THE HOT HOUSE

November 09, 2007

What's Catherine Witherspoon up to?

Catherine Witherspoon, former executive officer of the California Air Resources Board, resigned in a huff earlier this year after Gov. Schwarzenegger fired board chairman Robert Sawyer. Both Witherspoon and Sawyer complained that the governor's aides were meddling in policy decisions that should be the province of the board's staff and appointed board members.

Ever since, the Hot House has been curious about what Witherspoon has been doing with herself.

Turns out she is still pining for fixed terms for CARB members so they can't be summarily whacked by the governor. In a letter to The Bee, Witherspoon suggests that board members will need political protection in the near future, as they weigh tough choices on reducing greenhouse gases.

"The most difficult policy decisions are yet to come," she wrote in her letter.

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 03:48 PM | Comments

July 09, 2007

Sawyer to Schwarzenegger: I hardly knew ye

Fired Air Resources Board Chairman Robert Sawyer delivered a parting letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week. In it, Sawyer defends his record and reveals that, in 18 months, he never met with Schwarzenegger to discuss the state's air pollution challenges.

Whaaa? The governor fires a distinguished scientist hadn't met since his appointment? Sounds like summary judgment, with Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy as the prosecutor, judge and jury.

Frank Russo has a copy of Sawyer's letter on his California Progress Report blog. Find it here.

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 02:58 PM | Comments

July 06, 2007

Carb-gate won't die easily

If Gov. Schwarzenegger and his aides were hoping to defuse the controversy over his Air Resources Board, they didn't do themselves any favors today at the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

As expected, the governor declined to make Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy or Cabinet Secretary Dan Dunmoyer available to answer questions. That's understandable, since governors generally dislike the precedent of having close aides testify about internal decisions.

But who did he send in their place? Eileen Tutt, the Cal-EPA Undersecretary for Climate Change, and former Cal-EPA Deputy Dan Skopec, seen above. Neither seemed prepared to rebutt the accusations at hand, which isn't surprising, since both are several rungs below Kennedy and Dunmoyer. Skopec doesn't even work for the administration any more.

By contrast, fired Air Board Chairman Robert Sawyer and departed Executive Director Catherine Witherspoon, seen to the right, were well prepared. They sounded credible and measured and detailed at length how the governor's aides had intervened in numerous policy decisions. Skopec at one point accused the pair of offering "more fiction than fact," but without offering specifics, it sounded more like a cheap shot than a serious rebuttal.

One new nugget: Sawyer revealed that, right before a meeting, the administration urged the air board to reward $5 million to Tesla Motors to prevent them from moving out of state. Sawyer says he refused. "I thought it was bad policy." Witherspoon also suggested that the administration had intervened to prevent a proposed ban on formaldyhyde.

At the same time, Sawyer and Witherspoon seemed cool to an idea by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to limit ex parte communications between Air Board employees and the administration.

"I would like to see an exploration of ways to ensure that all communications between the executive branch and the independent board are on the record and in the public domain," Nunez said. "That level of sunshine would provide significant additional protections for the board’s independence, not only when it comes to implementing AB 32, but also for the other important roles the board plays."

Sawyer said there were times when it was appropriate for the Air Board chair to have candid conversations with the administration. He seemed more favorable toward a Assembly proposal to required fixed terms for Air Board members, similar to the Coastal Commission. More on that here from an AP story.

Apparently, the governor's office is feeling the heat -- so much so that one friend came to his rescue today. Fred Krupp, President of Environmental Defense, issued this statement:

"Any suggestions that question Governor Schwarzenegger's commitment to our environment are incorrect. Environmental Defense has worked closely with the Governor on the path breaking legislation to curb global warming pollution, California's Global Warming Solutions Act-AB 32 which he signed into law last year. I can personally attest to his green credentials. He has earned them, and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise."

AP Photo

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 04:51 PM | Comments

July 03, 2007

Governor picks new CARB chair; independence an issue

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's marital indiscretions are sure to knock CARB off the front page tomorrow. Just to make sure, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger picked Mary D. Nichols, a former Davis administration Resources Secretary, to fill the job of the fired Robert Sawyer and cool off the governor's environmental critics.

Several leading enviro groups -- including Environmental Defense and NRDC -- hailed the choice. So did Winston Hickox, former Cal-EPA secretary under Davis and chair of Schwarzenegger's Market Advisory Committee.

Yet the governor isn't out of the weeds yet. The Assembly Natural Resources commitee has asked the governor's chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, and Cabinet Secretary Dan Dunmoyer to testify Friday at a hearing into CARB-gate. At a press conference today, the governor repeatedly demurred when asked if he would allow those aides to testify. "Anyone can come down and ask us questions," the governor said.

