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…