Awwal 06, 1432 H/Feb 09, 2011, SPA -- President Barack Obama's top environmental regulator on Wednesday warned that a Republican-led effort to remove its powers to curb climate change would set a dangerous precedent of putting politics above science. But conservative lawmakers slammed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson for taking steps that will harm the US economy and for going over Congress' head to regulate greenhouse- gas emissions that scientists believe cause global warming, according to dpa. Jackson faced tough questions from Republicans before an energy panel of the US House of Representatives. Her testimony comes as the EPA under Obama has this year begun to regulate pollution from coal and oil power plants and refineries. Republicans, backed by some Democrats from rural coal-producing states, have introduced legislation in the House that would remove the EPA's authority to curb climate-damaging pollution. The EPA in 2009 ruled it has that right under a 1990 clean air law, because climate change endangers public health.
