There has been an upheaval change at the US EPA since President Obama appointed Lisa Jackson as the head of this agency of 18,000 federal employees. She seems to be reversing many of the policies of the former Bush administration that the EPA should go softer on businesses and industry. Ms. Jackson’s stance is just the opposite as the "P" in EPA (protection) seemed to be on the back burner.
Ms. Jackson it seems is a ball of energy and has set the tone of the agency to regulate pollutants as they relate to climate change, the nation’s rivers and streams and the air we breathe.
In addition, Ms. Jackson’s focus is on chemical safety especially as it relates to children and on the subject of environmental justice. More specifically, the poor and minorities are sometimes harmed more by lax enforcement of the law than affluent citizens which one could surmise that the poor and minorities are low on concerns of many politicians because of their lack of comparative wealth to the more well connected layers of society.
Ms. Jackson seems to be keeping an eye on state environmental regulatory agencies as well as she payed a surprise visit to the Texas EPA which she considered to lagging in the federal standards as they apply to the oil refining businesses.
It will be interesting to watch Ms. Jackson as she has only been on the job a year but one thing has changed: EPA has teeth again.
Tom
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