Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Liane Randolph

16. Liane Randolph

Almost 19 percent of all new cars sold in California in 2022 were electric, a big step towards Gov. Newsom’s goal to phase out new sales of internal-combustion passenger vehicles by 2035. At the heart of this effort is Liane Randolph, chair of California’s Air Resources Board, the powerful regulatory agency with a national and international profile. While the ARB’s fight against climate change takes on many forms – bans on gas-powered leaf blowers, new smog check rules for trucks – electric passenger vehicles are the centerpiece. (About half of all electric vehicles in the U.S. are registered in California.) Randolph, the first African American to head the ARB’s governing board, was appointed by Newsom in 2020. Randolph had been at the Public Utilities Commission since 2015, and before that, she was general counsel at the state Resources Agency. She was chair of the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state’s campaign watchdog, from 2003 to 2007.

Updated Aug. 15, 2023