One instance of silencing a critic for speaking the truth is offensive enough. Two incidents and you start thinking about patterns. So, with the news that Governor Schwarzenegger has asked for the resignation of Fish and Game Commissioner R. Judd Hanna within three months of the firing of California Air Resources Board Chair Robert Sawyer, it made me a little uncomfortable. You see, if this becomes a pattern, it becomes a pattern we are all too familiar with from DC. Silencing critics, scientists, etc.
But Arnold, even after all this time of watching him, still carries an air of mystery. For example, after sacking Sawyer, he hires Mary Nichols to head CARB, who has been doing a pretty good job at pushing the requirments of AB 32, the global warming emissions bill. But the resignation of Hanna looks to have been Arnold tossing a bone to the right-wing of the GOP that is heavily represented in the Legislature. He hasn't been giving them a whole lot else in the way of victories, so why not let the NRA bully a Fish and Game Commissioner who has the temerity to speak up in the protection of, dare I say, fish and game.
UPDATE: Here are the thoughts of the President of the Human Society on Hanna's firing resignation. So we have three more years of Arnold. Flip it
Frank Russo predictably delivered with great coverage of yesterday's Assembly Natural Resources Committee hearing into political pressure from the Governor's Office on the California Air Resources Board. Just keep scrolling. The most shocking piece of news that Russo highlights, which was also in a couple news articles on the subject, was that the Administration flack sent to give the Governor's side of the story, Dan Skopec, ISN'T EVEN PART OF THE ADMINISTRATION ANYMORE.
Skopec no longer works for the Schwarzenegger Administration as of a week ago, and has started his own firm, "Climate & Energy Consulting" on Sacramento's K Street Mall, to serve clients he described as "emerging technologies companies that will take advantage of the changes in energy that will result from climate policies." Despite repeated questions from committee members, he refused to reveal who in the Administration had asked him to testify, who he had spoken to about the hearing, who had prepped him, and what he was told. Although he repeatedly testified about actions of the Schwarzenegger Administration using the word "we", he later apologized for the use of that word which he is accustomed to use. He later admitted that he was not speaking for the Schwarzenegger Administration, but was basically there as a private citizen.
They sent a lobbyist to defend the Governor. The hay that can be made from that decision is pretty clear. And this part could be even more damning:
Dr. Sawyer (the former CARB chief), in his testimony, complimented Catherine Witherspoon for resigning from her position as the Executive Officer of CARB since she serves in that position at the pleasure of the board itself. Despite the desire of Susan Kennedy, Schwarzenegger's Chief of Staff, to have her fired, this could not be accomplished directly by the Governor. Sawyer said he had been ordered to place this on the agenda and met with a subcommittee of the board only to find out that there was a consensus of fellow board members not to do so. It was feared that had Witherspoon remained in the position that individual board members would be removed until there was a majority willing to fire her.
Does this remind one of the Saturday massacre involving U.S. Attorney General Elliott Richardson and Archibald Cox during the Watergate scandal of the Nixon Administration?
Schwarzenegger is taking a beating in both the local and national press, as well he should. This reflects nothing more than an abuse of power.
I would like everyone reading this who lives in California to call their Assemblymember. They need to know that they will be supported in this effort to rein in the Schwarzenegger Administration and ensure that oversight is undertaken and the laws of the state are met. That includes subpoenas for top Schwarzenegger Administration officials if need be. The Senate also needs to hear from you; they will be meeting next week in the Rules Committee to confirm the new chair of the Board, Mary Nichols. That needs to be a legitimate confirmation hearing with tough questions about Nichols' independence and how she will implement the Global Warmings Solution Act. This is not a small issue; as I write, I'm watching the Live Earth concerts and seeing millions of people begging for action on climate change. Now, here we have one of the only legitimate pieces of legislation in this country addressing the issue, and it's being undermined by a Governor who wants to talk big on the environment while supporting his corporate buddies behind the scenes.
The first couple reports about today's Assembly Natural Resources Committee hearing into the politicization of the California Air Resources Board are starting to dribble out. The SacBee described a set of angry lawmakers sking pointed questions and threatening that their probe into how the Governor is trying to manipulate the board into adopting his favored implementation of anti-global warming laws would continue.
Assembly Democrats said Friday they will continue investigating whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger exerted "illegal and improper pressure" on the California Air Resources Board after they were dissatisfied with answers given by two lower-level representatives of the governor at a Capitol hearing.
