U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson outlines her priorities and tells National Geographic that the EPA is back, ready to protect human health and the environment, despite the bumpy road ahead.

Jackson told a crowd of more than two hundred Aspen Environment Forum participants last night that EPA's top strategy for tackling climate change is to work with Congress on legislation, instead of focusing on amendments to the Clean Air Act that would allow regulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases.

It looked like the agency was headed for the Clean Air Act route when Jackson and her team submitted a proposal Friday to the White House suggesting climate change endangers public health, therefore making greenhouse gases pollutants subject to regulation.

Officials at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and businesses have warned that regulating CO2 under the Clean Air Act would have unintended consequences—everything would be subject to painful scrutiny, from factory and car emissions to new infrastructure projects and old dairy farms, and that environmentalists would engage in a host of lawsuits to make sure nothing slipped by.

"We are not aiming to regulate every Dunkin' Donuts or every cow," Jackson said. "We are not trying to shut down the American economy. We have to avoid a regulatory [tangle] where governments and businesses spend untold money fighting," Jackson said.

"We have tried to make clear that the best [way] is to work with Congress on comprehensive climate change legislation."

Nearly two years ago the Supreme Court ordered the EPA to evaluate whether CO2 should be considered a pollutant. In December 2007 former EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson also tried to submit public health endangerment findings to the White House but senior officials refused to consider, or even open, the proposal.

Jackson also told the Aspen crowd, gathered in Colorado for a four-day conference focused on sustainable energy, that we are at the tipping point. "There is not a moment to lose in protecting human health and the environment," she said.

President Obama and his administration are taking "aggressive" action on energy, aiming to double clean energy use over the next three years. Obama had dedicated $150 billion to clean energy innovation and development over the next 10 years.

"EPA is back on the job for the American people," said Jackson, who has already presented standards for greenhouse gas reporting, reconsidered California's request to regulate vehicle emissions at a more stringent standard, initiated a toxics monitoring program around schools, and said she would work toward better regulation of air pollutants mercury and fine particulate matter.

The Aspen Forum is sponsored by the Aspen Institute, the National Geographic Society, Shell, Duke Energy, and General Motors.

—Tasha Eichenseher

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