News Coverage
Industry lobbyist to run clean-air board
Governor: She'll balance economy, environment
Published June 28, 2005
Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed a longtime lobbyist for agriculture, oil and big business interests Tuesday to head the state's influential Air Resources Board, angering clean-air advocates and setting up a confirmation fight with the state Senate.
Schwarzenegger tapped Cindy Tuck to chair the board that has routinely
enacted environmentally groundbreaking regulations with national
ramifications. Tuck, a Sacramento lobbyist for nearly 20 years, has for the last eight years worked with a coalition of business and labor interests that focuses on environmental issues.
The group, called the California Council for Environmental and Economic
Balance, opposed several bills important to clean-air advocates, including a first-in-the-nation effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions from cars and one to override an effort by the Bush administration to undo a requirement for environmental upgrades on some power plants.
In announcing the appointment, Schwarzenegger said Tuck, a lawyer with a master's degree in engineering, had more than 20 years of experience on air quality issues in California.
"Her expertise is vital to ensuring California continues to lead the nation in setting air quality standards while at the same time balancing the need to keep our economy strong and thriving," he said in a press release. "I am confident she will bring diverse interests together to meet our ambitious air quality goals."
Less confident was Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland.
"As a lobbyist for major oil companies and the power plant industry, who has opposed every major air quality law passed by the Legislature in recent years, Ms. Tuck is not the right person to help the board carry out its mission of protecting the air our families breathe," Perata said in a brief statement.
Tuck must be confirmed by the Senate Rules Committee, of which Perata is chairman, and the full Senate.
While calling Tuck smart and honest, several environmentalists said she was a poor choice for the job.
"This is more the kind of appointment we would see from the Bush
administration, where they take someone from industry and appoint them to oversee that industry," said Bill Magavern of the Sierra Club.
"It's a disappointing pick," said V. John White, executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies.
But Victor Weisser, president of the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance, the group which Tuck has worked for, said she would excel at bringing all sides together to compromise on contentious air quality rules.
"She has great relationships with all of the different interests, and
nobody understands the issues like she does," Weisser said.
Weisser said his group acted as a bridge between the business community and environmentalists. Because it is a nonprofit, the group does not have to report where it gets its funding.
Weisser refused to provide specific information about the group's
contributors but acknowledged that "it's mostly large businesses that fund us."
Information available on the state attorney general's Web site indicates its income in 2003, the most current year available, was $1.8 million.
The group has supported some environmental legislation, such as a bill
signed by the governor last year to increase fees on tires to pay for an emissions reduction program. But it also has routinely pushed big business interests. Documents obtained by the Environmental Working Group show the council helped run a campaign against a successful 1986 proposition, Proposition 65, intended to force industries to warn when products contain cancer-causing ingredients.
Created in 1967, the Air Resource Board has been among the biggest players in making California a national leader in environmental protections. The board has pushed for cleaner gasoline, launched an effort to make diesel engines more efficient and is trying to implement a 2002 law forcing automakers to reduce car emissions -- the same law that Tuck's group opposed.
The board is facing several important decisions in the next year, including implementing further restrictions on diesel emissions and drawing up regulations for a law passed last year aimed at reducing emissions from the agriculture industry.
Because the chairperson of the 11-member board is the only full-time
member, the position is extremely influential. The job is open because the former chair, Alan Lloyd, was appointed by Schwarzenegger to become head of the state's Environmental Protection Agency.
Tuck did not return a call for comment but said in the press release
announcing her appointment, "I share in Gov. Schwarzenegger's strong
commitment to ensuring California's air quality is improved for the health and future of our state."
