Faulted By Environmentalists, EPA Nominee Has Fans In US Senate

[Robbien]

Source: CNN Money

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- President-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is poised to easily overcome questions about her record when she appears on Wednesday at a hearing on her selection to lead the agency.

New Jersey environmentalists are divided over Lisa Jackson, a chemical engineer and former EPA employee who went on to lead the state's Department of Environmental Protection. New Jersey has more long-festering hazardous-waste sites than any other state. To some people, Jackson failed to rise to that challenge, by delaying and through steps that favored companies.

But in the U.S. Senate, the little-known EPA nominee is garnering bipartisan support. Democrats say that she will surely be an improvement on the Bush administration's top environmental regulator, Stephen Johnson. Republicans praise her personal qualities.

"She's accessible and reasonable," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., a climate- change skeptic who is the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, before which she will testify. "I plan to support her."

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200...

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Inhofe, the guy who leads the GOP charge against the environment, loves the new EPA pick.

That says a lot.