Senate welcomes Lisa Jackson
Lisa Jackson, with Obama, in December. AP Photo.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg said yesterday that Lisa Jackson “will be confirmed, no doubt.”
Jackson testified yesterday before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, pledging to put science first, an implicit swipe at the Bush Administration (which has not).
Obama’s pick for EPA administrator said the environmental priorities of the new administration would be: Curbing global warming, reducing air pollution, cleaning hazardous waste sites, regulating toxic chemicals and protecting water quality.
She promised to “right away” ensure the EPA looks into how coal waste from power plants is stored around the country and “immediately review” the threat of perchlorate in drinking water, according to news reports.
But she didn’t directly answer questions about states’ rights to control vehicle tailpipe emissions or say how the EPA would regulate greenhouse gases.
She has a tough road ahead — Ohio Republican George Voinovich said outgoing administrator Stephen Johnson has done “oustanding,” and Sen. James Inhofe, a warming doubter, said he was concerned about the effect of further pollution regulation on a “fragile” economy.
Sen. Robert Menendez yesterday called Jackson “eminently qualified” and said he thought she’d be the best EPA chief ever.
He cited her work in New Jersey on water protection, global warming legislation, the Energy Master Plan, and improved electronics recycling, as well as the state’s involvement in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
All in all, Jackson’s hearing went “so smoothly,” says the Bergen Record, that her nomination will be put to a full vote soon. (That vote could happen anytime after Obama’s inauguration on Tuesday.)
In the audience were members of the Ramapough community who have praised Jackson for moving forward cleanup efforts at a notorious Superfund site in their neighborhood.
Jackson, Gov. Jon Corzine’s chief of staff, spent three years as New Jersey DEP commissioner.
More: EPA pick vows to put science first (New York Times)
The New Team: Lisa Jackson (New York Times)
January 16th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
NJ press coverage failed to write about the very end of the hearing, where Charinman Barbara Boxer asked the only questions all day about Jackson’s actual record in NJ, including asking her to respond to PEER criticisms that have been widely reported.
This reporter got it half right:
EPA: Jackson defends record on Superfund, hazardous site cleanups (01/15/2009)
Katherine Boyle, E&E reporter
U.S. EPA Administrator designee Lisa Jackson yesterday defended her record with hazardous pollution cleanups as head of the New Jersey Environmental Protection Department and pledged to make Superfund site and drinking water issues top priorities under the Obama administration.
Jackson has come under fire from groups including Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility for her handling of New Jersey’s Superfund program, centering around allegations that she neglected to inform parents for months about elevated mercury levels at the Kiddie Kollege daycare facility, a former thermometer factory.
“The day I found out Kiddie Kollege had mercury was the day the owner was notified to move the children out,” Jackson told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “A department employee drove by months before and saw it was a building not a factory. It’s a period of time that shouldn’t have occurred.”
Jackson, a mother of two, said after the incident at Kiddie Kollege actions were taken to ensure the time lag would not happen again. “No parent should have to wonder about the time between suspicion and reality,” she said.
Critics have also said Jackson weakened cleanup requirements for property owners and lamented the pace of Superfund site cleanups in New Jersey.
“New Jerseys’ program for cleaning up toxic waste sites is broken,” Jackson said. “We did things to try to address it.” The department now recovers about $20 million of past costs every year, she added.
Jackson noted she helped put together Internet listings of state Superfund sites with information for communities. She also said she was committed to putting in place a prioritization scheme for sites.
Superfund sites
Several EPW Committee members questioned Jackson about Superfund sites in their home states.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) told Jackson about the plight of people in Libby, Mont., many of whom suffer asbestos-related illnesses. More than 200 people have died from exposure to asbestos contamination created by a vermiculite mining company, W.R. Grace.
Documents and e-mails released by Baucus this fall revealed EPA was ready to declare the site a public health emergency before the White House intervened. Baucus asked Jackson to consider supporting a public health emergency declaration for the town.
“The science and recommendations of EPA staff will lead to a quick recommendation as to whether a public health emergency does exist,” Jackson said. “I promise to do it as early as possible. It will be one of the first issues on my desk.”
Jackson also pledged to review the agency’s current data on a toxicity assessment of the Libby site.
Inhofe had specific Superfund sites in mind as well. He asked Jackson to help Oklahoma complete remediation and relocation work at the Tar Creek Superfund site in the northeastern part of the state.
Inhofe also criticized EPA’s management of Superfund program sites, saying the company responsible for a site is willing to undertake cleanup costs and can complete a project more cheaply than the government. He cited Tronox, an Oklahoma company, as an example. The business recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after EPA sued for cleanup costs at the Federal Creosote Site in Manville, N.J.
Perchlorate
Quizzed by Boxer, Jackson also promised to address perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel, in drinking water. Environmentalists have long sought regulation of perchlorate, which can inhibit the thyroid gland’s iodine uptake and interfere with fetuses’ development (Greenwire, Nov. 11, 2008).
PEER has criticized Jackson for failing to push perchlorate regulation while heading New Jersey’s Environmental Protection Department. The state’s maximum contaminant level, 5 parts per billion, is just coming out this month, though it was devised in 2005.
Jackson said shrinking budgets were behind the delay. “We prioritized, as managers often have to,” she said. She also noted that New Jersey has been addressing perchlorate issues with the 5 ppb limit in mind for quite some time.
Water infrastructure
On the infrastructure front, Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) led the call for increased funding for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a low-interest wastewater loan program.
“The state revolving loan funds have not been adequately funded for … years,” Voinovich said. “We’ve got cities all over the country that are being required to comply with the law in terms of stormwater overflow.”
Voinovich said it was not fair to impose regulations that will cost communities a great deal of money without providing federal aid. The Bush administration regularly proposed cutting SRF projects, only to often have Congress maintain them as part of the annual budget process.
Jackson said she recognized the difficulties states face. “It’s very true that the EPA budgets over recent years have flatlined at best,” she said. “You see the same thing in a grant program like the state revolving fund.
“Obviously, the EPA administrator has a role in forming the presidential budget,” Jackson added. “In looking at that role, I would look very strongly at the work states do. Much of the permitting work in enforcement happens at the state level and some at the local level. We will do what we can to find a balance between national leadership and state and local implementation.”
Chesapeake Bay
Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) quizzed Jackson closely on her plans for the Chesapeake Bay, which is in the midst of a massive restoration effort led by EPA and states surrounding the watershed.
“The federal partnership in the Chesapeake Bay has been extremely valuable for promoting the appropriate type of remedial action in the Chesapeake Bay,” Cardin said. “We need leadership from this administration to strengthen the partnership between the federal government and the bay partners.”
Cardin also emphasized the need for federal funding for the bay, which has been plagued by nutrient pollution.
Though the federal-state partnership has failed to reach key cleanup goals, Jackson said it is an important demonstration of what EPA and states can achieve.
“I’m happy to raise the bar even further for the federal government’s level of commitment to an extraordinary resource,” she said. Jackson said that she will make sure “EPA career employees are working on it, and that they don’t feel the need to hide the truth of what’s working and not working because they’re worried about resources being taken away from them.”
Jackson could be confirmed as soon as Tuesday