Trashing the nomination

Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility report that Lisa Jackson, President-elect Obama’s reported pick for EPA chief, used her power as head of New Jersey’s environmental agency (DEP) to undermine New Jersey’s environmental protection in service of industry.

PEER describes how Jackson followed the classic Bushie tactic of hiring a former industry lobbyist to "ovesee" the very same regulations the industry had for years paid her to defeat. PEER also describes how Jackson followed the Bushie/Rethug playbook when she used her power as head of DEP to appoint "task forces" she filled with industry moles who — predictably — colluded on behalf of their industry empoyers to prevent DEP from protecting New Jersey’s citizens.

In 2006 DEP head Lisa Jackson chose to appoint Nancy Wittenberg, a long-time lobbyist for the NJ Builders’ Association, as the Assistant Commissioner for Environmental Regulation for the state Department of Environmental Protection. Gee…what a coincidence: Wittenberg spent the several years before Jackson brought her into DEP fighting the same rules Jackson put her in charge of enforcing at EPA. More from PEER:

Wittenberg…will oversee many of the rules that she lobbied against for her former development clients. During her political advocacy role as lobbyist for the New Jersey Builders Association for over a decade, Ms. Wittenberg repeatedly bashed environmental protections…

More directly, Wittenberg will oversee important DEP permits and approvals that she has severely criticized.

Revolving doors for industry in govenment agencies: how audacious! After all, that’s worked so well for the telcos at the Bushie FCC…and Big Carbon at Bushie Minerals Management Service…and Monsanto under Poppy’s FDA…and Monsanto under the Clinton EPA…and Monsanto under the Bushies…and Wall Street under the Bushies. Appointing industry flacks to the public agency created to protect the rest of us from the industry — now that’s change we can believe in. Appointing Wittenberg puts Jackson right in step with the Bushie regualtors, and that’s the point of our democractic system, right? Change the names on the doors, but make sure the agencies remain under industry control: that’s why we progressives worked so hard to defeat the Rethugs, right?

Now that Jackson’s reported to be The Leader’s EPA pick, the usual Big Green mouthpieces within the Beltway have assembled for the Villagers’ Choir: the carolers who only sing for K Street’s ears. For local color, the Villagers have added the Sierra Club’s New Jersey chair Jeff Tittel’s voice to the current perfromance:

Tittel [notes] that Corzine basically gave Jackson two choices to fill the spot: either the New Jersey Builders Association person-who, Tittel notes, actually wrote policy papers for NJBA, not lobbying, and had previously worked in the state’s environmental agency-or… a lobbyist from the Chemical Council.

Now that’s an inventive defense of a nominee to lead a Federal office: at the State level, they didn’t have the stones to resist political pressure to help out industry.

Of course, for the Sierra Club’s notoriously insular DC leadership, Jackson’s servile response to Corzine’s corrupt choices is a definite plus. Ya see, the dirty little secret in the enviro movement is that while local Club chapters and memebrs do great work, the Club’s core leaders went native and joined the Beltway corporatists. Just ask the Florida Sierra Club chapter and officails that opposed the Club’s marketinig deal with mega-posioner Clorox…if you can find them. The national Sierra Club’s leaders purged the Florida locals for the sin of standing up to Power against poison Clorox.

Sierra Club leaders’ long collaboration with Power at the expense of local members and the environment is another reason NJ Club leader Tittel’s defense of Jackson — Power’s pick for EPA chair — fails to persuade. Ya see, Power’s pick Jackson left her job heading up New Jersey’s DEP to accept an appointment in NJ Gov Corzine’s office. In March Tittel showed up to praise Corzine…but once Jackson’s DEP record came into view last week Tittle balmed Corzine for Jackson’s appointments. The Sierra Club’s NJ leader even called Corzine "the worst environmental governor we’ve ever had." Of course, defending Obama’s EPA pick by pointing out the guy she chose to leave NJ’s DEP to work for is the "worst enivronmental governor [NJ] ever had" looks pretty weak. But then I’m not a Sierra Club leader…or a cheerleader for Power.

Obama’s EPA pick Jackson followed the Bushie playbook when she used her power as DEP’s administrator to concoct a "task force" stuffed with industry servants to oversee DEP’s work. Jackson’s intial nineteen "task force" picks were all from industry: undr public pressure, she added three enviros (including Tittel) as greenie window dressing. Amazingly enough, Jackson’s pet task force effectively stymied DEP’s work: just as Bushies’ industry servants placed at USDA, FDA, and EPA snuffed out Federal agencies’ work to protect us.

What did Jackson and her hand-picked fifth column do at DEP? According to PEER:

Jackson later convened an industry-dominated task force to rewrite DEP policies and relaxed pollution enforcement through policies more business-friendly than those under Gov. Christie Whitman. Relying on closed-door deal-making with regulated industry executives and lobbyists, Ms. Jackson produced decisions, such as -

* Invoking "executive privilege" to block a request filed by PEER under the state Open Public Records Act for a copy of her schedule and sign-in logs;
* Pushing to privatize pollution control through outsourcing of toxic clean-ups to industry;
* Abolishing the DEP Division of Science & Research after it produced damning reports on continuing contamination following state-supervised clean-ups.

The audacity of posion? The transparency of smoke? Does Obama want EPA to protect us, or to protect industry by internally sabotaging enforcement of enviro regualtions

If Jackson at EPA is a change from the Bushie posioners’ lobby there, the Borgia family were really confectioners.

Change we can believe in? We’ll know it when we see it. Dumping toxic swill down our legs and telling us it’s "protection" is just same ‘ol, same ‘ol. Any community organizer knows that.