I wouldn't have expected the national media to pick up on the story of the Governor's actions not matching his rhetoric when it comes to the environment, but the New York Times actually found some room for it in today's paper. They even highlight the governing-by-magazine-cover that has become a staple of this Administration.
In September, Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, signed into law a landmark emissions-reduction measure and then drove a green bus during his easy, breezy re-election campaign. Since then, he has announced that he will buy offsets for his own personal carbon emissions, threatened to sue the Environmental Protection Agency over air quality and appeared on the cover of Newsweek spinning a globe on his finger [...]
But the Governator’s eco-friendly reputation may have taken a dent over the last week in a messy battle over the leadership of the California Air Resources Board, a science-geared agency that has traditionally operated with considerable autonomy, even though its 11 members are political appointees. Its most visible mandate is the nuts and bolts of putting the emissions law, known as AB 32, into effect [...]
“We have schizophrenia here,” said James Marston, a lobbyist for Environmental Defense who worked on passing the emissions law. “Even while we were doing AB 32, the Schwarzenegger administration was a little schizophrenic." [...]
“There’s an obvious difference to what he’s been saying and what his administration and other appointees have been doing,” said Don Perata, a Democrat who is president pro tempore of the State Senate. “There’s some real knuckle draggers over there.”
Mary Nichols, the former chair of the California Air Resources Board under Pat Jerry Brown, was named today to be the new head of the board tasked with implementing the landmark global warming legislation passed last year. She was a cabinet secretary under Gray Davis and served in the Clinton Adminstration working on the environment. The early accounts are glowing, particularly from her predecessor.
...the appointment of Nichols, one of the state's first environmental attorneys, is likely to blunt complaints from administration critics that Schwarzenegger's actions on the environment are not living up to his bold promises.
"She's superb, and she will be an independent person," Sawyer said. "I've known Mary for a long time, we've served together on the air board, and I would find it hard to think of a better person."
He said under Nichols' previous tenure as air board chair, historic regulations were implemented on unleaded gasoline, catalytic converters and other regulations that helped cement the board's reputation as the world's most innovative and toughest air pollution agency.
"She's a lawyer and she knows the Clean Air Act probably as well as anybody in the state," he said.
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 [ed. -- last year's Global Warming Solutions Act]. Mary Nichols sounds like an excellent appointment. But this will not stop Friday's hearing, and it will not stop the demands for accountability on the Governor's attempts to subvert a law he signed.
...I should also mention that without the outcry over the other resignations on the board, there is no way Arnold would have replaced them with anyone nearly as qualified. Fighting back actually can work.
Catherine Witherspoon resigned today, and unlike Robert Sawyer, it appears that this resignation was legitimate. Witherspoon was incensed by Sawyer's dismissal and the repeated attempts by the Governor to change the landmark global warming law through implementation in ways that he couldn't change it in the legislative arena.
In interviews with The Times, Witherspoon said there had been a pattern of interference by the governor's top staff in favor of industry lobbyists seeking to weaken or stall air pollution regulations, including 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," 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.
Adding insult to injury, she said, members of the governor's staff have publicly blamed her and Sawyer for not doing more — conduct she described as "Orwellian … a triumph of appearances over reality."
This will go completely nowhere on the national scene, where Arnold actually governs. But within the state, more journalists are questioning the Governor's commitment to the noble goals on global warming that he wastes no time espousing worldwide. On the flip...
People are still trying to figure out what led to the resignation of the chair of the CARB (California Air Resources Board) yesterday. If you scan the article strictly for quotes from the governor's office, their take is that Robert Sawyer was fired for dragging his feet on implementing air pollution and global warming initiatives.
In the statement, Schwarzenegger also criticized the board for approving a request by San Joaquin Valley air quality authorities to seek an 11-year extension of a federal deadline for complying with the Clean Air Act.
"I was deeply disappointed," Schwarzenegger said. "The air board let the federal government off the hook by seeking delay." [...]
Schwarzenegger's deputy chief of communications, Adam Mendelsohn, said the governor's office did not think the air board or its staff were moving aggressively enough on air pollution and global warming.
"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 … last week," Mendelsohn said. He said the items Sawyer proposed were minor, while the governor's office was seeking far tougher measures to control emissions from concrete factories and other sources [...]
Mendelsohn said the administration first became upset with the agency when Witherspoon, without consulting the governor's office, sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last spring seeking a long postponement of a federal deadline to clean up diesel soot.
"With the health threats of California air quality, this is a very high priority," Mendelsohn said.
Well, OK. And yet some environmentalists are defending Sawyer and saying things like "he deserved better." And then there's this curious passage (on the fliip):
