EPA's Jackson Leaves Agency Amid Investigations

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announced Thursday she is resigning from her position. According to reports, Jackson is leaving before an investigation can be launched into the agency’s alleged illegal use of private emails for official government business.

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) told Breitbart News Thursday he could not comment on the curious circumstances surrounding her resignation but that he sees the “tremendously difficult job she does–a very important one.”

Under Jackson’s tenure, the EPA imposed new regulations on coal plants and proposed the national standards to cap greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, coal workers in various states, including West Virginia and Kentucky, criticized President Obama for what was called his “war” on the coal industry. The Hill reported last May that the president’s campaign website included an “all-of-the-above energy policy,” but Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) said he was “disturbed” that the site omitted coal-fire power, which provides 50 percent of the country’s electricity. The campaign later added clean coal to the site after Whitfield’s remarks.

Jackson will also evade another investigation involving the EPA’s research on air pollution. In November, the EPA’s Assistant Inspector General for Program Evaluation (OIG) Carolyn Copper sent a memorandum announcing “an evaluation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Research on Human Subjects.”