EPA defends its rules to Republicans

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Americans are as entitled to a clean environment as they are to a prosperous economy, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency testified.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson appeared before members of a House Committee on Oversight and Investigations saying it was wrong to link environmental regulation to declining employment prospects and a bad economy.

"In contrast to doomsday predictions, history has shown, again and again, that we can clean up pollution, create jobs and grow our economy all at the same time," she said in prepared remarks.

The Republican-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee in a statement following debates over the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts to the Nation Act charged EPA rules were to blame for a sluggish economy.

The measure calls for an review of the impacts of EPA rules on jobs, energy prices, electric reliability and the United States' overall global economic competitiveness. Some measures, like cross-state pollution rules, will result in staggering economic loss, critics say.

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the ranking Democrat on the House energy committee, spoke out in opposition to the TRAIN Act, saying the Republicans are bent on a full throttle "repeal-a-thon" that "guts" the Clean Air Act.

Jackson said Republican leaders are making "misleading" arguments linking environmental regulation to economic health.

"Americans are no less entitled to a safe, clean environment during difficult economic times than they are in a more prosperous economy," she said.