Confirmation Preview: Lisa Jackson
Lisa Jackson, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is expected to go before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on January 14th for her confirmation hearing. Jackson, who served in the EPA under President Clinton, and most recently served as head of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and aide to Governor John Corzine, is likely headed for an easy confirmation. A number of environmental and industry groups from her home state praised her selection, and Senators, both Republicans and Democrats, have indicated that they expect her to win confirmation.
Jackson’s selection is not without some controversy, however; specifically, the nominee has been dogged by questions about how aggressively she pursued brownfield and other toxic site cleanup during her tenure at the New Jersey DEP. Particularly damning was a report by the EPA’s Inspector General, which criticized the timeliness of cleanup efforts and suggested that the EPA take over those efforts from the state.
On climate change issues, however, Jackson is largely seen as an aggressive regulator—during her tenure in New Jersey, she encouraged the state to place a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants and pushed hard for significant increases in the state’s renewable energy portfolio, as expressed in the New Jersey Energy Master Plan. She also called New Jersey a national leader in the battle against global warming and pressed for limits on emissions from all greenhouse gas sources. Jackson was also instrumental in creating the emissions reduction goals in New Jersey’s Global Warming Response Act, which seeks to lower emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
Should Jackson’s confirmation proceed as smoothly as expected, she will inherit an agency with significant immediate policy challenges, such as the rewriting of the Clean Air Interstate Rule program, which was invalidated by the courts in July 2008. Though the rule remains in force, the D.C. Circuit ordered the EPA to fix the rule’s “fundamental flaws.” The agency must also address the controversy surrounding a December memo by current EPA head Stephen Johnson, which barred the EPA from considering greenhouse gas emissions in the permitting of new coal power plants.
Beyond these immediate challenges, the EPA will likely be the lead agency in designing the emissions reduction program championed by President-elect Obama and the Democratic Congress. Senator Barbara Boxer, who last summer introduced a detailed cap and trade bill along with Senators Lieberman and Warner, indicated that any new legislation would leave major decisions to the EPA. Other climate issues the agency could confront include making an endangerment finding regarding carbon dioxide emissions under the Clean Air Act, or granting California a waiver to impose stricter state limits on automobile emissions—both actions avoided or denied by the current administration’s EPA.