In other words, no public hearings, no questioning of aides who are accused of meddling in CARB affairs. Just come on down to the cigar tent and let's hold a private meeting. That's how we do things here in Arnold Land.

Other reaction:

Jon Fleishman: "At the rate he is going, Schwarzenegger will have more former Gray Davis hacks in his administration than Davis himself had - if that's possible."

Calitics: "I was all set for an industry lobbyist or something to be installed, but Schwarzenegger does seem to know that his brand is being threatened with the appearance of meddling into AB 32. Mary Nichols sounds like an excellent appointment."

Sierra Club's Bill Magavern: "Governor Schwarzenegger has taken a strong step toward rebuilding confidence. Now he and his staff need to give the air board members the support they need to protect public health and the environment."

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 04:45 PM | Comments

CARB-gate continues to smolder

Gov. Schwarzenegger has scheduled a 2:15 pm press conference today to answer questions about the firing of CARB chair Robert Sawyer and the subsequent resignation of Executive Officer Catherine Witherspoon.

The L.A. Times had a strong story today noting how the administration has been stalling regulations to control diesel emissions from construction equipment over the objections of Sawyer and Witherspoon. The Bee previously editorialized on this here.

Witherspoon, while packing up her office on Monday, described a pattern of interference by the governor's top staff in favor of industry lobbyists seeking to weaken the state's landmark global warming law and proposed regulations on diesel construction equipment and wood products containing formaldehyde.

"They were ordering us to find ways to reduce costs and satisfy lobbyists," Witherspoon told The Times in a separate article. she said, adding that the governor's chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, and Cabinet Secretary Dan Dunmoyer took the lead on pressuring the agency staff and board chairman.

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 12:47 PM | Comments

July 02, 2007

Scary movie continues: Witherspoon out, Assembly to probe ousters

If this were a movie, they might call it "Creature from the Green Credentials Lagoon."

The story opens with a governor trying to burnish his environmental image and tackle an international chemistry experiment that has run amock. He helps pass a global warming law, and agrees to let his hand-picked Air Resources Board implement it. But then things get ugly.

The governor fires the Air Board's chair, who then accuses the governor's aides of trying to weaken early actions to reduce greenhouse emissions. Then the board's executive officer quits after accusing the administration of meddling. Both provide memos to the press to back up their claims. The governor suddenly confronts a public relations monster.

That's the plot so far of CARB-gate. Okay, maybe I'm overreaching a bit. It's not quite a scandal, but it's the first juicy controversy to erupt from the implementation of the state's global warming laws, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Who's wearing the White Hat here?

Hmmm. I'm not sure anyone is.

Until he was fired last week, Air Board Chairman Robert Sawyer was widely respected, both within the agency and outside, as a strong scientist and environmental visionary. Schwarzengger had lured him out of retirement to head CARB.

But Sawyer oversaw several decisions that either angered Schwarzenegger or made the governor look bad. Some of these decisions were detailed in a June 18 Sacramento Bee editorial which apparently caught the governor's attention.

The editorial criticized the Air Board for seeking an 11-year extension from the EPA before the San Joaquin Valley's air could be cleaned up to meet federal smog standards.

""Think about that," the editorial stated. "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to sue the U.S. EPA for failing to quickly review a waiver for one of California's climate laws. Now, after claiming that the Bush administration is shirking its environmental responsibilities, the governor and his air board are going to the EPA, hat in hand, and asking for an 11-year extension on meeting health standards in one of our most polluted regions."

On June 22, the governor issued a unusual public slapdown of the air board's request to the EPA. At that point you could tell that Sawyer's job was in trouble, either because he hadn't been communicating with the governor's office or had been second-guessed on a contoversial decision.

Sawyer, for his part, says he was canned not because of the San Joaquin Valley decision but because he wanted tougher "early action measures" than the governor's office on reducing greenhouse gases. Sawyer wanted additional measures -- regulations on medium-duty trucks and "cool paints" on cars -- designed to reduce a motorist's need for air conditioning.

Sawyer sent an email to Cal-EPA Secretary Linda Adams describing how Dan Dunmoyer, the governor's cabinet secretary, called him with objections to those extra measures.

""He (Dunmoyer) stated that the direction from the governor's office was not to add cool paints or medium duty trucks," Sawyer said. "I protested that the science behind cool paints is sound and that the issue of not being able to get a waiver from the USEPA for a medium duty truck rule was not relevant because there would be a new administration in Washington before the rule would be adopted."

