Ignacia S. Moreno to Lead on Environmental Law: Polluters Know Polluters Best

Getting a wolf to herd sheep, President Barack Obama recently made headlines for nominating Ignacia Moreno to lead the Justice Department in enforcing environmental law.

The controversy comes from Moreno's recent tenure as counsel of corporate environmental programs at General Electric Corp., meaning that she had spent the latest part of her life in the aid of one of the most notorious industrial polluters in the world.

However, focusing on this recent history of hers sets aside the fact that she had worked under the Clinton administration as a special assistant and principal counsel to the assistant attorney general for the environment division, and that she had worked for the Washington law firm Spriggs & Hollingsworth as an environmental and mass tort litigator. Whatever the hell that means.

Detractors of her appointment say that the real question is whether or not Moreno is the right person for the job; they wonder if she has the experience needed to navigate the important yet murky world that is environmental law.

In addition, they claim that because of her work for GE she is the exact opposite of what one would think an environmental enforcer should be. But if this were the kind of nation that cared about conflicts of interest like that, we never would have let the previous administration, which former vice president Dick Cheney was a part of, award Halliburton a series of no-bid contracts.

But perhaps this is a good thing, though possibly not as experienced as others in the field, Moreno knows the kind of shots she will take in a court battle with large corporations that are trying to cover up how they polluted a river and turned kids into blue, Smurf-like freaks that only their mothers can still love. She knows, because she has had to do things of that nature herself.

Think of it like this: when trying to thwart snipers at a large gathering, the government uses former gunmen that know where they would take the shot from if they were the kind of lonely psycho that knew how to seriously handle a rifle and had a dramatic hatred for parades. This is kind of the same thing.

The environment is, no doubt, the most important issue in the world right now because it affects every single person in every single country, state, county, city, neighborhood, and street.

Obviously, we have done our fair share to screw it up almost beyond repair, but we are trying now to change that. When looking at the lengthy resume of Moreno, it is obvious that she knows the game that is played between polluters and those who hold them responsible, and that she knows it from both sides.

Therefore, it is clear that although she may not have been the best choice, she certainly wasn't the worst, and she has undeniable potential to do a fantastic job. Let's not judge this woman by what she has done, let's judge her by what she will do. After all, we live in a country where everyone is guaranteed a fair trial; even the people that are clouding the air and blackening the water.