<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for A chat with CARB chair and candidate for EPA chief Mary Nichols]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by wesrolley http://www.grist.org/article/hail-mary/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:47:18 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/hail-mary/1 AB-32 yes, Mary Nichols, No.

While Mary Nichols has become the public face for Schwazenegger's to get to Cap and Trade, she has also failed to lead the ARB in performing it's compliance mission.

Schwarzenegger "fired" her predecessor for failing to act to clean up air quality in the San Joaquin Valley of California.  If that were so, then Nichols should also be fired.  Just as she did at EPA, Nichols is so focused on implementing AB-32 in a manner that is not too damaging to corporations that she has not noticed that the economic cost of air pollution in that basin has gone from $3 billion / year in 2005 to $6 billion / year in 2007.
Source: reports on air quality by California State University - Fulllerton. 2006 here, 2008 here.  If it good enough to get Sawyer fired, it should also give us all pause over lauding her too highly. There is a pattern of action, favoring glitzy market mechanisms over basic regulation,  that earned her a lot of criticism from PEER for the job she did at EPA and seems to be repeating itself in California.

I know that there a lot of positive things about this conference.  The fact that is even happened at all may be indicative that no one is listening to the Dana Rohrabachers and James Inhofes any more. The support given by Obama signaled to all that the issue is being taken seriously at all levels of government, something that we have not had for 2 terms.  Still, there is much to criticize in the Scoping Plan that the California ARB, under Nichols direction, has put forward for review.

Wes Rolley CoChair - EcoAction Committee Green Party US


]]> AB-32 yes, Mary Nichols, No.

While Mary Nichols has become the public face for Schwazenegger's to get to Cap and Trade, she has also failed to lead the ARB in performing it's compliance mission.

Schwarzenegger "fired" her predecessor for failing to act to clean up air quality in the San Joaquin Valley of California.  If that were so, then Nichols should also be fired.  Just as she did at EPA, Nichols is so focused on implementing AB-32 in a manner that is not too damaging to corporations that she has not noticed that the economic cost of air pollution in that basin has gone from $3 billion / year in 2005 to $6 billion / year in 2007.
Source: reports on air quality by California State University - Fulllerton. 2006 here, 2008 here.  If it good enough to get Sawyer fired, it should also give us all pause over lauding her too highly. There is a pattern of action, favoring glitzy market mechanisms over basic regulation,  that earned her a lot of criticism from PEER for the job she did at EPA and seems to be repeating itself in California.

I know that there a lot of positive things about this conference.  The fact that is even happened at all may be indicative that no one is listening to the Dana Rohrabachers and James Inhofes any more. The support given by Obama signaled to all that the issue is being taken seriously at all levels of government, something that we have not had for 2 terms.  Still, there is much to criticize in the Scoping Plan that the California ARB, under Nichols direction, has put forward for review.

Wes Rolley CoChair - EcoAction Committee Green Party US


]]> Comment #2 by mwildfire http://www.grist.org/article/hail-mary/ Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:30:07 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/hail-mary/2 Thanks, Wes

I wondered if she would be as good as she sounded from this interview--given how good Kathleen McGinty of PA looks in her interview with Grist. Having worked on coal issues in PA, I am largely contemptuous of McGinty, who likes to "wave a green scarf around, singing cheerily" as I put it--but her friends in the coal industry need not get too anxious. As head of PA's DEP, she pushed through an ALTERNATIVE Energy Portfolio in PA--alternative rather than renewable because much of the credit comes from plants burning waste coal. At least she did also welcome Gamesa and other wind and solar energy companies to PA, which now has a lot of green jobs.

]]> Thanks, Wes

I wondered if she would be as good as she sounded from this interview--given how good Kathleen McGinty of PA looks in her interview with Grist. Having worked on coal issues in PA, I am largely contemptuous of McGinty, who likes to "wave a green scarf around, singing cheerily" as I put it--but her friends in the coal industry need not get too anxious. As head of PA's DEP, she pushed through an ALTERNATIVE Energy Portfolio in PA--alternative rather than renewable because much of the credit comes from plants burning waste coal. At least she did also welcome Gamesa and other wind and solar energy companies to PA, which now has a lot of green jobs.

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