Lisa Jackson Resigns as EPA Administrator

As comes as no surprise to anyone, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has announced that she will resign her post. While not giving an exact date, it is widely expected to be shortly after President Obama is sworn in for his second term and as late as his State of the Union address. Jackson did not indicate any particular position she had lined up but likely there are several options both in Washington DC and in her home state of New Jersey.

A successor has not yet been named, though current deputy administrator Robert Perciasepe will serve as acting administrator until a new administrator is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Perciasepe has been with the EPA off-and-on for about 20 years in various capacities. After leaving EPA in 2003 to serve as COO for the National Audubon Society, he returned at the request of Obama and Jackson in 2009.

Jackson's announcement is the most recent in the fire-sale of Cabinet-level resignations that often follows the reelection of a President. Other Cabinet officials who have announced they are leaving, or have at least unofficially signaled they would soon leave, include Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Geithner, and others. Senator John Kerry has already been nominated by President Obama to be head of the State Department. Kerry has indicated, as has Obama, that climate change will be a relevant issue to be pursued in Obama's second term. This may impact the choice of a replacement for Jackson. While attempts to pass climate change legislation early in Obama's first term, including a bill co-authored by Kerry, as well as regulatory action by EPA, were met by Republican obstruction, look for the new EPA Administrator to have significant influence on this topic.

EPA Names Lek Kadeli Acting Head of Office of Research and Development (ORD)

In an internal memo, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that Lek Kadeli will take over as Acting Assistant Administrator of EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD).  Kadeli replaces Paul Anastas, who tendered his resignation last month to return to Yale.  Kadeli had been principal deputy assistant administrator for management at ORD and has held several other senior executive positions within EPA and ORD since he came to the Agency in 1990.

Jackson also announced that Ramona Trovato would serve as Kadeli's prinicipal deputy.  There had been speculation that Trovato might get the acting AA position. Trovato also has a long history at EPA "as a scientist in a regional lab" and as "a leader on important science and policy issues ranging from radioactive waste management to children's health to groundwater protection."

In her message Jackson noted that:

I am confident that both Lek and Ramona will contribute significantly to the EPA’s commitment to setting the standard for environmental science at home and around the world. Indeed, as I have made clear since day one, science will remain at the forefront of all of the EPA’s efforts as we continue to work toward a cleaner, healthier environment for every American.

EPA Makes Public Hundreds of Formerly Confidential Chemicals Studies

On November 28, 2011 the USEPA released an updating showing "EPA's progress reviewing case files submitted to the Agency under TSCA with chemical identities claimed as Confidential Business Information (CBI)."  They provided a series of charts "intended to help those tracking EPA's progress in reviewing CBI and declassifying it, where appropriate."  The move is "part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s commitment to enhance the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s chemicals management program and increase transparency."

According to EPA, "Releasing the data will expand the public’s access to critical health and safety information on chemicals that are manufactured and processed in the U.S."

In a statement by outgoing Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Steve Owens noted that “EPA is increasing the availability of critical health and safety studies on chemicals that children and families are exposed to every day. We are making important progress in making this information public and giving the American public easy access to it...“over the next year, we expect to review several thousand additional studies on industrial chemicals and make many of these more accessible to the public.”

Highlights from the latest release:

• Since the beginning of EPA's efforts to increase transparency two years ago, a total of 577 chemicals have been declassified, resulting in a shift from the CBI portion of the TSCA Inventory to the public portion.
  
• CBI claims for chemical identity are being reviewed, and challenged where appropriate, in 100 percent of incoming TSCA filings that may contain health and safety studies.
  
• As of October 2011, EPA exceeded its FY 2011 goal, set forth in the FY 2011-2015 EPA Strategic Plan, to review, and challenge where appropriate, more than 1,125 existing TSCA cases with CBI claims for chemical identity, potentially containing health and safety studies.

EPA noted that:

 

Consistent with the guidance, the agency will request that the submitter voluntarily relinquish the CBI claims and make the newly available studies available to the public. EPA also challenged the chemical industry to make available information that was previously classified as CBI. To date, more than 35 companies have agreed to review previously submitted filings containing health and safety studies and determine if any CBI claims may no longer be necessary. 

Finally, EPA notes that "the newly available information can be found under a new “declassified tab” using the Chemical Data Access Tool, launched in December 2010 to assist the public in retrieving chemical health and safety information submitted to EPA under TSCA."

