by Katy Grimes, Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As appearing in the California Globe
Another regulatory onslaught aimed at California’s oil and gas industry
California’s top environmental regulator, California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols, has stepped up the state’s war against the Trump Administration, as well as the state’s residents by threatening to enact drastic, new pollution rules — including a ban on internal combustion-engine cars, in response to the Trump EPA plan to go back to pre-Obama vehicle emission standards.
The unelected Nichols said California is forced to pursue “extreme” requirements to offset the anticipated pollution increases she says would be unleashed if federal vehicle emission and fuel economy standards are weakened – ignoring that all cars are greener today thanks to significant advances in technology.
California Globe author Lloyd Billingsley recently wrote an article explaining who Nichols is and how she acquired her regulatory power:
Mary Nichols is a lawyer, not a scientist, and has never seen a regulation she didn’t like. She left CARB in 1983 and ran Tom Bradley’s gubernatorial campaign in 1986. Bradley lost and Nichols became director of Norman Lear’s People for the American Way and founded the Los Angeles office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she served as senior attorney. During the Clinton administration, Nichols worked for the federal Environmental Protection Agency as Assistant Administrator of Air and Radiation, followed by a stint with the Environment Now Foundation.
