Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today applauded the Senate’s confirmation of Lisa Jackson as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):
“For the past eight years, EPA Administrator Johnson repeatedly made decisions that put President Bush’s political allies and their anti-environment agenda before the health and welfare of our people and our planet.
“Administrator Johnson set inadequate standards to protect against pollution from ozone, lead, and soot; he blocked efforts by Rhode Island and other states to enact strict limits on global warming pollution from automobiles; he failed to take action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as required by the Supreme Court; he allowed scientific advisory panels to be infiltrated by representatives of the industries they were charged with regulating; he created an environment in which a majority of EPA scientists surveyed said they had experienced political interference in their work; and I believe he lied to Congress.
“Politics should never trump science when our environment and our public health are at stake. As EPA’s new Administrator, Lisa Jackson has pledged to put science and the law back in their rightful places at EPA. I look forward to working with her to restore honor and dignity to the EPA and implement a new agenda that values science and safety over ideology.”
Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, was a vocal critic of Bush Administration environmental policies. Last July, he joined EPW Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer and other committee members to call for the resignation of former EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson following allegations of political interference at EPA.
The Senate also agreed yesterday by unanimous consent to confirm Nancy Sutley as Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality.
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