President Obama’s nomination of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP) Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson to lead the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was a proud moment for New Jersey. The U.S. Senate’s swift and overwhelming confirmation of Ms. Jackson as EPA Administrator is good news for the nation and the responsible and science-based environmental stewardship it needs.
The new leadership team at EPA must work with the White House and Congress on charting national climate change policy, integrating complementary energy policies, and addressing air quality and other pressing environmental issues.
One immediate task is to reinstate the more stringent power plant emissions standards that were set aside by a federal court in July.
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The proposed regulation, called the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), would cover power plants in the eastern half of the U.S., bring Midwest plants closer to standards already in place in the Northeast and, most important, deliver significant reductions in ground level ozone, particulates, and mercury. The delay in achieving these emissions reductions has real and tangible implications for air quality and public health in New Jersey and other Northeast states “downwind” of Midwest power plants. We’ll all breathe easier when EPA and Congress resolve the court’s concerns.
EPA also is awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court decision on provisions of the Clean Water Act that will provide direction for how the agency regulates cooling water intake structures at existing power plants and other industrial installations. The Court’s decision and subsequent EPA rulemaking could have significant impact on the costs of operating affected facilities. New Jersey, in fact, has developed one of the nation’s most comprehensive and environmentally protective programs over the more 20 years it has worked with EPA on administering these regulations.
And on the over-arching issue of climate change, EPA must join the President, other federal agencies, and Congress in the “all hands on deck” effort to design and implement a coherent national climate policy that aligns and integrates federal, regional, and state programs, reflects the best science, and begins the transition to a low-carbon energy economy. This requires a national cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases that reduces emissions at a level necessary to protect the planet, provides resources to invest in new technologies, and protects vulnerable citizens from bearing a disproportionate share of the costs associated with these goals.
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