So who is Gina McCarthy, anyway.
Epa: McCarthy's New England roots show as she pushes states on climate, air issues -- Friday, February 22, 2013 -- www.eenews.net
If one wants an indication where U.S. EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy's priorities lie as a public servant, he or she needs only to look at the beginning of her resume.
McCarthy, who heads EPA's Office of Air and Radiation and is widely rumored to be nominated as EPA administrator in the next week, started her career as a public health agent in her hometown of Canton, Mass., working for the local board of health in nearby Stoughton.
"That's what she's about," said Seth Kaplan, vice president for policy and climate advocacy for the Conservation Law Foundation, who worked with McCarthy in Massachusetts on energy and air issues. "And let me tell you, that person is still there."
The White House has yet to confirm a nominee to succeed recently departed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. Since arriving at EPA in 2009, McCarthy has turned heads and elicited smiles with her thick Boston accent, her wry sense of humor and straightforward discourse on tough subjects where many politicians skirt the issue.
As sources pointing to McCarthy as the next EPA administrator continue to grow, many are looking to her past as a community and state-level leader for clues.
Indeed, her job on the federal level has centered on empowering states with the independence to devise plans for cutting pollution and greenhouse gases, she said at a conference yesterday at the Georgetown Climate Center.
"We are actually doing everything we can to make it easier for the states themselves to incorporate energy efficiency and renewable energy into their state implementation plans," she said. "[We] try to bridge the gap between the energy and environmental worlds so that people can have nice electricity to turn on and they can also have heat to keep them warm, and they can also have clean air."
At the federal level, McCarthy oversaw the rulemaking for some of the agency's sweeping -- and usually controversial -- rules.
Last year, the agency released the first-ever proposal for regulating carbon dioxide from future power plants, standards for limiting volatile organic compounds from hydraulic fracturing wells, rules to limit mercury and toxic emissions from industrial boilers, updated limits for particulate matter, and two sets of fuel efficiency standards for new vehicles.
Many of those actions were based on state and local decisions over the past couple of decades.
"EPA, working with states and local communities are building, hopefully building, on the progress that you have made so far," said McCarthy, speaking to an audience representing local, state and federal entities. "Your leadership, on both the state and local level, in confronting climate change has helped people to improve their health and quality of life."
Before coming to Washington, McCarthy built her career in the Northeast. McCarthy joined the Massachusetts government in the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, kicking off a two-decade career working for the state under four different governors, including recent presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
In Massachusetts, a state already known for aggressive environmental action, McCarthy helped implement strict standards to slash nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury and carbon dioxide for the state's oldest and most polluting coal-fired power plants -- known as the "Filthy Five."
She also designed a plan to cut mercury from the state's air and waterways, said Cindy Luppi, the New England director for Clean Water Action.
"In this region, we are healthier and have healthier neighborhoods as a result of her work," Luppi said.
Her work with industry is characterized by openness and honesty, Kaplan said.
"Gina is someone I've really seen engage in industry," he said. "The more people are involved in making a decision, the more likely it will be a good decision."
In 2004, she headed to Connecticut to serve as the commissioner in the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, where she represented the state in the crafting of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multi-state emissions trading scheme.
"I think she is sensitive to business concerns but recognizes the need to push companies to the next level of environmental protection," said Daniel Esty, the commissioner who succeeded McCarthy at the Connecticut DEP. "She had a reputation for being pragmatic and highly engaged on the substance of the issues."
Representatives of the utilities that owned power plants in the Northeast during McCarthy's tenure were unavailable for comment.
In Connecticut, she also led the "No Child Left Inside" campaign to encourage children to visit state parks, modernized and restructured the department, and oversaw long-range air issues that concerned high-emitting states in the Midwest and the South.
Addressing trans-jurisdictional pollution followed McCarthy at the federal EPA, where the agency finalized the Cross State Air Pollution Rule in 2011. Last year, a federal court rejected the rule and told EPA to rewrite it, adding to the next administrator's to-do list in Obama's second term.
"Gina has a world-class view of the [cross-state] air issues that are front-line center in the industry," said Ian Bowles, former secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs in Massachusetts and currently the managing director of Rhumb Line Energy LLC. "That's really where the action is at with the EPA right now. That's a lot of where the focus for the agency needs to be. She's got a really unparalleled knowledge of that."
In Washington, her potential nomination has been welcomed by Democrats pushing for climate legislation.
"I think she'd be great," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) last week, one day before introducing a climate bill in the Senate. "She is strong, she is knowledgeable, there'd be no transition required, and I just like Gina because she's straight from the shoulders, a good person."
Even months before the rumors, McCarthy was seen as a solid choice by some industry backers in the district.
"The first priority [of the new administrator] is to tend to the economic home fire and be reasonable on the regulatory front," said Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council and a partner at the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani, in January. "I would look to [acting Administrator] Bob Perciasepe; I would look to Gina McCarthy."
Back home, her New England compatriots are proud to see her continue to lead, strongly but fairly.
"We miss her up here," Luppi said. "She's very well-respected and well-loved."
__________________
So, the reason you rightwing spewsters hate her is because she takes her job seriously and knows what she is doing, and that scares the shit out of you. There is a simple solution - stop spewing your filth in our environment, and you won't have anything to fear from her.