Washington, D.C. -- Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, issued the following statement on the decision by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson to step down.
"Among her many accomplishments as the EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson made a priority of protecting children -- and all the rest of us -- from toxic industrial chemicals. She brought to that daunting task the intellect of a chemical engineer, the charisma and resolve of a seasoned political operative, and the heart of a mom. She was the first administrator in decades to champion wholesale reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act. As that effort stalled in Congress, she redoubled the agency's committment to review and regulate toxic chemicals through aggressive use of existing law. She stood up to polluters time and again—whether they were fouling America's air with smog or our drinking water hexavalent chromium—and simply because she was doing her job she became a target of anti-environmental ideologues. But to the people and communities she protected across the country, Administrator Jackson was a hero. While I regret that she is leaving the EPA, it has been a privilege to work closely with her and her team over the past four years, and on behalf of everyone at Environmental Working Group I wish her the very best in the next phase of her career."