Senate Rules Committee unanimously backs nominee to lead Department of Conservation

The California State Senate Rules Committee voted 5-0 on April 23 to recommend that the full Senate confirm the governor's nominee to serve as director of the Department of Conservation.

The hearing focused on the nominee’s priorities for CalGEM permitting, the state’s energy transition and programs to preserve agricultural and conserved lands. Committee members pressed the nominee on delays in upstream oil-and-gas permitting, the status of a carbon sequestration working group created by SB 905, and how multi-benefit land and sustainable-agricultural programs are being administered.

The nominee, introduced to the committee as Director Lucchese, described a decades-long career in state government and said her priorities include making permitting processes under CalGEM more “consistent and predictable.” “I am committed to ensuring that process is as transparent and as I said, consistent and predictable as possible moving forward,” Director Lucchese told the committee during her opening remarks.

Several senators described local economic and energy concerns. Vice Chair Groves, representing a large oil-producing area, raised refinery closures and a long-term decline in permit…