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Obama to Pick Corzine Aide as EPA Chief

Many tout Jackson's record; others say pick too industry-friendly

By Ambreen Ali, Newser User

Posted Dec 11, 2008 12:00 PM CST

(Newser) – 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.

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Lisa Jackson, here in a 2006 file photo, would be the first African American to head the EPA; she's currently New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's chief of staff and headed the state's environment efforts. (AP Photo)

President-elect Barack Obama talks to the press in this file photo. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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If you can handle environmental problems in New Jersey, since they've got more than any other place, you can do it anywhere. - Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club

Lisa Jackson is probably a nice, personable person who does not have a skeleton in her closet. But the record that she compiled when she headed the agency was a horrendous record. - Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

It's been an abysmal track record and it's something that scares me and scares many activists in New Jersey - Robert Spiegel, executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association in central New Jersey

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Obama to Pick Corzine Aide as EPA Chief