It’s official. Lisa Jackson, former New Jersey environmental commissioner, has been named by Barack Obama as the next administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. (See photos of press conference at Obama’s site; photo above is from the EPA via NJ.com.)
Obama said of his pick for the EPA:
Lisa has spent a lifetime in public service at the local, state and federal level. As Commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, she has helped make her state a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing new sources of energy, and she has the talent and experience to continue this effort at the EPA. Lisa also shares my commitment to restoring the EPA’s robust role in protecting our air, water and abundant natural resources so that our environment is cleaner and our communities are safer.
Jackson, who lives in East Windsor, has a good reputation among New Jersey environmentalists — aside from the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, who sent an “open letter” to the president-elect that “harshly criticized Jackson’s tenure at the DEP,” saying that
Her actions as commissioner, Rauch wrote, “have been nothing short of appalling,” and “raise troubling questions about her fitness to run an agency of much greater size, complexity and significance.”
PEER, however, is a distinct minority, with the larger green groups offering praise of the nominee.
What’s most interesting is the response from the current EPA administrator, Stephen Johnson, to spruce up his awful record (see the four-part series in The Philadelphia Inquirer that starts here) with the glow coming from the incoming administration. Johnson said Jackson “is poised to build on the many environmental successes accomplished since 2001” — a comment that shows that Johnson was as deluded about the damage his agency has managed to do as President George W. Bush has been about his place in history.
“While environmental responsibility is everyone’s responsibility, I am particularly proud of the role EPA has played in bringing about record results on behalf of the American people and our environment. Our air is cleaner, our water is purer, and our land is better protected than just a generation ago.”
True, but this is despite eight years during which we have taken massive steps backward and due mostly to the efforts of the Clinton administration and state governments who have been forced to deal with the delitirious impacts of environmental degradation.
So, we ask that readers send their congratulations to Lisa Jackson and consider sending Stephen Johnson a referral to a good therapist.
Hank Kalet 