New Jersey DEP's Lisa Jackson a Frontrunner to Head Federal EPA

by Emily Gertz

Published December 03, 2008 @ 02:45PM PST

 A Princeton-trained chemical engineer who is also an experienced environmental policy administrator is emerging as the likely new head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Lisa Jackson, the exiting commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, and a co-chair of Barack Obama’s environmental transition team, is now the lead candidate to head the EPA, apparently. Citing reporting on the subscription-only E&E News/Greenwire, Plenty magazine's Political Climate blog observes that Jackson knows the ins and outs of EPA culture and jargon: she worked at the EPA for 15 years before managing New Jersey's DEP, where she focused on on on hazwaste cleanup and enforcement.

EPA is a crucial agency in regulating and capping greenhouse gases as air pollutants -- important steps on the road to reforming U.S. climate policy and curbing global warming. So what are Jackson's climate policy bona fides? "She’s played an important role in passing legislation requiring mandatory cuts in greenhouse emissions. And she’s also served as vice-president on the board of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a regional cap-and-trade system aimed at reducing global-warming emissions in the Northeast," writes Plenty blogger Ben Whitford.

EPA is also key in regulating other air pollutants, as well as regulating water quality standards.

According to Shailagh Murray and Carol D. Leonnig in The Washington Post, Jackson's past experience with the EPA, as well as Sussman's in the Clinton administration, are helping to ease the tension around the handover of the agency between the Bush and Obama administrations:

On a recent Monday, the pair arrived at an 11 a.m. EPA senior staff meeting. Both had worked at the agency under President Bill Clinton, so they fit in easily, fully acquainted with the acronym-laden lingo.

Their team's questions have been specific, trained on a handful of issues, according to employees and other sources interviewed. A top concern is climate change, an issue they want to address with several EPA program initiatives. They also are asking how much money the enforcement divisions need to go after polluters.

The team also has focused on drinking-water standards, asking about how to reduce children's and mothers' exposure to perchlorate, a chemical in rocket fuel that is leaching into groundwater near military bases.

Jackson, Sussman and their team members hope to interview 100 staffers before filing their report, but they will do so with agreed-upon "rules of engagement," as the EPA's lawyers call them. The lawyers have urged senior managers to answer questions but to avoid idle chatter.

Jackson's also apparently proven herself adept at forming good relationships with colleagues in politics and policy: until she was tapped to head President-elect Obama's environment transition team, she was preparing to be the Chief of Staff for New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine.

Says Plenty's Ben Whitford, "With Jackson running the EPA - and Agency veteran Bob Sussman, her transition team co-chair, likely to take a senior deputy role - Obama would have precisely the combination of expertise and managerial talent he needs to deliver on the changes he’s promised."

Image: Fall colors in Pennsylvania, near where the Juniata River (narrow blue ribbon to left) meets the Susquehanna River. Source: NASA Earth Observatory.