Vermont Law School Professor David Mears, in China as a Fulbright Scholar, reflects upon EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s visit to China.  He writes,

Yesterday, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson held a town meeting in Huashi Hall, a beautiful, old building on the Sun Yat Sen University campus in Guangzhou, China.  This location happens to be just a few minutes from our apartment, so my wife Nancy and I were able to attend, along with an auditorium full of Chinese students and faculty.  It was a fun experience, surrounded by the students with their obvious interest and excitement in being able to engage with a high-level U.S. official.  Adding to my enjoyment was being able to sit next to my Vermont Law School colleague Professor Tseming Yang who is now a Deputy General Counsel at EPA, and Orestes Anastasia, Vermont Law School Class of 1995 who is the Regional Environment Advisor for USAID in Asia.

The title of Administrator Jackson’s presentation was “30 Years of Cooperation with China.”  It is tempting to launch off this title into a reflection regarding whether enough progress has actually been achieved for the environment in China in the past thirty years sufficient to warrant an anniversary celebration.  It is enough to note simply that, given the state of the environment in China today, whatever has transpired in terms of cooperation between the EPA and Chinese environmental agencies over the past three decades should not serve as the model for addressing China’s environmental issues in the future.

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