Obama’s EPA Pick Lisa Jackson Supports California Emission Standards
President-elect Barack Obama’s EPA choice — Lisa P. Jackson — will lead the agency by the virtues of science and law, rather than political agendas. Uh, finally!
If that alone wasn’t enough to make me want to have her babies, she’s been quoted for calling Bush’s EPA the “Emissions Permissions Agency!” Uh, marry me now! Seriously.
Jackson served as the Commissioner for the Department of Environmental Protection for the state of New Jersey for about two years, and is currently the state’s Chief of Staff. Though her rule has come under fire.
According to an interview at Grist, “The split seems to be between those who work on energy and climate policy in the state’s capital [who were supportive of Jackson] and those who work on toxic cleanups at the local level [who were critical of her].”
But during Jackson’s Senate confirmation hearing she went on to say, “Political appointees will not compromise the integrity of the EPA’s technical experts to advance particular regulatory outcomes.” The tone of her hearing focused on how the Bush-run EPA not only sucked, but that it had frequent disregard for scientific findings.
One key point she made had to do with California’s request to set its own pollution standards should be re-reviewed. In December of last year, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson overruled California’s request, stating that permits under the Clean Air Act cannot limit greenhouse gases. In response, California and 16 other states filed suit with the federal government based on the ruling. New Jersey is one of those states.
I do hope that Jackson is much less of a tool than Johnson turned out to be.
Image: © Fintastiqu… | Dreamstime.com
Keep hoping about Jackson (and get active). She herself is a political appointee!
Science and rule of law are slogans – not policy commitments.
You forgot to mention that Boxer chastised Jackson’s non-committal answer on the California petition buy noting that Obama had pledged to issue it. Jackson merely said she would consider it. Huge difference.
NJ was a plaintiff in the lawsuit – if Jackson couldn’t give a straight answer adn firm commitment to that issue…
The only tough questions Jackson faced came at the very end – after 3 hours and 20 minutes. All the mainstream press were not paying attention by then and missed how poor Jackson’s record was in NJ. Go to the PEER website at http://www.peer.org for details on that.
Anyway you slice this one we are going to be in deep trouble if we don’t get on with becoming energy independent. Oil is finite. We are using oil globally at the rate of 2 X faster than new oil is being discovered. The high price of fuel the previous year has brought America to it’s knees and done serious damage to our economy and society. Our nation better wake up and smell the coffee and realize oil is finite, it is running out faster than anyone realizes and it is time to get on with utilizing alternative sources of energy. We should never give others that much power over our economy. America’s need to become energy independent seems to be realized by only a select few. Hopefully our new administration will move forward with this very important issue. I just read a really good book called The Manhattan Project of 2009 by Jeff Wilson.I highly recommend this book for anyone concerned about out economy and America’s need to become more energy independent.
[...] Facilities will have to be in place by 2012 to be eligible for the credit. Read our article on Obama’s EPA Pick Supporting The California Waiver On Emissions. [...]
It’s a strange world when a Democratic president does in six days what Republican governor could not convince a Republican president to do in four years of letter-writing, lawsuits and international embarrassment.
http://www.caivp.org/article/issues/2009/1/26/state-emissions-standards-finally-approved
[...] Arnold Schwarzenegger is planning on attending the event, a big deal when one considers that California was leading the charge against Bush’s EPA to get the ability to set higher standards themselves. Hopefully, this [...]