EPA Chief Calls Republicans 'Jack-Booted Thugs'

U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson took on congressional Republicans for trying to blame a sour economy on environmental regulations yesterday in a speech at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Jackson accused House and Senate Republicans of deliberately misusing EPA’s assertion that it would need 230,000 people to enforce greenhouse gas regulations. The number, she said, was drawn from an agency document arguing for “tailoring” the regulations to exempt small businesses.

“Those jack-booted thugs knew that,” she said of the Republicans.