Mary D. Nichols
Chairman, California Air Resources Board

Mary D. Nichols is Chairman of the California Air Resources Board, a post she has held since 2007.

Nichols has devoted her entire career in public and nonprofit service to advocating for the environment and public health. In addition to her work at the Air Board, she has served as Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Air and Radiation program under President Clinton, Secretary for California's Resources Agency from 1999 to 2003 and Director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Her priorities as chairman include moving ahead on the state's landmark climate change program (AB 32), steering the Board through numerous efforts to curb diesel pollution at ports and continuing to pass regulations aimed at providing cleaner air for Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. She values innovation, partnerships and common-sense approaches to addressing the state's air issues.

The Board is supported by a professional staff of scientists, engineers, economists, lawyers and policy experts, with an annual operating budget of more than $860 million.

Major speeches and commentary

• Northern California Power Agency, January 23, 2013
• Chairman addresses clean cars convention, ACT Expo, May 16, 2012, Long Beach
• California Launches Cap-and-Trade to Fight Global Warming, PointCarbon's annual survey of the global carbon market, March 2012
• Update on Cap-and-Trade Program, California Senate Select Committee on Environment, Economy & Climate Change, March 27, 2012
• The Future of Energy, Harvard Law School, Feb. 27, 2012
• AB 32: Fuels of the Future, Informational Hearing of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, Oct. 23, 2011
• AB 32: Delivering on the Promise, California Independent System Operator Stakeholders Symposium, Sacramento, Sept. 7, 2011
• Sustainable Communities for a Sustainable State, Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, Spring 2011
• Policymaking is a Patchwork Quilt, California Air Pollution Control Officers Association, Climate Change Forum, San Francisco, Aug. 30, 2010
• AB 32 Powering the Future, Chautauqua Institution, New York, Aug. 19, 2010 (Media Coverage)
• Welcome to the Bank of California Carbon, California Forests magazine, Summer 2010
• Climate Change: Restraining the Present to Liberate the Future, Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review, Washington, D.C., April 16, 2010

Interviews and Profiles

• Personality of the Year, Environmental Finance magazine, July 18, 2012
• The Queen of the Green, Dan Rather Reports, HDnet, April 10, 2012
• New Directions in Environmental Law, Yale Law School, Feb. 24, 2012
• California's Clean Car Rules Help Remake U.S. Auto Industry, Yale Environment 360, Feb. 8, 2012
• Advancing Low-Carbon Policies, Climate Group, June 14, 2011
• America's Top Climate Cop, Nature magazine, May 19, 2011

Board statements

• Why we need an auction in the cap-and-trade program, Opening Remarks on AB 32 Update, September 20, 2012
• We Can't Afford to Wait, Opening remarks on proposed Advanced Clean Car regulations, Jan. 26, 2012
• The Capstone of AB 32, Opening comments on proposed cap-and-trade regulation, Oct. 20, 2011

This page last reviewed October 10, 2012