More information can be found on EPA's web site.
 

EPA Announces New Acting Director of Chemicals Office

 Jim Jones, a long-time EPA official, has been tapped by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to replace outgoing Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) head Steve Owens.  Owens is leaving his position to return to his home in Arizona where his family had remained during his time in Washington.

Jim Jones' appointment is as an "Acting" Assistant Administrator for OCSPP, and will remain in that position while President Obama determines who he will nominate to run the office permanently.  The permanent nominee would have to receive Senate confirmation and, given that Republicans in the Senate are already blocking even a vote on the President's nominee to head the Office of Water (i.e., Ken Kopocis), there is quite a bit of uncertainty as to when a nominee for permanent AA will be announced.  With Congressional Republicans voting repeatedly to inhibit EPA's authority and the major cuts in EPA budget expected due to the failure of the Congressional Super Committee to agree on spending reductions, Jim Jones could be Acting AA for a long time.

Jones has been with EPA for roughly 20 years and has served in many capacities, the most recent being as head of the Office of Air.  No word yet on who will be tapped to replace Jones in the air office while he is Acting AA at OCSPP.

Steve Owens, Head of EPA's Toxic Chemical Program, To Resign

The head of EPA's Office that handles toxic chemicals is resigning.  Steve Owens announced his resignation to staff yesterday and will leave as of November 30, 2011.  According to his email, Owens has "made the difficult decision to leave EPA" mainly to rejoin his family in Arizona, where they remained during his entire two plus years working in Washington DC at EPA headquarters.  Owens had previously been the head of Arizona's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

In his departure announcement, Owens thanked EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson for "her wonderful friendship and the remarkable vision and leadership she provides" to the Agency.  Similarly, in a statement from Jackson, the EPA Administrator thanked Owens for his contributions.  She noted that "his leadership has been vital to our efforts to assure chemical safety for our citizens and revamp our nation's outdated toxic substances standards."

Those standards remain in limbo at this point as the much anticipated TSCA reform legislation - an effort to modernize the 35-year old toxic chemicals law - has stalled in Congress.  Given the current actions of House Republicans to defund EPA and limit the Agency's authority even under the current TSCA law, plus the stalemate caused by the still year-away elections that could give control of the Senate to Republicans, it seems highly unlikely that any reform of TSCA is going to occur for many years.  While he doesn't mention it in his email, perhaps that is one of the reasons Owens has decided to relocate back to Arizona.

No information on possible replacements for Owens has been forthcoming, and any potential nominee would have to be confirmed by Congress, a prospect that is likely to be politically charged given the current climate.

EPA Administrator Jackson Makes Trip to Africa (Kenya and Ethiopia)

The following is the text of an EPA press release dated February 18, 2011.

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On Friday, February 18, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson will travel to Kenya and Ethiopia to engage in bilateral and multilateral meetings aimed at building relationships with key African counterparts and other environmental leaders. The trip will include attending the 26th United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Governing Council Meeting and Ministerial Environment Forum, where Jackson and other U.S. representatives will outline the global scope of shared environmental, health and economic challenges and opportunities.
  
Jackson’s meetings in Kenya and Ethiopia will highlight important issues in children’s environmental health, good environmental governance and emerging green technology and innovations.
  
Jackson’s stops in Ethiopia and Kenya will include meetings and events focused on electronic waste, enforcement and compliance, indoor air quality, and clean fuels. While in Kenya, she will be hosted by U.S. Ambassador Michael E. Ranneberger and will lead the U.S. delegation to the UNEP meetings, where the group will continue the precedent set by the U.S. during UNEP’s 2009 meeting by actively engaging international partners in bringing awareness to shared environmental, health and economic challenges. In 2009, the U.S. signaled its commitment to take on a leadership role in working with 140 other countries on a binding international agreement on mercury. At the UNEP meeting, Jackson and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner will sign the first ever Memorandum of Understanding between the two organizations, furthering the U.S. commitment to more effective collaboration to promote global environmental sustainability. She also will join with the director general of the country’s National Environmental Management Authority to speak on environmental initiatives and will participate in a roundtable with the East Africa Enforcement Network.
 
