Lisa P. Jackson

EPA Administrator (since January 2009)

Why She Matters

Jackson hit the ground running at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Fresh from her role spearheading groundbreaking emissions regulation in New Jersey, Jackson began her tenure at EPA by declaring six gases thought to cause climate change to be threats to public health. She made that finding official at the start of the United Nations' Copenhagen conference in December 2009, opening the door for the EPA to regulate auto emissions and stationary sources, a major shift in the federal government's approach to climate change. Soon after, Jackson's EPA sought stricter standards for reducing smog throughout the country.

Jackson served as commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) from February 2006 until November 2008, when then-Gov. Jon Corzine (D) tapped her to be his next chief of staff. She was slated to assume the new role in December 2008, but was swept up into the Obama transition efforts shortly after the presidential election. She is the first African American to serve as head of the EPA.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (February 2006 to November 2008); Assistant Commissioner for Land Use Management (2005 to 2006); Assistant Commissioner of Compliance and Enforcement, NJDEP (2002 to 2005)
Birthday: Feb. 8, 1962
Hometown: New Orleans, La.
Alma Mater: Tulane University, B.S. (Chemical Engineering); Princeton University, M.S. (Chemical Engineering), 1986

Spouse: Kenny Jackson
Office: Environmental Protection AgencyAriel Rios Building1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.Washington, DC 20460(202) 272-0167
Web site

Path to Power

Jackson was born in Philadelphia, Pa., but moved to New Orleans after being adopted.

She grew up in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the poor, largely black neighborhood hit hardest by 2005's Hurricane Katrina. In her speech when she was sworn-in as NJDEP commissioner, Jackson talked about her family's plight as they were forced to flee New Orleans, and the new perspective it gave her on environmental work.

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"The shameful failures of government that the world witnessed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have given me a special appreciation for the importance of public service," she said. "Those failures have galvanized my commitment to working tirelessly to protect the health and safety of the people of New Jersey and to enhancing our quality of life."

She attended undergraduate at Tulane University in New Orleans on a scholarship from Shell Oil Co. She earned a degree in chemical engineering, and says she anticipated a career in the petrochemical industry. But Jackson obtained a master's in chemical engineering from Princeton University in 1986, where she says her interest was invigorated in using her engineering skills to address and prevent pollution .

Jackson worked for the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 1987 until 2002 at both the national headquarters in Washington, D.C., and and its regional office in New York City. During the Clinton years, Jackson managed the Superfund program, which oversees the cleanup of hazardous waste at former industrial sites, for the EPA's regional office in New York. She ran the federal Superfund site remediation program, developing hazardous waste cleanup regulations and overseeing cleanup projects. She later served as deputy director and acting director of the region's enforcement division.

New Jersey Environmental Department Head

In March 2002, Jackson came to the NJDEP to serve as the assistant commissioner of compliance and enforcement. In 2005, she became the NJDEP's assistant commissioner for land-use management, supervising the state programs for land-use regulation, water supply, geological survey, water monitoring and standards, and watershed management. She moved up to the top NJDEP slot in February 2006 and served there until November 2008.

Jackson also was the vice president of the executive board of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the regional cap-and-trade program created by northeastern states to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Gov. Corzine said the plan was not perfect, but "off to a good start."

Obama EPA Head

When President Obama nominated Jackson as EPA head, Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, which lobbies on behalf of the energy sector, praised the selection. "She has experience with enforcement and rule-making matters," said Segal. "Moreover, as head of an agency in New Jersey, she has had real world experience dealing with areas of scenic beauty, large populations, and substantial industrial development. We hope that means she will bring a true sense of balance to a very complicated job."

But the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which advocates for state and federal environmental employees, was highly critical of Jackson, putting out a press release against her appointment. "While Ms. Jackson has a compelling biography, little of what occurred during her 31-month tenure commends her for promotion," wrote PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch.

The Issues

At the EPA, Jackson puts regulating dangerous emissions at the top of her priority list. In April 2009, she announced findings that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases were harmful and contributed to climate change. In December, 2009 as climate-change talks opened in Copenhagen, she made that finding official.

The action came almost two years after the U.S. Supreme Court determined the agency had jurisdiction over those gasses under the Clean Air Act in Massachusetts v. EPA (2007). The Bush EPA was accused of dragging its feet on enacting any meaningful regulation after the court's decision.

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Jackson's announcement opened the door for the EPA to regulate those gases, which come from cars, trucks and factories. It could presage a national cap-and-trade system for greenhouse-gas emissions, despite stalled congressional legislation in the 112th Congress.

Jackson also played a role in President Obama's May 2009 announcement of the first-ever national emissions limit for vehicles.

While she was in New Jersey, Jackson spearheaded a groundbreaking greenhouse-gas emissions plan, though state officials had already had a few hiccups in trying to enact it. The state only released a final plan after Jackson left for her Obama administration job in December 2008.

Renewable Energy Sources

Jackson was a crucial player as New Jersey attempted to become a national leader in renewable energy generation, part of a 15-year master plan advanced by Gov. Jon Corzine. The 2006 law set a goal of drawing 20 percent of the state's electricity from renewables by 2020, but Corzine wanted to aim for 30 percent. In October 2008, Corzine announced that he wanted to triple the amount of wind power the state planned to use by 2020 to 3,000 megawatts - about 13 percent of the state's total electricity - to help meet that goal.

Kiddie Kollege

Early in her tenure, Jackson faced criticism for her handling of cases of mercury poisoning at the Kiddie Kollege daycare center in Franklin Township, N.J. At least a third of the 60 children at the daycare were found to have abnormally high levels of mercury in their bodies. The fact that a day-care center was operating out of a building that had previously housed a thermometer manufacturer -- which caused it to have mercury vapor levels at least 27 times the regulatory limit -- apparently went unnoticed by NJDEP officials. Jackson was criticized for not shutting down the day care until three months after state officials discovered the problem.

But many have recognized that Jackson took over an agency that had for years been riddled by mismanagement, budget cuts and personnel shortages. While most states faced a budget crisis in 2008, New Jersey's is among the worst, and 2008 saw another round of deep cuts. Corzine praised Jackson for being "absolutely committed to the kind of clean-up that some her critics would say she should have done more of ... I think Lisa has done a remarkable job of trying to move the environmental agenda forward within a constrained world."

Chromium Clean Up

Jackson also caught flak for an alleged weak response to a multimillion dollar condominium development on top of land found to have high levels of the carcinogenic chromium in Hudson County, New Jersey. An NJDEP scientist, Zoe Kelman, quit over the chromium issue.

The Newark Star-Ledger documented in a 2004 piece (which does not mention Jackson) how Honeywell, Inc. and Maxus Energy Corporation worked with a scientist and industry lobbyists to raise the chromium standards from 10 parts per million to 6,100 parts per million, saving the companies $1 billion in cleanup costs.

After Jackson took the NJDEP helm in February 2006, she lifted the moratorium on development of sites based on land contaminated by chromium, and tightened the standards to 20 parts per million.

The Network

Jackson was appointed as one of three members of Obama's EPA transition team early after the 2008 elections.

During the Clinton years, she also worked under then-EPA head Carol M. Browner, who headed the Environment Policy Working Group for the transition, so the two have worked together in the past. Browner has also been appointed to a new post as climate and energy adviser to the President Obama.

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Additional Resources