Air Board Flap Continues

The Schwarzenegger Administration did an excellent job at damage control over the original dust-up over the politicization of the Air Resources Board, but the issue continues to draw headlines weeks later. Why? Well, there is a real issue of how the ARB implements the new greenhouse gas law AB 32, especially with respects to a cap-and-trade program. So, while the new leader of the ARB is declaring that everything is hunky dory over there (and basically saying that it's ok, because she is happy to play politics), there is this article in the Chron.

The rift between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers over how the state should fight global warming can be summed up in two numbers: 24 and two.

Those figures represent new jobs proposed at the California Air Resources Board to carry out the governor's preferred strategy for meeting the state's ambitious goals for curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Under Schwarzenegger's budget plan, the state would commit 24 positions to the task of creating systems such as allowing high-polluting companies to buy credits from low-polluting ones for their greenhouse gas emissions. But the Democrat-controlled Legislature has stripped that number down to two, moving the other 22 positions to focus on regulations aimed at cutting emissions, which is what Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez favors.

Power of the purse is the most apt phrase to describe the tact of the legislators. They passed the bill and the administration is tasked with implementing it. However, the legislature still maintains some control through the budget as to the direction that takes. The credit scheme is what is known as cap-and-trade. Democrats want to see other steps taken before the government gets in the business of administrating a carbon emissions trading system.

The Democrats are responding to the Schwarzenegger administration's political pressure that that they placed on the ARB by applying a little themselves. Considering their leverage is the budget, this particular dispute with the Schwarzenegger administration will be part of larger negotiations that are going on right now. It will continue to make headlines and create headaches for the Schwarzenegger administration, for every article will go back and mention the original scandal.

This increased attention to the ARB has ramped up the pressure that businesses and environmental groups. They are very much still under the microscope. There is a lot at stake, which is why a few jobs has so much significance.