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California statehouse staffer is a superstar of his own: Kip Lipper is responsible for some of the nation’s most groundbreaking environmental laws over the last 30 years

Posted by: Maven on November 29, 2009 at 7:33 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

“Reporting from Sacramento – If he were a basketball star instead of a statehouse staffer, he’d be Kobe Bryant or Magic Johnson — a veteran playmaker, feared by foes, his best moves unleashed just before the buzzer.

But like so many Sacramento insiders, Kip Lipper plays out of the limelight, in the back corridors of the Capitol, unknown to the public whose air and water and ecological ethos he has made his specialty over the last three decades.

As the environmental expert for the state Senate’s ruling Democrats, Lipper has helped craft many of California’s groundbreaking laws in that realm — and become a foil for Republicans irked by what they view as regulatory excess, and by the economic fallout.

His fingerprints are on the California Clean Air Act, the state Safe Drinking Water Act and the landmark 2006 curbs on greenhouse gas emissions. Legislation that boosted recycling, reduced landfill dumping, saved redwoods and cleaned up power plants are also part of his highlight reel.

Most recently, he aided negotiations that helped break a quarter-century deadlock and produce an $11-billion plan to fix the state’s balky water system and revive the flagging Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

His boss, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), calls him “a force of nature.” … “

Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

November 29, 2009 · Filed Under Legislation - State & Federal

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