Obama nominates Jackson GS '86 to head EPA

Lisa Jackson GS ’86 will serve as the first African-American administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), President-elect Barack Obama announced at a press conference in Chicago late Monday afternoon. Jackson will become the third Princetonian to hold the position.

“Lisa 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,” Obama said of Jackson, who earned a master’s in chemical engineering from the University.

In brief remarks during the event, Jackson thanked Obama for the nomination and said there was “simply no higher calling for me than to lead this vital agency at this vital time.”

“Now more than ever, our country is in need of leadership on a host of urgent environmental challenges that face our communities, our cities, our farms, and our rivers, streams, lakes and oceans,” she said. “At the top of our list is the threat of climate change, which requires us to transform how we produce and use energy throughout the economy.”

Jackson also highlighted other items on her agenda, including air pollution, toxic chemicals and children’s health issues, as well as development and waste site cleanup issues.

“If confirmed, I pledge to lead the agency in support of your vision and in cooperation with the immensely talented team you have formed here to answer our country’s call and to protect our country’s environment,” she said.

Jackson, who co-chairs Obama’s transition team on energy and natural resources, spent 16 years working for the EPA in Washington, D.C. and New York before returning to the Garden State in 2002 to work for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

In 2006 Gov. Jon Corzine (D) appointed her commissioner of the department, a position she held until Dec. 1, when Corzine named her his chief of staff. She became the first American-American to serve as the New Jersey governor’s chief of staff.

“Lisa has spent a lifetime in public service at the local, state and federal level,” Obama said. “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.”

As the head of environmental policy in New Jersey, she oversaw the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, the Global Warming Response Act and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, among other programs.

Former New Jersey governor Christie Whitman, who served as EPA administrator from 2001 to 2003 before resigning over disagreements with President Bush, told MSNBC earlier this month that Jackson "brings credibility from the environmental community to the agency."

Not all, however, are pleased with Jackson’s selection.

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“Under her watch, New Jersey’s environment only got dirtier, incredible as that may seem," Jeff Ruch, the executive director for Public Employees for Public Responsibility, said in a statement. "Lisa Jackson is cut out of the same professional cloth as the current administrator, Stephen Johnson — a pliant technocrat who will follow orders. If past is prologue, one cannot reasonably expect meaningful change if she is appointed to lead EPA.”

But Jackson enjoys strong support from Corzine, as well as from Jeff Tittel, who heads the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, and Dena Mottola, who serves as executive director of Environment New Jersey.

A native of Philadelphia, Jackson was adopted a few weeks after her birth and raised in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. An avid cook, she received her undergraduate degree from Tulane University.

Two other alumni have led the agency, charged with regulating chemicals and protecting human health by safeguarding the natural environment. William Ruckelshaus ’55 served the agency's inaugural leader from its creation by Richard Nixon in 1970 to 1973 and again from 1983-85 under the Reagan administration. Russell Train ’41 led the agency from 1973 to 1977 during the administrations of Nixon and Gerald Ford.

Obama also used the press conference to announce that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu will serve as secretary of energy and former EPA administrator Carol Browner will hold the newly created position of “climate czar.”