Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, Defends Obama And Environmental Regulations (VIDEO)

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is frustrated with how the environment is becoming an issue "that is more and more partisan."

Speaking with energyNOW!'s Thalia Assuras, Jackson explained that with both a history of environmental non-partisanship and polls showing that Americans support environmental regulations, she hopes the country can embrace clean air and water in a way that spurs the economy and job growth.

She also discussed recent Republican attacks on EPA regulations, a trend she has dubbed "too dirty to fail." She said "no credible economist" believes the current financial crisis or "anything we're seeing right now" is the result of environmental regulations.

Jackson argued that criticisms of environmental regulations that aren't fact-based constitute an "attack on our fundamental environmental laws." She also took issue with individuals who are reticent to promote "cleaner forms of [energy] production and ... pollution control technologies."

When asked about Obama's decision to delay implementing stricter ozone pollution standards, she said she respects the president's decision and emphasized that there are other pressing issues to address.

Although Jackson doesn't cite any specific examples, attacks on environmental regulations continue. Earlier this month, Representative Duncan Hunter, a Republican from suburban San Diego, told a small-business seminar that environmental regulations are so strict that "people were fined, hundreds of companies -- $5,000 a day for spilled milk." Yet the congressman's own Washington office, the EPA and even a dairy lobby spokeswoman have said there is no evidence of anyone ever being fined for spilled milk.

Last month, Jackson appeared on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," saying "There is no choice between a clean environment and a healthy economy."

Jackson's comments come from an interview conducted by the television show energyNOW!, offered exclusively to The Huffington Post.

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Comments

[yinyang101]

02:11 PM on 12/04/2011

Well environmental issues are one of the biggest problems we are facing right now. Aside from oil and other world issues.

[farmilyman]

05:09 AM on 11/23/2011

No need to be frustrated. She should know that dirty energy owns the GOP.......that's why the environment has become partisan.

[GeeziePeezie]

02:20 PM on 11/22/2011

Dismantling the agency that protects our environment in order to allow corporations to pollute at their will would be very ill-advised, to say the least. Our environment is under constant assault from toxic chemicals and emissions that threaten not only the air we breathe and the water we drink, but the diverse populations of wildlife, right down to the very bees that pollinate the plants that produce our food.

DONT LET THE IDEOLOGY OF A FEW MEMBERS OF CONGRESS DESTROY THE QUALITY OF OUR LIVES

[disgusted w parochialism]

05:02 PM on 11/23/2011

Your comment seems quite partisan to me. And as long as you make it so, you will fuel the war between big business and those who wish to have a healthy planet.

[Trepasky]

10:16 AM on 11/22/2011

If you are in favor of clean air and water, then you might want the EPA to regulate those things. Otherwise you might be an industry that is more concerned about profit.

If you want a place that is safe and nurturing for your children and their children, you might want to regulate the 'for profit' businesses that are not the parents or grandparents of children.

'For profit' will never have children who need to breathe nor drink water.

[Daniel Hicks]

10:08 AM on 11/22/2011

Doesn't the EPA realize a scorched earth is good for business?

[khanremmy]

12:13 AM on 11/22/2011

Why is there an EPA. They have done nothing to slow down global warming. 2010 was a record for carbon emissions

[trumphent]

05:37 AM on 11/22/2011

I remember reading about a river in Ohio that used to catch fire. The Cuyahoga is worth reading about if you didn't live before the EPA was written into existence by president Richard Nixon. That's how bad it was. A republican president had to step in and protect the environment.

[Sumocat]

09:42 AM on 11/22/2011

And today, thanks to fracking, people can enjoy the benefits of burning water from their kitchen tap. It's a shame people need to be of a particular political bent nowadays to acknowledge that water catching fire is an environmental problem.

[FullFrontal]

11:03 AM on 11/22/2011

they have done nothing because republicans have been blocking their efforts

[khanremmy]

09:09 PM on 11/22/2011

Republicans started the EPA genius. But democrates have gotten their corrupted fingers into it and now it is just another bloated ineffective government program.

[bilaton]

09:30 PM on 11/21/2011

Only since it has become a tool for the liberal leftist ideology. In other words, from the beginning.

[trumphent]

05:41 AM on 11/22/2011

Only from its beginnings was the EPA created by a crooked republican president, Richard M. Nixon.

[farmilyman]

05:11 AM on 11/23/2011

Nixon was forced to create it because so many people were protesting for a clean environment.

[Linus521]

09:18 PM on 11/21/2011

I would think, the environment or rather, the ecology of the Earth would be everyone's concern. The more the individual is learned in the science of ecology, the more concerned he is. The problem, most Americans are clueless as to how the Earth functions and cycles to create and sustain all life.

Top scientists maintain, man is suicidal when he kills ecosystems and biological diversity; however, ask any American where the car dealership is, he knows, but few can even define ecosystem or biological diversity, and fewer even know of the one percent of listed and known ecosystem services.

If every American had a kindergarten education in the science, everyone would be an environmentalist because, ecosystems and biological diversity are all the reasons the Earth creates and sustains all life, the very breath of a life.

[wateryskipper]

07:45 PM on 11/21/2011

The Oil corporations are not going to stand for this.

[hardycross]

06:49 PM on 11/21/2011

When EPA decided to control climate they dug their own grave. Typical bureaucratic overreaching. Tough luck.

[robert9671]

11:21 PM on 11/22/2011

Did you hear that one on Fox?

[hardycross]

08:47 AM on 11/23/2011

Sorry for not getting back quickly, I have been busy reading the Climategate 2.0 emails. They show the back room of the guys that Lisa Jackson relied upon when she decided to control the climate.

[farmilyman]

05:14 AM on 11/23/2011

Overreach is a new word the GOP is using for everything because they want no regulation.