Mary Nichols, new California Air Resources Board chair, assured lawmakers July 17 that she would seek to speed up the agency’s work to carry out the state’s climate protection law, AB 32. Nichols, whom Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed earlier this month after firing former Air Board chair Robert Sawyer, said she would reconsider a list of three “early action measures” approved by the board last month with an eye towards expanding it (Circuit, July 6, 2007). She also told lawmakers the success of the program will be based on the politics that Sawyer and former Air Board executive officer Catherine Witherspoon eschewed upon exiting the agency. Nichols advised the Senate Rules Committee during an informational hearing that carrying out the climate change law would involve both a political and technical effort. A committee aide told Circuit that the panel has yet to schedule a confirmation hearing for Nichols. Both the panel and the full Senate must approve her appointment within one year or she must step down. In other appointments, Cindy Tuck, former Council for Environmental and Economic Balance lobbyist, was promoted by the governor to the position of undersecretary of the CalEPA. The governor appointed Tuck to chair the California Air Resources Board in 2005, but she had to step down after the state Senate failed to confirm her appointment over concerns about her close ties to business and labor interests. Since then, she has served as assistant secretary for policy at CalEPA.