Governors Wind Energy Coalition
Why Mary Nichols could lose climate clout at EPA Source: By Anne C. Mulkern, E&E News reporter • Posted: Sunday, December 13, 2020
Mary Nichols wields momentous powers for slashing greenhouse gas emissions as the leader of California’s top climate agency. She’ll find that clout curbed if she’s named EPA administrator.
Nichols, a contender for the EPA job under President-elect Joe Biden, spent decades building a track record that looks tailor-made for helping Biden pursue his aggressive goal of zeroing out carbon pollution by 2050.
She’s forced businesses to cut emissions, struck deals with car company executives on mileage standards and spurred production of more green alternatives to fossil fuels all as chair of the California Air Resources Board, an agency that’s strikingly similar to EPA.
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His choice is Liane Randolph, a lawyer who has served as Deputy Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency and most recently as commissioner on the California Public Utilities Commission.
Randolph has been described as thorough, detail-oriented, smart, well-organized, and politically savvy by those who have worked with her. She will be the first Black chair of the board, and advocates are hoping that will make her a strong voice for equity in an organization that has recently been called to do better on this issue both for its staff and on its policies.