In Ethiopia, Jackson will be hosted by U.S. Ambassador Donald Booth and will meet with U.S. Ambassador to the African Union Michael Battle. She will represent U.S. interests in bilateral meetings with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and leaders from Ethiopia’s Environmental Protection Agency. Jackson will also speak with students from Addis Ababa University about opportunities for women to take leadership roles in addressing environmental issues facing Ethiopia. In addition, she will receive a site-briefing and tour an e-waste de-manufacturing facility to highlight improved e-waste management and affirm EPA’s commitment to supporting innovation in the management of electronic waste.
 
These meetings will focus on EPA’s recently launched international priorities and aims to strengthen U.S. relationships with environmental counterparts in the Kenya, Ethiopia and other African nations.

More information on EPA’s international priorities and efforts:
http://www.epa.gov/international/

Lisa Jackson Marks the 40-Year Anniversary of EPA

Forty years ago, Americans across the nation took up a call for cleaner air, safer water and unpolluted land.  They saw that to keep our families healthy, to build clean communities, and to make America stronger for the future, we needed to protect and preserve our environment.  That grassroots movement led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  At its formation, the EPA was tasked with repairing the damage already done to the environment and establishing guidelines to help Americans make their environment cleaner and safer.

That is how EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson starts off her "40th Anniversary Message" marking forty years of EPA's existence, which officially started December 2, 1970.  She goes on to say:

As we look to the past, we are also focused on the future.  The EPA is strongly committed to protecting and preserving our country's environment through taking action on climate change; improving air quality; ensuring chemical safety; cleaning up our communities; protecting America's waters; working for environmental justice; and building strong state and tribal partnerships.

The EPA has set up a whole page called EPA@40: Healthier Families. Cleaner Communities. A Stonger America.  The page highlights "40 years of achievements" (and a proclamation from President Obama).

See it all here.

EPA Administrator Jackson Addresses "Toxic Chemicals and Children's Health"

As noted yesterday, today was a subcommittee hearing called "Toxic Chemicals and Children's Environmental Health" in Newark, New Jersey and chaired by New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg.  The lead testimony was from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Jackson noted that "[w]hile chemicals have improved our lives in many ways, there are still significant scientific gaps in our understanding of the health risks of many chemicals."  She called out the special nature of protecting children from chemical exposure, and that there are cultural and socioeconomic differences as well:

Ensuring that our children are protected from exposure to environmental threats is central to EPA’s work. Children face greater threats from environmental pollutants than adults due to differences in their physiology, activity patterns and development. And not all children are the same: we continue to see disparities in exposures and health outcomes among the poor, African American, Latino, Native American and other ethnic minorities.

She also reminded us all that children have differences in metabolism, eating habits, and motor behavior that significantly increase their chances of exposure as well as the potential ramifications of such exposure on physiological, morphological, and immunological systems that are not fully developed.

Jackson reiterated the six principles that she had introduced just over a year ago and called again for Congress to take action to reform the 34 year old Toxic Substances Control Act.  And finished by noting:

Further, legislative reform of TSCA should address a number of other areas the Administration believers are important in modernizing this nation’s chemicals management efforts, such as encouraging the development and use of green chemistry and adoption of safer alternatives. It should impose stricter requirements for assertion of confidentiality claims while allowing the sharing of critical data – with appropriate safeguards – with state governments also regulating chemicals.

Her full testimony and that of the other witnesses can be found here.

EPA Increaseses Transparency - Posts Calendars of Senior Managers Online

In accordance with the Obama Administration's implementation of the mandate to increase transparency in operations, EPA has now made available online all of the senior manager's calendars, including that of Administrator Lisa Jackson. People can view all meetings attended by advocates, stakeholders, elected officials and others outside the Agency. The calendars don't detail meetings or briefings that only involve EPA representatives, nor do they provide minutes or other details of the meetings, but they do indicate where and with whom meetings were held.

The calendar page also is a good resource for identifying who the key players are at EPA.

The calendar can be found here.

EPA Administrator Jackson Expands Her Priorities from Five to Seven

Way back when Lisa Jackson offered a list of five priorities in her "First Day" memo, she promised to provide updates as time went by. Now, in a new memo to all EPA staff issued yesterday, she says that EPA has "made enormous strides on all five, and our achievements reflect your hard work and dedication." She then goes on to note that EPA has "strengthened our focus and expanded the list of priorities." She lists "seven key themes to focus the work of our agency" for 2010.

