amount of carbon in fuel, putting California on the cutting edge of promoting alternative fuels in a bid to combat global warming. The regulation will require fuel manufacturers to cut the so-called carbon intensity of fuels sold in the state 10 percent by 2020 - lowering the amount of greenhouse gases released for every unit of energy produced. "Now, finally, we are creating the opportunity for other types of transportation fuels to compete on a level playing field," Nichols said. Manufacturers can meet the standard by selling...

California's proposed budget contains a major provision that would weaken air pollution regulations while saving the construction industry millions of dollars. The measure, largely overlooked in a public debate focused on taxes, would delay requirements for builders to retrofit bulldozers, scrapers and other soot-spewing equipment, slashing by 17% the emissions savings that health advocates had hoped to achieve by 2014. "There are people who will die because of this delay," said Mary D. Nichols, chairman of the state Air Resources Board. "It is sad in an era where most people understand that strong environmental standards actually help California's economy as...

The California Air Resources Board has unanimously adopted the nation’s most sweeping plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions. The bold move by the world’s eighth-largest economy would cut the state’s emissions by 15% over the next 12 years. It lays out targets for virtually every sector of the economy, from electrical plants and automobiles to landfills and city planning. And it amounts to an average cut of four tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases for every person in the state. The blueprint, which would be implemented over the next two years, puts California at the forefront of national...

One of the shabbiest, least satisfying public policy debates in modern California political history is expected to wrap up today in Sacramento with the California Air Resources Board adopting its “Scoping Plan” for the implementation of AB 32. That's the landmark 2006 state law requiring a sharp increase in the use of cleaner but more costly sources of energy to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming. It is inevitable that the law will have negative economic consequences, given that California businesses will have higher costs than rival firms in other states and nations without such an edict,...

WASHINGTON – California's Mary Nichols has an idea for how Washington can respond to global warming: Start with the Environmental Protection Agency. Nichols, the head of the California Air Resources Board, has a big interest in whether that happens. She's believed to be one of two finalists – along with Lisa Jackson of New Jersey – to head the agency for President-elect Barack Obama. An announcement is expected this week in Chicago, when Obama names his environmental team. If Nichols gets the post, she would add to California's growing clout in crafting a national response to global warming. As powerful...

The message delivered by Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the state's Air Resources Board, was clear: Businesses, especially small and midsize operations, will be the among the primary drivers behind the state's sweeping goal of reducing emissions to 1990 levels within 12 years. Underscoring that call to arms was the choice of venue. Nichols unveiled the fleshed-out plan at Advanced Micro Devices in Sunnyvale during a conference held by the Climate Group, a consortium of business leaders that released its own plan for helping employers toe the green line. The meeting was attended by officials from valley giants like Apple and...

One year after California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols decided to sell off some energy stocks that showed a potential conflict of interest with her role as a state regulator, records show her diverse investment portfolio still contains many energy interests. Nichols also sold stock in a company that stands to profit from new diesel regulations that the ARB is set to adopt this fall, and other companies that have business before the board, according to financial disclosure documents filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission. But FPPC records show that she and her husband, attorney John Duam, sold...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California on Thursday took a major step forward on its global warming fight by unveiling an ambitious plan for clean cars, renewable energy and stringent caps on big polluting industries. The plan, which aims to reduce pollutants by 10 percent from current levels by 2020 while driving investment in new energy technologies that will benefit the state's economy, is the most comprehensive yet by any U.S. state. It could serve as a blueprint not only for the rest of the United States, ... "This is of tremendous importance, not only for California," Mary Nichols, chairman of...

When Californians take their vehicles in for a tune up, smog check or oil change, the job should include fully inflating their tires. That one simple step could prevent an estimated 200,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases a year from going into the air, according to a new proposal that state air regulators are weighing to help California meet its global warming goals. Making tire inflation a mandatory regulation is among five new early action measures that would take effect by Jan. 1 2010 to help California reduce greenhouse gases by an estimated 25 percent by the year 2020. "There...

California’s Global Warming Watchdog Owns Oil, Coal and Utility Stocks By Noel Sheppard | August 18, 2007 - 18:26 ET Here's a headline you'd never expect to see: Global Warming Watchdog Invests in Oil, Coal, Utilities Think I'm kidding? Well, check the link. Making the issue that much more delicious, it was the leading front-page story in Saturday's San Francisco Chronicle (emphasis added throughout): The new chair of the California Air Resources Board owns stocks in several oil, coal and utility firms, some of which are likely to be affected by rules the agency implements as part of the state's...