March 8, 2010

Jackson to Senate: You Do Your Job, I’ll Do Mine

Photo courtsey of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

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Facing assaults from all sides on her agency’s plans to limit carbon dioxide, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson on Monday renewed her support for both her duty to regulate planet-warming gases, and the need for Congress to act meaningfully.

Jackson has plenty of reason to be frustrated. The Senate climate bill has been moving forward at a glacial pace. She’s maintained that she prefers new legislation on climate, but the Senate has yet to produce that. Meanwhile, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has undertaken an effort to block the agency’s scientific conclusion that greenhouse gases are a threat to human health, and a number of industry groups have also filed lawsuits to that end. And last week Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and a trio of coal-state House members introduced measures to delay EPA regulations for one year, which they said would give Congress more time to act. But Jackson maintained that the EPA has a legal obligation to move forward–and rather than spending time undermining her agency, perhaps the Senate should get to work on a new climate bill.

“I am not in a position where I am going to stand here and support the idea of EPA not being able to use the Clean Air Act,” she told reporters on Monday. “The energy of the Senate on this issue would be wonderful if it would be put towards new legislation to do something.”

She also argued that Congress should keep its focus on an economy-wide cap on carbon emissions, as senators are reportedly considering a scaled-back option that caps only electric utilities. “The more you move away from an economy wide approach, you lose some opportunities to really harness that private sector investment,” she said.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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