Obama to Pick Corzine Aide as EPA Chief

Barack Obama’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency is a trained scientist praised as open-minded, though her history of accommodating business gives some environmentalists pause, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Lisa Jackson, who would be the first African American in the job, is currently chief of staff to New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, and spent 3 years heading the state’s own environment department.

New Jersey is home to some of the nation’s most polluted sites, and Jackson upset some by allowing private engineers to oversee cleanup. She also missed summer deadlines to detail the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions plan. But supporters credit Jackson with turning around an understaffed, fiscally neglected agency and successfully bringing the state’s businesses in line with her efforts. (More President Obama stories.)