Across an often contentious three-hour congressional hearing Thursday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson vigorously defended her agency's policies promoting cleaner air and water, and rejected suggestions by Republican lawmakers that the EPA is a chief factor in the country's stagnant economic recovery. "The American people have a right to know whether the air they breathe is healthy or unhealthy," Jackson said during her appearance before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Time and again, she dismissed the notion that stubbornly high unemployment should prompt policymakers to roll back robust environmental protections. "It is analogous to a doctor not giving a diagnosis to a patient because the patient might not be able to afford the treatment," she said. GOP members cast Jackson as an über-regulator, oblivious to the economic hardship her policies have created in their home districts. "We have focused on cracking down on the private sector, on the job generators," lamented Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. , Cited the example of Buckman Laboratories International, a Memphis-based chemical manufacturer with 1,500 employees worldwide and estimated annual sales of $ 500 million. According to Blackburn, the company was recently forced to change 4,000 labels on its containers, in order to comply with new EPA rules – but did not have to change the contents of the microbicides in the containers. And the firm received a new demand from the agency on Wednesday, Blackburn said, to change an additional five labels. (Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com …
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