Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Steve Cliff

No. 44

We have for years leaned into having the California Air Resources Board Chair on this list, which isn’t unreasonable. But when you think about who actually moves policy ideas into regulation and who guides the day to day working of close to 2,000 employees while managing a $2.7 billion budget, it’s not the Chair you’re thinking of. That would be Executive Officer Steven Cliff, easily one of the most powerful and influential unelected people in California government. There isn’t a policy area in CARB’s purview he doesn’t oversee, including vehicle emissions standards and the state’s cap-and-invest carbon reduction program. He is also the one who negotiates with the numerous entities seeking to influence CARB, including increasingly revenue-hungry state lawmakers and an even more rapacious and inconsistent federal government. He is known as a pragmatic, highly intelligent and wryly funny leader and staunch defender of California’s carbon reduction mission. Cliff is a former Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under President Joe Biden. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of San Diego.

Want to see more stories like this? Sign up for The Roundup, the free daily newsletter about California politics from the editors of Capitol Weekly. Stay up to date on the news you need to know.

Sign up below, then look for a confirmation email in your inbox.