Outgoing EPA chief convinced Obama serious on climate change

EPA Head Lisa JacksonFrom Reuters. Emphasis added:

Jackson plans to leave office on February 14. She cites among her achievements rules to limit carbon emissions from power plants for the first time, and having struck a deal to make U.S. cars more fuel efficient. Her signature achievement, she said, was the so-called endangerment finding that greenhouse gases pose a danger to human health, a formal declaration that paved the way for the agency to write the carbon-cutting rules.

"I always said we would make common sense steps forward," she said. "We wouldn't try to turn the world on its ear."

Jackson's tenure, though, was marked by repeated conflicts with some conservatives and Republicans who decried the new, more stringent, air and water regulations. The critics argued that these were not based on sound science, were onerous for business and detrimental to the economy.

With Congress polarized and otherwise focused on budgetary issues, lawmakers appear unlikely to consider comprehensive climate change legislation during Obama's second term.

For that reason, the next EPA administrator is likely to continue Jackson's approach, using the endangerment finding and other administrative avenues to further target greenhouse gas emissions, such as those from the country's coal-fired power plants.

Reuters reported on Friday that the White House is leaning toward Gina McCarthy, the current EPA assistant administrator for air and radiation, as Jackson's replacement.

Jackson declined to comment on possible successors, but said that whoever replaces her would at least enjoy a four-year head start on the Democratic regulatory agenda.

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