Following his victory in the historic 2003 California recall election, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tapped Tamminen, a lifelong Democrat, to run the California EPA. Tamminen, now 55, came recommended via Schwarzenegger's brother-in-law Robert Kennedy Jr., who knew Tamminen from his Riverkeeper-esque battle to clean up industrial pollution in L.A.'s Santa Monica Bay. Before long, Tamminen joined the Austrian Oak's cabinet and became the primary architect of the state's groundbreaking legislation on climate change.

"Terry's a total visionary," says Bonnie Reiss, a political adviser and friend of the Governor. "Positive, high-energy, and action-oriented...just like Arnold." Nor did it hurt their rapport any that Tamminen is bilingual. "They like to speak to each other in German," Reiss says.

"The first time we talked, Arnold told me he wanted to be a leader on global warming," Tamminen recalls. "He felt that California should set an example." Together, they made certain the state has - most notably in the landmark 2006 Assembly Bill 32, which committed the world's seventh largest economy to a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020...

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