The chairman of the California Air Resources Board, Robert F. Sawyer, was fired by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week amid mounting criticism of the agency's leadership on global warming and air pollution policies.
Sawyer and the governor's office gave sharply differing accounts of why he was let go after 18 months at the helm of what has long been described as the world's most influential air pollution regulatory agency.
"I was fired, I did not resign.... The entire issue is the independence of the board, and that's why I got fired," Sawyer said in a telephone interview with The Times. He said that though the 11-member board is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the governor, "there's also an incredible tradition of independence. I have board members going all the way back to [Gov. Pete] Wilson's time, and they tell me they have never seen such a level of interference as is occurring at this time, and that's what this is all about."
Sawyer said he had declined to fire the agency's embattled executive director, Catherine Witherspoon, and objected when his longtime communications director Jerry Martin was also fired, then reassigned to another agency by the governor's office without notifying him. Finally, last week, he said he was called by a Cabinet secretary who ordered him to limit to three the number of so-called early action measures the board was considering to slow global warming.
Environmentalists complained bitterly that the three measures, approved by the board, were not enough, and Sawyer, ignoring the order he had received, unsuccessfully sought to persuade fellow board members to add more measures to the list.
He said he was baffled two days after the vote when the governor issued a news release criticizing the board for not taking more action.
In the statement, Schwarzenegger also criticized the board for approving a request by San Joaquin Valley air quality authorities to seek an 11-year extension of a federal deadline for complying with the Clean Air Act.
"I was deeply disappointed," Schwarzenegger said. "The air board let the federal government off the hook by seeking delay."
Sawyer said he requested a meeting with the governor's chief advisor, Susan Kennedy, to clear up the "mixed signals." Instead he was asked by Kennedy to retire, and when he refused, was handed a letter signed by the governor saying his appointment had been rescinded.
"I cleared out my office today," Sawyer said Thursday.
