Keynote Speaker: Mary D. Nichols,
Chairman, California Air Resources Board
October 16, 2009, 1:00 PM - Room 290, Stanford Law School
Leading the Fight Against Climate Change
Mary Nichols, one of California's first environmental lawyers and current Chairman of one of the nation's foremost environmental agencies—the California Air Resources Board—will deliver a keynote address on how California is leading the fight against climate change.
Speaker Biography
Mary Nichols was appointed Chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in July 2007, a post she held previously under Governor Edmund H, Brown Jr. from 1979 to 1983. At CARB she is responsible for implementing California's landmark greenhouse gas emissions legislation as well as setting air pollution standards for motor vehicles and fuels. After graduating from Cornell University and Yale Law School Ms. Nichols practiced environmental law in Los Angeles, bringing cases on behalf of environmental and public health organizations to enforce state and federal clean air legislation. President Clinton appointed her to head the Office of Air and Radiation at US EPA, where she was responsible for, among many other regulatory breakthroughs, the acid rain trading program and setting the first air quality standard for fine particles. She also served as California's Secretary for Natural Resources from 1999 to 2003. Prior to her return to CARB, Ms. Nichols was Professor of Law and Director of the Institute of the Environment at UCLA.