Taking Action on Climate Change: Continuing the effort to enact clean energy and climate legislation, as well as use their current authority to develop "common-sense solutions for reducing GHG emissions from large stationary sources like power plants."

Improving Air Quality: Building on the proposed stronger ambient air quality standards for ozone to "develop a comprehensive strategy for a cleaner and more efficient power sector, with strong but achievable emission reduction goals for SO2, NOx, mercury and other air toxics," as well as other critical activities.

Assuring the Safety of Chemicals: Continuing to push for "significant and long overdue progress in assuring the safety of chemicals in our products, our environment and our bodies," which includes more aggressively using their current TSCA authority.

Cleaning Up Our Communities: "Using all the tools at our disposal, including enforcement and compliance efforts, we will continue to focus on making safer, healthier communities." This includes additional strategies for Superfund, brownfields, and other challenges.

Protecting America’s Waters: Continuing "comprehensive watershed protection programs for the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes," and initiating other "measures to address post-construction runoff, water quality impairment from surface mining, and stronger drinking water protection."

Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism and Working for Environmental Justice: Expanding "a new era of outreach and protection for communities historically underrepresented in EPA decision-making," including "building strong working relationships with tribes, communities of color, economically distressed cities and towns, young people and others."

Building Strong State and Tribal Partnerships: EPA "must do its part to support state and tribal capacity and, through strengthened oversight, ensure that programs are consistently delivered nationwide."

Jackson notes that there will also be focus on strengthening internal operations, performance measures and agency processes. The priorities she lists will be the focus of 2010, but will also set the stage for continuing efforts beyond this year.

The full memo can be read here.

Statement of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson - Senate Hearing on TSCA Chemical Control Reform

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson testified at the Senate hearing on TSCA reform on Wednesday, December 2, 2009. The title of the hearing is "Oversight Hearing on the Federal Toxic Substances Control Act.”

In her testimony, Jackson reiterated the EPA principles that she had introduced in late September.

First, chemicals should be reviewed against safety standards that are based on sound science and reflect risk‐based criteria protective of human health and the environment. Safety standards should be driven solely by scientific evidence of risks. EPA should have the clear authority to establish safety standards that reflect the best available science while recognizing the need to assess and manage risk in the face of uncertainty.

Second, the responsibility for providing adequate health and safety information should rest on industry. Manufacturers must develop and submit the hazard, use, and exposure data demonstrating that new and existing chemicals under review are safe. If industry doesn’t provide the information, EPA should have the necessary tools to quickly and efficiently require testing, or obtain other information from manufacturers that are relevant to determining the safety of chemicals, without the delays and obstacles currently in place, or excessive claims of confidential business information.

Third, EPA should have clear authority to take risk management actions when chemicals do not meet the safety standard, with flexibility to take into account a range of considerations, including children’s health, economic costs, social benefits, and equity concerns. EPA and industry must include special consideration for exposures and effects on groups with higher vulnerabilities – particularly children. For example, children ingest chemicals at a higher ratio to their body weight than adults, and are more susceptible to long‐term damage and developmental problems. Our new principles offer them much stronger protections.

Fourth, EPA should have clear authority to set priorities for conducting safety reviews. In all cases, EPA and chemical producers must act on priority chemicals in a timely manner, with firm deadlines to maintain accountability. This will not only assure prompt protection of health and the environment, but provide business with the certainly that it needs for planning and investment.

Fifth, we must encourage innovation in green chemistry, and support research, education, recognition, and other strategies that will lead us down the road to safer and more sustainable chemicals and processes. All of this must happen with transparency and concern for the public’s right to know.

Finally, implementation of the law should be adequately and consistently funded, in order to meet the goal of assuring the safety of chemicals, and to maintain public confidence that EPA is meeting that goal. To that end, manufacturers of chemicals should support the costs of Agency implementation, including the review of information provided by manufacturers.

Jackson acknowledged that coming up with a new law will take time. So she noted that she had instructed Steve Owens to use all the current authority TSCA gives EPA very aggressively. Starting with completing and making public a series of “action plans” for the chemicals which will outline the risks that the use of these chemicals may present and what steps we may take to address those concerns.

More on the hearings to come.