TARGETED AREAS

The plan to rebuild California government would eliminate the air pollution board that forced car makers to add catalytic converters three decades ago, a requirement that ranks along with removing lead from gasoline as one of the most effective clean-air innovations.

Besides doing away with the Air Resources Board, the plan would drastically alter many of the agencies that have given the state a worldwide reputation as a trendsetter in environmental protection. In the process, it would eliminate an array of boards and commissions where decisions to regulate air and water pollution are made in public.

Environmentalists, who complained they had little input in the recommendations, said Friday that scrapping the boards would greatly reduce public participation in government decision-making. They promised a fierce fight if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to eliminate some of the panels.

The California Performance Review, the laundry list of proposed changes to be submitted to Schwarzenegger on Tuesday, recommends creating a super-agency to oversee most environmental programs. That, in essence, would expand the power of the existing California Environmental Protection Agency and give the governor greater control over environmental programs.

It recommends dozens of other changes to the state’s conservation programs, such as eliminating the Baldwin Hills Conservancy in Los Angeles and exempting small, rural logging operations from having to prepare timber harvest plans.

The plan also seeks to change existing practices it considers wasteful. For example, it would require more thorough real estate appraisals before the state buys land for preservation. And it calls for streamlining regulations it labels impediments to business, including making it easier to obtain permits to build or expand oil refineries.

Republican Gov. Pete Wilson attempted to centralize authority in a similar fashion when he proposed the creation of Cal/EPA in the 1990s, but Democrats in the Legislature successfully fought to preserve much of the independence of the state’s existing environmental boards and agencies.

Under the latest proposal, California’s separate clean air and water bureaucracies would be made divisions of the new Department of Environmental Protection. But the appointed panels that make final decisions on most clean air and water issues, the Air Resources Board and the Water Resources Control Board, would be eliminated.

Schwarzenegger administration officials stressed that the governor had not yet reviewed the recommendations and said they would be debated openly for months to come.

“Many of the boards and commissions targeted in this proposal have been the first line of defense on protecting the environment and public health,” said Ann Notthoff, chief state lobbyist for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Their independence has allowed California to become an environmental leader, even when we have had governors who were not particularly friends of the environment.”

Environmental groups were especially alarmed at the proposal to eliminate the Air Resources Board. It has led California’s efforts to cut air pollution, often imposing stricter regulations than Washington, in direct conflict with automakers and other industry groups.

Its smog-fighting regulations resulted in innovations now found in cars worldwide. This fall, it is set to approve a rule forcing car companies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a contributor to global warming.