Obama EPA administrator Lisa Jackson isn’t commenting on allegations that, while head of New Jersey’s environmental agency, she tried to suppress a major report on the health effects of the toxic chemical PFOA.
But, EPA attorneys are talking about their concerns that a former general counsel for America’s Top Superfund polluter isn’t the right person to run the U.S. Department of Justice’s environmental division.
President Barack Obama’s nomination of Ignacia Moreno is moving quietly through the confirmation process, with hearings expected to begin in the next few weeks. But ProPublica’s Joaquin Sapien interviewed six EPA attorneys who questioned whether Moreno is right for the post.
As ProPublica reported:
Moreno has worked for the environment division before, during the Clinton administration. But her most recent job — as environmental counsel for General Electric — has raised eyebrows among Environmental Protection Agency attorneys. Before Moreno worked for GE, she spent five years defending other companies in pollution-related lawsuits.
For decades, the EPA has clashed with GE over the many toxic waste sites the company has been linked to through the Superfund program. For the past two years, Moreno has defended GE in some of these cases. Now, if her nomination is confirmed, she will be one of the government’s top enforcement lawyers for the Superfund program and other environmental laws.
This controversy has also gotten some attention from Greenwire (via The New York Times)Â and Think Progress.
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