My Conversation with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson

Nearly two months ago, my Editor-in-Chief, Derek Dingle, asked all the editors to pick a White House beat to cover the Obama administration. Although Derek has a strong passion for politics, he thought it best to divide beats to cover all aspects of the administration. With excitement, I chose to cover health care and environmental and energy reform. With the help of Derek’s contacts at the White House, Black Enterprise secured an interview with Lisa Jackson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

So on Monday morning after Easter, I woke up at 4:00 a.m. to catch a 6:00 a.m. express train to Washington, D.C. By the time my colleague, Shannon Lanier, and I got off the train we quickly shook off our sleepiness and headed straight over to EPA. Shannon is producing an on-air segment for the Black Enterprise Business Report television show with my editorial director, Sonia Alleyne as host. I was responsible for asking questions for our magazine and website coverage. All my nervous jitters slowly faded away when the administrator welcomed me into her gigantic high-ceiling, dark-oak wooden office with pictures of her family and the Obamas scattered everywhere.

Jackson has one mission, and that is “to protect the environment” with respect to our air, water and land. “If EPA isn’t out there doing its job for the American people, then they would have the right to question why we’re here at all. We have to get to work,” says Jackson.

I felt Jackson’s genuine sincerity and determination to protect America’s environment and move toward the president’s vision of a clean energy future during our hour-long conversation. Right now, she’s closely watching the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). Jackson explains if the bill passes in the House and Senate, it will help jump start the environmental initiatives and job training programs the president has pledged to fund in the Recovery Act, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050, one million Plug-In Hybrid Cars on the roads by 2015, and creating millions of green jobs. She plans to testify on the bill on Earth Day, April 22^nd.

“The president’s leadership is what’s going to get this down. He continually says the way out

of our current economic crisis is this green economy,” says Jackson. “And that’s some place this country really hasn’t been before; when a President says that environmental issues aren’t the problem but they’re actually the solution. We’ve never seen that.”

Jackson is proud that EPA will help to create green jobs–from air pollution control jobs, to water plant upgrades, to diesel pollution jobs retrofitting city and school buses, to weatherization of roofs and solar panels in homes. She says these jobs will not only need green-collar workers but also scientists, engineers and business consultants to get the work done. She also plans to work closely with the U.S. Department of Labor to make sure all entrepreneurs and small business owners, regardless of race, are given fair access to business opportunities.

I’m personally excited to cover this beat and see how all Americans, including myself, will benefit from endless green opportunities and investments while simultaneously saving our planet.

“I tell people all the time that you don’t have to be from some beautiful place to appreciate the environment,” says Jackson. “You just have to realize the environment is the air you breathe and the water that comes out of your bath.”

For more insight from the administrator’s interview, check out Earth Day and environment and energy coverage on our Website and in the August 2009 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.

Annya Lott is Careers Editor for Black Enterprise magazine.