He said virtually every air-pollution rule the EPA had put forward over the last eight years had been thrown out by the courts, as was detailed in an Inquirer series, "Smoke and Mirrors," which ran this week.
"The to-do list for the Obama administration is truly massive," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch in Washington. "They have to basically mop up a lot of problems before they get to their initiatives. And they are high priority."
Although Jackson has not been formally named, her nomination has been widely reported, based on anonymous sources close to the Obama camp.
Global warming will likely be at the top of her list.
Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, predicted Jackson would soon grant a waiver to California to further limit auto emissions.
That would let New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states do the same, ultimately forcing a national law.
O'Donnell and Claussen also said the agency would have to push for a ruling on whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases imperil the public welfare by contributing to global warming.
Under the current administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, the EPA made a draft finding supporting that, but the Bush administration refused to accept it, forcing Johnson to produce a much weaker one.
A stronger finding would trigger the nation's first global-warming regulations, likely including emission standards on automobiles and power plants.
"It's one tangible way to make progress on global warming right off the bat without legislation," O'Donnell said.
Jackson likely will also have to devise a federal cap-and-trade program for industrial emissions. Her experience on the executive board of the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative should help.
