接受歐巴馬提名為新任環保署長的前紐澤西州環保部長潔克森（Lisa Jackson），14日在參議院批准聽證會上宣誓，公正的科學與法律，將會是環保署的核心價值，也就是說，「科學」是環保署政策的骨架。這項承諾受到民主黨參議員高度讚賞──他們認為布希政府忽視環保署科學家們的建言，並低估他們維護公共衛生與環境的使命。
潔克森同時也將是美國環保署第一位非裔署長，他將領導17,000名員工、主導7千多萬美元的預算。他現職為紐澤西州州長的幕僚長，曾在環保署工作近15年，與超級基金（superfund）業務密切相關。 她提出五個目標：減少溫室氣體排放量、控管空氣污染物、明列有毒化學物質、清理有害廢棄物場址、水質保護。她認為，「這五項問題十分難纏，而我們的解決方式也同樣不容易」。
擔任也該聴證會主席的加州民主黨參議員鮑克瑟（Barbara Boxer），建議所有參議員直接同意潔克森就任，只有部份共和黨議員出現反對聲音。
鮑克瑟也同樣讚揚歐巴馬任命領導白宮環境品質委員會（ Council on Environmental Quality，CEQ）主席蘇特麗（Nancy Sutley）。蘇特麗現為洛杉磯主則能源與環境事物的副市長，她認為未來在CEQ的目標會是，確保國家的環境政策是建立在堅實的科學與政策上。
民主黨參議員在本次聽證會當中指責現任環保署長強森決策緩慢，面對環境變遷的反應不力，並屢次忽略科學家建言。環保署在布希主政之下，「已經聲名狼藉，現在最重要的是恢復它的完整，」羅德島民主黨參議員懷特皓思（Sheldon Whitehouse）說道。
潔克森同意剛開始的工作將是處理飽受爭議的布希政策，以及那些令環保署修改規範的政策規則。在這些議題上，她承諾要修正強森備受質疑的加州溫室氣體排放新規定否決案，19個州政府都表示欲跟隨加州法案，只要環保署同意放棄較為鬆散的聯邦法案。同時，她也同意針對類似田那西與阿拉巴馬事件的煤灰廢棄物場址之風險評估。
在場的共和黨員對環保署提名人的激進作風提出警告，認為她的工作不會太輕鬆，因為環保政策與法規本質上就具有爭議性。俄亥厄州共和黨參議員福銘契（George Voinovich）要求潔克森以國家經濟現狀為鑒，考量聯邦環境法規對經濟的衝擊。懷厄明州參議員巴瑞瑟（John Barrasso）針對全球暖化議題提出直接目標，重申很多共和黨立法委員長期關注因減少二氧化碳及溫室氣體排放量的限制而造成的成本支出。「以清淨空氣法案來強調氣候變遷是個可預期的災難。」巴瑞瑟說，暗指2007年高等法院因判斷環保署有管控溫室氣體的權力所帶來的爭議。
潔克森則駁斥這項疑慮，並重申如果國會無法通過氣候立案，歐巴馬政府會採取所有可運用的工具來抵抗全球暖化。
Scientific integrity and the rule of law will be the "two core values" guiding decisions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the incoming Obama administration, the president elect's nominee to head the agency vowed today at her confirmation hearing .
The promises of nominee Lisa Jackson were met with high praise from Democratic senators, who contend the Bush administration has ignored recommendations of the agency's scientists and undermined its mission to protect public health and the environment.
"Science must be the backbone of what EPA does," said Jackson, who appeared before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
The former head of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection told the committee she would administer EPA with "science as my guide."
Political appointees "will not compromise the integrity" of agency experts and scientists to advance particular regulatory outcomes, Jackson said, adding that the agency will "operate with unparalleled transparency and openness."
Jackson would be the first African-American to lead EPA, an agency with some 17,000 employees and a budget of more than $7 billion.
Currently chief of staff to New Jersey Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, Jackson also worked at EPA for 15 years in several jobs related to the Superfund program.
Jackson did not lay out specific priorities during the hearing, but instead outlined five broad objectives - reducing greenhouse gas emissions, curbing other air pollutants, addressing toxic chemicals, cleaning up hazardous waste sites and water protection.
"These five problems are tough, but so is our resolve to conquer them," Jackson said.
Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and chair of the committee, hailed Jackson as a "breath of fresh air" and welcomed her comments as "music to my ears."
With little Republican opposition to the nominee, Boxer suggested the full Senate could easily confirm Jackson as EPA chief early next week.
Boxer alluded to a similar easy path for Nancy Sutley, Obama's pick to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality, CEQ.
Sutley, currently deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles, said her focus as CEQ chief would be "to ensure that there is a strong science and policy basis for our environmental policy."
The bulk of the nearly four-hour hearing was focused on Jackson. Democratic senators littered the proceedings with criticism of the Bush administration's environmental record and of current EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.
Johnson has drawn the ire of Democrats and environmentalists for a slew of decisions, including his failure to act on climate change and for repeatedly ignoring the recommendations of agency scientists.
"The fact is, I believe the EPA has hurt the American people, made them less safe, over the last eight years," Boxer said, who called the agency "a shadow" of its former self.
"I am looking for a renewed commitment to EPA's mission - nothing more, nothing less," Boxer told Jackson.
EPA under the Bush administration has "fallen into significant disrepute," said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat. "More than anything else it needs its integrity restored."
On some key issues - particularly climate change - the Bush administration has refused to act, Democrats noted.
On others, such as reducing harmful emissions from power plants, the Bush EPA finalized controversial rules only to see them rejected by federal courts, added Senator Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat.
"We start this 111th Congress pretty much where we were eight years ago," Carper said.
Jackson acknowledged that much of her early work would be dealing with controversial Bush rules and some of the court rulings that have ordered EPA to rewrite regulations.
Among these issues, she promised to revisit Johnson's controversial decision to deny California's waiver request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. Nineteen other states have said they will follow the California policy as soon as the EPA grants the waiver of weaker federal rules.
In response to questioning, Jackson also pledged to assess risks from coal ash disposal sites similar to two that have recently spilled in Tennessee and Alabama.
"EPA, first and foremost, needs to discuss the state of what's out there and where might be a horrible accident waiting to happen," Jackson said.
Republicans on the panel cautioned the EPA nominee against moving too aggressively on climate change and warned that her job will not be easy given the contentious nature of environmental policy and regulation.
"I think it is the most difficult job that one can have in the federal government," said Senator George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican.
Voinovich urged Jackson to consider the economic impacts of federal environmental rules on states and local communities, particularly in light of the nation's economic woes.
"You have to consider the impacts these things are going to have on the people," Voinovich said.
Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, took direct aim at the issue of global warming, reiterating longstanding concerns by many Republican lawmakers about the costs of limiting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
"Addressing climate change through the Clean Air Act is a disaster waiting to happen," Barrasso said, alluding to the controversy over the 2007 Supreme Court decision that found EPA had the authority under the statute to regulate greenhouse gases.
Barrasso said he was worried that "federal laws on the books are being used in ways they were never intended to be used."
Jackson rejected that concern and reiterated that the Obama administration will tackle global warming with the tools available if Congress fails to pass climate legislation.
She told Barrasso, "The beauty of many environmental laws is that they were meant to address not just the issues of the day but the issues of tomorrow."
