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Mary D. Nichols

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For the Whitechapel murder victim, see Mary Ann Nichols.

Mary Dolores Nichols is the chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, a post she has held since 2007, when she was appointed to the position by Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger. She also held the position between 1979 and 1983.[1] Due to her efforts to combat global warming, she has been dubbed "the Queen of Green".[2][3]

Early life and career

Nichols was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota[4] in April 1945, and raised in Ithaca, New York.[5] She received her bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1966 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1971, and passed the California Bar the next year.[6] In 1972, she was involved in a suit against the United States federal government, arguing that under the Clean Air Act, the United States Environmental Protection Agency must force California to develop a stringent plan to deal with air pollution in Los Angeles.[7] She was first appointed to the Air Resources Board by Governor Jerry Brown in 1975, and was made its chief four years later.[8]

After her first stint at CARB, she moved back to private law practice. In 1989, she founded the Los Angeles office of the Natural Resources Defense Council as a senior attorney. During the Clinton Administration, she worked at the United States Environmental Protection Agency as the assistant administrator of air and radiation. While at the USEPA, she ran a cap-and-trade program to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and acid rain, which she considers to be among her biggest achievements.[7] In addition to her work at the Air Resources Board, she serves as faculty at the UCLA School of Law.[9]

Current Term at Air Resources Board

In August 2007, Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Nichols to head the California Air Resources Board, despite the fact that she was a Democrat, saying "Mary was quite simply the best person for the job."[8] The primary job was to implement the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 and to build a low-carbon economy. The CARB implemented a market-based cap-and-trade program to reduce the state's emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases back to 1990 levels by 2020. In 2010 Schwarzenegger was replaced by current governor Jerry Brown, a close ally of Nichols.[7]

Thanks in part to efforts by the CARB, California has successfully decoupled greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth.[10][11] She was part of California's delegation to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris,[12] where she and other members of the Brown administration shared lessons on decarbonization with the rest of the world.[13]

References

  1. ^ "Chair, California Air Resources Board Mary D. Nichols". California Air Resources Board. California Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  2. ^ ""Queen of Green" Mary D. Nichols to Speak at Harvey Mudd Commencement". Harvey Mudd College. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  3. ^ Wholf, Tracy (11 Feb 2013). "Dan Rather Reports: Behind the Scenes with the Queen of Green". Vimeo. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  4. ^ "Air Resources Board Chair: Who Is Mary Nichols?". Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  5. ^ Megerian, Chris (27 December 2014). "Mary Nichols has 'rock star' influence as top air quality regulator". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  6. ^ "Mary Dolores Nichols - #52660". Attorney Search. The State Bar of California. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  7. ^ a b c Lippert, John (2 August 2015). "California Has a Plan to End the Auto Industry as We Know It". Bloomberg News. Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  8. ^ a b Kahn, Gabriel (March 2016). "Did California Figure out How to Fix Global Warming?". Mother Jones. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  9. ^ Nichols, Mary D. "Biography Page". UCLA School of Law. University of California. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  10. ^ Nichols, Mary. Twitter https://twitter.com/MaryNicholsCA/status/616011006830092288. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ^ Dalrymple, Jim (11 December 2015). "California Was Basically Treated Like Its Own Country At The Big Climate Talks In Paris". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  12. ^ Magerian, Chris (10 December 2015). "Jerry Brown in Paris: California governor goes deep on climate change and other global threats". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  13. ^ Vernasco, Lucy (5 December 2015). "Why California is America's Most Important COP21 Participant". NextGen Climate. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
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