The governor's spokesman, Adam Mendelsohn, spent much of Monday trying to rebut Sawyer's claims. He points out that CARB staff, including Executive Officer Catherine Witherspoon, had concluded that cool paints and medium duty truck regs did not meet the law's criteria for early actions. Mendelsohn also claims the administration wanted Sawyer to set early regs on cement manufacturers, but he and Witherspoon balked.

Witherspoon resigns -- in a blaze of glory

As anticipated here Thursday, Witherspoon's days were numbered once Sawyer was canned. She must have been convinced of that, since she went on the attack against the governor's advisors Friday in a blishering interview published in The Los Angeles Times on Saturday.

By the next day, Witherspoon had resigned, but not before distributing an internal memo she distributed to the Air Board on June 14. In dramatic fashion, it is entitled: "The Charges Against Me" and claims, among, that Schwarzenegger's chief of staff is out to get Witherspoon. An excerpt:

""Susan Kennedy has an unreasonable fear that ARB is going to drive the Schwarzenegger administration off the cliff as it implements AB 32."

The Hot House has created a PDF of the memo, which you can find here.

Nunez schedules hearing

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has scheduled a hearing Friday (9:30 a.m. in room 4202 of the State Capitol) to examine the turnover at the air board and the implementation of AB 32. "The eyes of the nation and the eyes of the world are looking down on California," the speaker said today. You can also see his comments here on UTube.

Where's the Senate?

State Sen. Don Perata has been one of the toughest critics of AB 32 implementation, but has been pretty quiet so far on the demise of Sawyer and Witherspoon. That may be because one of his lieutenants, Dean Florez of Bakersfield, was unhappy with Sawyer and CARB's decision to seek a delay in complying with smog rules for the San Joaquin Valley.

Heck, state lawmakers -- particularly those in the Senate -- should be loving this. Through the confirmation process, they now have leverage to install a CARB chair of their liking. To get the governor out of his jam, they also have leverage in seeking his approval for various climate bills opposed by the Chamber of Commerce and others.

On the other hand, disarray at the air board could hurt the legacy these guys hope to leave behind with California's climate laws. Continued bickering and political meddling sends a signal to the world that California isn't functional enough to create a working model for greenhouse gas reduction. Schwarzenegger, Nunez and Perata helped build AB 32. Now they must resist infighting if this law is to have a fighting chance to do something real.

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 05:29 PM | Comments

June 29, 2007

Sawyer axed -- Witherspoon next?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fired the chair of the California Air Resources Board Thursday, but the reasons for the dismissal seem as about clear as Fresno mud, which can sometimes be confused with its air.

The Sacramento Bee suggests Robert Sawyer, seen right, was fired because he supported a delay in meeting federal clean air standards for the San Joaquin Valley.

The Los Angeles Times, on the other hand, reports that Sawyer's support for more aggressive "early action measures" to reduce greenhouse may have hurt his standing with Schwarzenegger's top advisors.

"I was fired, I did not resign…. The entire issue is the independence of the board, and that's why I got fired," Sawyer said in a telephone interview with The Times. "I have board members going all the way back to [Gov. Pete] Wilson's time, and they tell me they have never seen such a level of interference as is occurring at this time, and that's what this is all about."

The Times quotes Sawyer as saying he declined to fire the agency's executive director, Catherine Witherspoon, and objected when CARB communications director Jerry Martin was also fired, then reassigned to another agency.

Sawyer said he was also called by a unnamed cabinet secretary who ordered him to limit to three the number of so-called early action measures the board was considering to slow global warming.

That claim, however, doesn't jibe with what the governor's office is saying. Spokesman Adam Mendelsohn said "the issue really came to a head after the decision to ask for an extension in the San Joaquin Valley, and the lack of early action items that we wanted done." Mendelsohn said Sawyer was proposing relatively mild early action measures, while the governor's office wanted controls on emissions from concrete factories and other sources.

The Hot House heard a rumor yesterday that Schwarzenegger Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy, seen here with the governor, is touting a lawyer she worked with on the Public Utilities Commission to replace Sawyer. So far, however, no announcement on his replacement.

The origins of this dispute go back to the final negotiations on Assembly Bill 32. The governor's wanted his appointed Climate Action Team to handle implementation of the law. The Legislature wanted to limit the governor's control by putting those duties in the hands of the California Air Resources Board.

Now the governor is in a position to consolidate his authority over CARB. It remains to be seen whether this will produce more effective climate policy, or simply more power within the horse shoe.

Top photo courtesy of CARB; bottom photo by Sacramento Bee/Brian Baer

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 04:59 PM | Comments