IN
CASE YOU MISSED IT…
Capito quoted in
POLITICO article about EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson
EPA IN THE CROSS HAIRS
POLITICO
By: Robin Bravender
October 19, 2010
Congressional Republicans planning an assault on the Obama administration’s
environmental record aim to turn Lisa Jackson into public enemy No. 1.
On the campaign trail, Republicans have adopted the Environmental Protection
Agency as a favorite symbol of the White House’s regulatory overreach. And
behind the scenes in Washington, GOP staffers and K Street lobbyists who say
they've been dissed by the EPA administrator are looking forward to getting
some revenge.
Like other senior administration officials, Jackson can expect to be chained to
a witness chair on Capitol Hill if Republicans win either chamber. There, they
hope to make her defend policies the GOP contends are unpopular and
anti-business.
“I think she’ll be very much in demand on the Hill, at times not of her
choosing,” said a former staffer on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“It will diminish her free time, shall we say.”
With Democrats holding the reins in Congress, and White House energy and
climate adviser Carol Browner taking many of the arrows from the GOP, Jackson
has had enough of a political buffer zone to issue some of the strictest
environmental rules in history. Republicans have decried the EPA at each step
along the way but have been unable to do much about it.
Some of the animosity is personal: Republicans in both chambers and K Street
attorneys say Jackson and her staff are too dismissive of opposing views and
other stakeholders.
“When we write a letter to them, we’ll get a form letter back,” said a
Republican aide. “We have seen no real indication that they hear or understand
our concerns. She’s loyal to the White House, and beyond that, they’re just
totally in sync with the view that we need a lot more regulations.”
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), ranking member of the energy committee, said Jackson
isn’t “rude or uncivil” but appears to be “on some sort of a mission, come heck
or high water."
“Mrs. Jackson does not appear to be overly concerned about a cooperative
relationship with the Congress or, at least, with the minority members of the
Energy and Commerce Committee,” Barton told POLITICO.
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito
(R-W.Va.) complained earlier this year after a contentious meeting with Jackson
over coal mining. Jackson told her that “the EPA is not required, and they do
not consider, jobs or economic impact when evaluating permits," Capito
told the Charleston Daily Mail.
"We had a good give and take. It wasn't adversarial,” Capito said. “But
there was no door opening where she said she might consider something. There
was no door opening for me to say, 'Are you open to some change? Maybe you
could come down to the coal fields.' I kept trying to, but there wasn't that
possibility."
The showdown on Capitol Hill could be reminiscent of 1995, when Republicans
reclaimed both chambers of Congress in the middle of President Bill Clinton’s first
term.
“The impact on EPA was significant,” said a former agency official who worked
under then-Administrator Browner. “There was more oversight, and it was more
intense.”
Republicans will try to use hearings to discredit the administration and the
EPA, that person said. “It can have its nastier side.”
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the favorite to chair the Energy and Commerce
Committee if Democrats lose the House, hopes to investigate the Obama
administration’s “poisonous regulations” and the role of policy “czars” in the
White House, including energy adviser Browner.
“If we have the gavel, I can assure you that the oversight subcommittee will be
very busy,” Upton told POLITICO, adding that Browner can also expect frequent
invitations to testify. “We’ll have a seat reserved for her,” he said.
Energy and Commerce won’t be the only panel on Jackson’s dance card: Rep.
Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said he wants to use the Oversight and Government
Reform Committee to lead a probe into the science underpinning the EPA’s
climate regulations. And Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) hopes to keep the
Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming alive so he can
examine the administration’s climate and energy policies.
Jackson, 48, is no shrinking violet. New Orleans raised, she earned her chops
as an enforcer at both the EPA and New Jersey’s Department of Environmental
Protection before becoming the state’s top environmental official. She has
declared she has no plans to leave her post anytime soon.
Under her watch, the EPA has pushed through the nation’s first-ever climate
rules aimed at curbing emissions from large industries and automobiles. The
agency has also come under fire for its efforts to limit toxic coal ash, ozone
and soot and smog emissions from power plants.
One industry attorney complained that Jackson sees everything as a “mythic
struggle between right and wrong,” rather than looking to compromise.
“It’s definitely anti-lobbyist rhetoric,” Jackson told POLITICO earlier this
month. “It’s definitely meant to reflect the fact that when I go around the
country, people want clean air. They are as passionate about clean air and
clean water as [about] any of a number of issues; they want protection for
their families and their children.
"I do very much believe that it’s time for us to get past this tired
dance, where folks inside this Beltway get paid a lot of money to say things
that aren’t true about public health initiatives that this agency is charged by
law with undertaking," she added.
Democratic staffers, meanwhile, are quick to praise the agency. Eben
Burnham-Snyder, a spokesman for House energy bill author Rep. Ed Markey
(D-Mass.), said the EPA “has been very helpful, especially during the process
of passing the energy bill through the committee,” in providing reports and
analyses.
EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said Jackson's "commitment to openness
compares particularly well to the lack of transparency during the previous
administration.
“EPA is not always legally able to answer every question a member of Congress
might ask,” he added. “But we have responded – or are in the process of
responding – to every letter sent to us, regardless of the merits of the
arguments made in the letters themselves.”
And Jackson’s supporters say she won’t relent under pressure. “She’s up to
whatever comes,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign.
Becker warned that Republicans would pay a price for dragging officials to
hearings to score political points. “Merely subpoenaing people and hauling them
up to answer the same questions … will get them nowhere,” he said. “The
American people don’t want nothing to happen; they want the right things to
happen.”
But not every hearing will produce fireworks, suggested former Rep. Thomas
Bliley Jr. (R-Va.), who led the renamed House Commerce Committee from 1995 to
2001.
Bliley said the White House could find creative ways to avoid some GOP attacks.
When reluctant officials do appear, he said, “they come in and generally read a
long statement; announce in advance that they have another meeting they have to
attend, … and so they won’t be there very long.”