In their December 27 story about Lisa Jackson's resignation from atop her perch at the Environmental Protection Agency, Darren Samuelsohn and Erica Martinson at the Politico wanted readers to believe that occurred after "after four years of battling Republicans and industry while also giving the White House some heartburn along the way over her push for new clean air rules."
Please. It's not as if only Republicans oppose the EPA's energy-hostile agenda; last time I checked, most of West Virginia's national politicians, as well as many if not most of the state's coal miners who are losing their jobs as a result of out-of-control environmentalism, are Democrats. And I don't recall President Obama or the White House ever having any problems with what Jackson was saying or doing. The Politico pair also waited until the sixth paragraph of their report to mention Jackson's admitted use of an accountability-avoiding email account in the name of "Richard Windsor" to conduct official business. Excerpts from their report follow the jump:
... Jackson has won praise from greens for her tenure, but she also leaves with the Obama administration having yet to aggressively address climate change.
“I will leave the EPA confident the ship is sailing in the right direction, and ready in my own life for new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference,” Jackson said in a statement Thursday.
The agency said she plans to leave after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address early next year. If a nominee to replace her has not been confirmed by then, the White House plans to have Jackson's deputy, Robert Perciasepe, serve as the acting administrator.
Jackson faced tremendous opposition in her four years at the EPA, where she was a lightning rod for attacks from the right for environmental regulations considered tough on industry — particularly coal.
Many on the right dubbed her the administration’s general in the election year “war on coal,” and most recently she faced tough criticism for the revelation of a secondary EPA email account she used under the pseudonym “Richard Windsor.”
Under Jackson, EPA made the critical determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health and the environment, paving the way for first-ever rules to deal with global warming, and pushed through stringent new toxic air pollution standards for power plants.
But Jackson ran into opposition from the White House in her push to set new smog standards, nearly quitting over the decision to punt tougher limits until after the election.
Sorry, guys. Jackson's stance on the smog standards was part of a good-cop, bad-cap act to placate environmental zealots. Jackson was as on board with the idea of doing anything and everything necessary to get Obama reelected by feigning discomfort as Kathleen Sebeluis's HHS was in delaying cuts to Medicare Advantage until after the election, Tom Vilsack's USDA was in delaying reports showing sharp spikes infood stamp participation, and DOL head Hilda Solis was in strong-arming defense contractors into not sending out legally required 60-day layoff warning notices relating to impending cuts relating to sequestration and fiscal cliff negotiations.
Jackson joins former Clinton EPA head and Obama czar Carol Browner as leaving under a cloud of scandal. Browner literally destroyed evidence relating to her misdeeds. Will Jackson do the same with emails sent and received by "Richard Windsor"?
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
