U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson spoke last month
at the National Press Club about EPA’s progress and explored the
challenges and opportunities of leading an environmental agency in
a time of economic challenge and technological innovation.

Stated Jackson, “If we all do our part, Americans 40 years from
today will look back and remember this generation as one that
helped build a better future for everyone.”

Here are a few excerpts from her address which are worth noting
on Earth Day. A link to the full address is shown below.

• “Well-conceived, effectively implemented environmental
  protection is good for economic growth. Let me repeat that:
  environmental protection is good for economic
  growth…”  
  
  
  
  



• “Poison in the ground means poison in the economy. A weak
  environment means a weak consumer base. And unhealthy air means an
  unhealthy atmosphere for investments. But a clean, green healthy
  community is a better place to buy a home and raise a family, it’s
  more competitive in the race to attract new businesses, and it has
  the foundations it needs for prosperity…” 
  
  
  
  



• “[Environmental protection] creates a need - in other words, a
  market for clean technology - and then drives innovation and
  invention - in other words, new products for that market. This is
  our convenient truth: smart environmental protection creates
  jobs…” 
  
  
  
  



• “Often times the same offices that are blasting out press
  releases on the overreach of faceless EPA bureaucrats are also
  asking those same bureaucrats for help. That’s a textbook example
  of irony and it’s all too evident in today’s politics. When it
  comes to people’s health, everyone wants strong environmental
  protection…” 
  
  
  
  



• “In the last 30 years, emissions of six dangerous air
  pollutants that cause smog, acid rain, lead poisoning and more
  decreased 54 percent. At the same time, gross domestic product grew
  by 126 percent. That means we made huge reductions in air pollution
  at the same time that more cars went on the road, more power plants
  went on line and more buildings went up. The question is, how does
  that happen? The answer is innovation…” 
  
  
  
  



• “Innovation is the “sweet spot” where our economic and
  environmental interests meet. It’s where business leaders and
  conservationists can come together to hash out solutions -
  solutions that have filled American history with environmental
  achievements and helped us lead the global economy. America is home
  to a world-leading environmental technology industry. By
  conservative estimates, in 2007 environmental firms and small
  businesses in the US generated $282 billion in revenues and $40
  billion in exports, and supported 1.6 million American
  jobs…” 
  
  
  
  



• “The question we face now is, what can we at EPA do to protect
  our environment, strengthen our communities and foster prosperity?
  One of the clear answers is abandoning the old disputes and working
  in partnership on new innovations…” 
  
  
  
  



• “…the economic costs of unchecked climate change will be
  orders of magnitude higher for the next generation than it would be
  for us to take action today. I can’t in good conscience support any
  measure that passes that burden on to my two sons, and to their
  children. I find it hard to believe that any parent could say to
  their child, ‘We’re going to wait to act…’” 
  
  
  
  



• “Consumers want to know that their products don’t have hidden
  health and environmental costs. Companies must respond to parents
  who refuse to buy bottles with BPA in them, or that leech dangerous
  chemicals into drinking water. Industry can try to resist and
  ignore EPA, but I know - and they know - that they resist the
  forces of the green marketplace at their own peril…” 
  
  
  
  



• “It’s time to put to rest the notion that economic growth and
  environmental protection are incompatible. It’s time to finally
  dismiss this false choice. We need a new approach that plays to
  America’s greatest strengths of ingenuity, invention and
  innovation. We need to reclaim leadership in the development of new
  products that protect our health and our environment. And we need
  to capitalize on the growing green marketplace here and around the
  world…” 
  
  
  
  



• “…ever-expanding economic opportunity is not possible without
  sustainability. Without protection for the water, air and land that
  people depend on, we can only go so far. Without clean energy, the
  global economy will be running on empty within our
  lifetimes…” 
  
  
  
  



• “This is about rising to meet our most urgent environmental and
  economic challenges - not shrinking from them with the excuse that
  it’s just too hard. That’s never been a good enough answer for the
  American people. At no point in our history has any problem been
  solved by ‘waiting another year to act’ or burying our heads in the
  sand. Progress is made by seeing - in our greatest challenges - all
  the possibilities for building a healthier, more prosperous future,
  and bringing the best we have to offer to the table. It’s what
  we’ve done before. It’s what we have to do again today. It’s not
  something we can leave for tomorrow…”   

href=”http://blog.epa.gov/administrator/2010/04/22/an-earth-day-message-from-administrator-jackson/”
target=”_blank”>The
full speech is available here:

 

Click on the image to the right to see the full speech