SACRAMENTO, California — Kip Lipper is a name rarely uttered outside inner circles of Sacramento, but the powerful Senate adviser is at the center of this session’s climate logjam — and people are ready to point fingers if Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers’ ambitious package doesn’t get done.
Lipper, who’s served as the top climate and environment whisperer for decades’ worth of Senate leadership, counts groundbreaking laws like the California Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and AB 32, which established the state’s carbon emissions trading program, among his achievements since joining the Legislature in 1976. His power was once so pronounced that lobbyists, activists and even lawmakers referred to him as the 41st senator of the 40-member upper chamber.
And his decades of experience have translated into deep deference from the lawmakers who are supposed to oversee him — and instead trust him to negotiate the complicated policies that term limits sometimes keep out of their own grasp.
But giving all the cards to one person has irked lobbyists and even some lawmakers who are finding themselves cut out of the last-minute negotiations over a host of big energy issues that Newsom and legislative leadership have pledged to get done this session. Frustration is permeating the Capitol, where lawmakers are still hashing out measures on cap and trade, refineries, wildfire liability, and electric bills with little to show as the 72-hour deadline for bills to be introduced in time for floor votes Friday night approaches.
