Just days away from President-elect Barack Obama’s official inauguration, Lisa Jackson, who heads up the incoming President’s Environmental Protection Agency, is taking a look at California’s pollution standards.
Ms Jackson said she is committed to reviewing the state’s request to set its own pollution standard for vehicle tailpipe emissions. The rules set in California regarding emissions are much more aggressive than those established at federal levels.
The California waiver had been left to languish by current EPA administrator Stephen Johnson prompting California and 16 other states to sue the Federal Government. Among the states that sued the Federal Government, was Jackson’s own state of New Jersey.
Speaking earlier this week, Ms Jackson pledged to lead the agency by the virtues of science and law rather than allowing political agendas to determine the course of environmental policy making. She said that there will be no compromise prompted by political appointees to the EPA’s technical experts, a clear reference to the EPA’s reported disregard for advice from scientific experts on decisions including carbon emissions and global warming.
Jackson notably branded the Bush administration’s EPA as the “emissions permissions agency” and is seen as an experienced regulator.
