EPA nominee pledges to quickly review California's emissions standard

Lisa Jackson, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, told senators Wednesday that she will move quickly on California's request to enact its own far-reaching vehicle emissions standards. "My commitment is that I will immediately review that," Jackson, New Jersey's top environmental official, told Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "I will look to science and the law, and rely on the expert advice of the staff." That was a signal from Jackson, during her confirmation hearing to become EPA director, that she is likely to approve the state's bid — turned down by the Bush administration a year ago — for a waiver from the Clean Air Act to enforce its own standards. Obama pledged to grant the waiver during the presidential campaign. Stephen Johnson, outgoing EPA director, overruled the unanimous recommendations of his scientific and legal staff when he turned down the California standard, angering Boxer and other Democrats on the committee. New Jersey and at least 15 other states, with more than 40 percent of the nation's population, are ready to enact the California standard, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in new cars and light trucks by 2016....