WASHINGTON (AP) — EPA Administrator Lisa
Jackson, the Obama administration's chief environmental watchdog, is
stepping down
after a nearly four years marked by high-profile brawls over
global warming pollution, the Keystone XL oil pipeline, new controls
on coal-fired plants and several other hot-button issues that
affect the nation's economy and people's health.
Jackson constantly found herself caught
between administration pledges to solve thorny environmental problems
and steady resistance
from Republicans and industrial groups who complained that the
agency's rules destroyed jobs and made it harder for American
companies to compete internationally.
The GOP chairman of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee, Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, said last year that
Jackson would
need her own parking spot at the Capitol because he planned to
bring her in so frequently for questioning. Republican presidential
nominee Mitt Romney called for her firing, a stance that had
little downside during the GOP primary.
Jackson, 50, the agency's first black administrator and a chemical engineer, did not point to any particular reason for her
departure. Historically, Cabinet members looking to move on will leave at the beginning of a president's second term.
Despite the opposition, which former EPA chiefs have said is the worst they have seen against the agency, Jackson still managed
to take significant steps that will improve air quality and begin to curb global warming.
"I will leave the EPA confident the ship is
sailing in the right direction, and ready in my own life for new
challenges, time
with my family and new opportunities to make a difference," she
said in a statement. Jackson will leave sometime after President
Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address, typically in
late January.
In a separate statement, Obama said Jackson has been "an important part of my team." He thanked her for serving and praised
her "unwavering commitment" to the public's health.
"Under her leadership, the EPA has taken
sensible and important steps to protect the air we breathe and the water
we drink,
including implementing the first national standard for harmful
mercury pollution, taking important action to combat climate
change under the Clean Air Act and playing a key role in
establishing historic fuel economy standards that will save the average
American family thousands of dollars at the pump, while also
slashing carbon pollution," he said.
Environmental activist groups and other
supporters lauded Jackson for the changes she was able to make, but
industry representatives
said some may have come at an economic cost. Groups also noted
that she leaves a large, unfinished agenda.
"There has been no fiercer champion of our health and our environment than Lisa Jackson, and every American is better off
today than when she took office nearly four years ago," said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense
Council. But she noted that Jackson's successor will inherit an unfinished agenda, including the need to issue new health
protections against carbon pollution from existing power plants.
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on clean air, called Jackson's tenure a "breath of fresh air"
and credited her for setting historic fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, and for finalizing clean air standards.
But Scott Segal, director of the Electric
Reliability Coordinating Council, said Jackson presided over some of the
most expensive
environmental rules in EPA history.
"Agency rules have been used as blunt
attempts to marginalize coal and other solid fossil fuels and to make
motor fuels more
costly at the expense of industrial jobs, energy security, and
economic recovery," Segal said. "The record of the agency over
the same period in overestimating benefits to major rules has not
assisted the public in determining whether these rules have
been worth it."
Other environmental groups, however, praised Jackson's clean air efforts.
"Notwithstanding the difficult economic and political challenges EPA faced, her agency was directly responsible for saving
the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and improving the health of millions throughout the country," said S. William
Becker of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies. "She will be sorely missed."
Larry Schweiger, head of the National Wildlife Federation, cited her climate change work and efforts to reduce carbon pollution.
Environmental groups had high expectations for the Obama administration after eight years of President George W. Bush, a Texas
oilman who rebuffed agency scientists and refused act on climate change. Jackson came into office promising a more active
EPA.
But she soon learned that changes would not
occur as quickly as she had hoped. Jackson watched as a Democratic-led
effort
to reduce global warming emissions passed the House in 2009 but
was then abandoned by the Senate as economic concerns became
the priority. The concept behind the bill, referred to as
cap-and-trade, would have established a system where power companies
bought and sold pollution rights.
"That's a revolutionary message for our country," Jackson said at a Paris conference shortly after accepting the job.
Jackson experienced another big setback last
year when the administration scrubbed a clean-air regulation aimed at
reducing
health-threatening smog. Republican lawmakers had been hammering
the president over the proposed rule, accusing him of making
it harder for companies to create jobs.
She also vowed to better control toxic coal ash after a massive spill in Tennessee, but that regulation has yet to be finalized
more than four years after the spill.
Jackson had some victories, too. During her
tenure, the administration finalized a new rule doubling fuel efficiency
standards
for cars and light trucks. The requirements will be phased in over
13 years and eventually require all new vehicles to average
54.5 mpg, up from 28.6 mpg at the end of last year.
She shepherded another rule that forces
power plants to control mercury and other toxic pollutants for the first
time. Previously,
the nation's coal- and oil-fired power plants had been allowed to
run without addressing their full environmental and public
health costs.
Jackson also helped persuade the administration to table the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought
carbon-heavy tar sands oil from Canada to refineries in Texas.
House Republicans dedicated much of their
time this past election year trying to rein in the EPA. They passed a
bill seeking
to thwart regulation of the coal industry and quash the stricter
fuel efficiency standards. In the end, though, the bill made
no headway in the Senate. It served mostly as election-year fodder
that appeared to have little impact on the presidential
race.