Head of Air Quality Board Steps Down : Pollution: Jananne Sharpless had bucked the auto and oil industries in pushing for cleaner fuels and electric cars. Environmentalists decry her departure.

Dogged by growing complaints from business that the state’s clean air program is too rigorous, California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Jananne Sharpless said Wednesday that she has resigned effective today “after a mutual agreement with the governor.” She will serve instead as a member of the less-influential California Energy Commission.

Sharpless headed the air quality agency for more than eight years, repeatedly bucking the auto and oil industries as she led the ARB to adopt bold standards that force the use of cleaner-burning fuels and electric cars in California. But the opposition to the ARB’s rules intensified from industries in recent months, and rumors had circulated that Gov. Pete Wilson would force her to resign.

“I serve at the pleasure of the governor and I think that, mutually, we agreed that my skills and my experience could be valuable at the energy commission and perhaps it was time for me to make that kind of transition,” Sharpless said by telephone from Sacramento as she prepared her resignation letter Wednesday night.

“I had a good run here. It’s been eight years. In reflecting on it, it’s probably the longest that anybody has served.”

Sharpless, representatives of Wilson and auto makers all denied that she was forced out of office.

“This wasn’t a sacking,” said James Lee, a spokesman for the California Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the ARB. “We were very, very concerned in terms of keeping her in the Administration in areas where she can affect state policy. This (energy commissioner position) is not like being appointed to some obscure podiatrist board or something. This is a major agency that sets energy policies.”

He added that moving Sharpless “in no way should be construed by anybody as a desire to weaken the state’s environmental standards.”

But others involved in air-quality issues both inside and outside the Administration insist that Sharpless is not leaving by choice. Some say an effort to unseat Sharpless was orchestrated by the Big Three auto makers and the trucking industry, but others say she was forced out by other key Wilson staff members.

Environmentalists are highly critical of the move.

“Without her, there’s a real question of whether Wilson is going to retreat from the progress we’ve made on air quality, the most significant being the zero-emissions vehicle mandate,” said Joe Caves, Sacramento lobbyist for the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), called Sharpless’ departure “a disastrous move for air quality in our state,” and blamed it on “special interest groups.”

Replacement of Sharpless, who was appointed to her post in 1985 by former Gov. George Deukmejian, came as no surprise given the pressure on Wilson to be more accommodating to business and his creation of Cal EPA, which usurped much of her authority. Wilson has attempted to ease regulations on California’s businesses at the same time that the ARB has been steadfast in its goal of meeting federal mandates to clean the air.

Sharpless, 47, will chair her last ARB meeting today in Sacramento. A replacement has not been named. Sharpless will join the five-member energy commission in January.

Her departure comes at a time when leadership of the Los Angeles region’s air board, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, also is in turmoil after losing some of its strongest clean air advocates.

The criticism of Sharpless intensified after a rule went into effect Oct. 1 requiring that California diesel fuel meet stricter standards than new federal requirements. The trucking industry complained that the rule was a hardship because they said it caused spot fuel shortages and higher prices. Wilson has expressed concern about the truckers’ complaints and formed a task force to review the regulation.

Dave Titus, a spokesman for the California Trucking Assn., welcomed the news about Sharpless. “We were simply looked upon as an enemy instead of a working partner by the board,” he said. “A lot of it has to do with the leadership of that board.”

The ARB also has come under fire from Detroit auto makers trying to overturn groundbreaking rules that require 2% of all cars sold in California to be electric-powered or equally emissions-free beginning in 1998. The rule, adopted by the ARB in 1990, comes under review by the board next year.

The auto makers have deep doubts that consumers will pay for electric cars with limited battery range unless they are sold at well below production costs.

Sharpless acknowledged that the auto industry has “started a very serious campaign” and the Administration is “under an enormous amount of pressure” to scale back the zero-emission vehicle standards.

But she added that “this governor is very committed to clean air programs . . . I feel as though the course we charted here at the ARB is one that will continue.”