PUBLISHED 7-19-2007

California cannot simply regulate itself into cleaning up the air and curbing green house gas emissions. It will take a system of rules and economic incentives.

Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Democratic-controlled Legislature are locked in a tug-of-war over how to implement AB32, landmark legislation passed last year that requires California to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020.

Known as the Global Warming Solutions Act, the bill passed the Legislature on the strength of Democratic votes and was signed into law by the Republican governor. This strange marriage gave the governor “green credentials,” while empowering legislators to advance their environmental agenda.

But now the marriage is splitting apart as the Schwarzenegger administration tries to develop  strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and clean up the air.

Last month, Schwarzenegger fired the chairman of the California Air Resources Board and the agency’s executive officer quit over the governor’s interference.

Staffing for CARB, which is the state’s air cleanup agency, now is being held hostage in stalled state budget negotiations, with Democrats insisting on greater focus on  enforcement and regulation, and the administration insisting on  incentives.

Thrown into the middle of this squabbling is Mary Nichols, CARB’s new — well, actually returning — chairwoman.

Nichols ran CARB under former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and was secretary of the state’s Resources Agency under former Gov. Gray Davis.

Nichols used incentive programs, like the cap-and-trade system Schwarzenegger is proposing, to achieve breakthrough air pollution reductions under previous administrations.

Cap-and-trade puts a limit on how much carbon companies can release into the air and then creates a market in which firms can buy or sell “credits,” allowing them to operate under the “cap.”

Shortly after being returned to the post by Schwarzenegger, Nichols spoke with editorial writers.

“...you have to have a strong regulatory program if you’re going to have any kind of trading, and you can’t have a market without a decent regulatory framework that basically lets people know that there’s something to trade that has real value,” she said.

Nichols promised to do her best to “get people to focus on laying out the program for what we need to get to, where the emissions reductions are going to come from and what are going to be the best methodologies for getting there.”

Democratic legislators and the Republican governor need to back off! Both are meddling in CARB’s air cleanup responsibilities.

Let Nichols, her staff and CARB board members do their jobs.