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SEATTLE — Following on the heels of President Obama’s State of the Union address, his top environmental administrator hosted a town hall meeting Wednesday on the UW campus, where she reinforced the president’s election-year emphasis on green jobs, innovation and the balance between protecting the environment while creating a “built to last” economy.

Tuesday night in the State of the Union address, President Obama put the issue of energy on the front burner. He called for the opening of more than 75 percent of the offshore oil and gas resources and declared his continued support for the growing natural gas industry. He said the days of subsidies to oil companies are over.

“It’s time to end the tax payer giveaways to an industry that rarely has been more profitable and double down on a clean energy industry that never has been more promising,” he said. “Pass clean energy tax credits. Create these jobs.”

The next day Lisa Jackson, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, came to the University of Washington to host a town hall gathering. She walked on stage to a packed room full of University of Washington students and faculty.

Her message was clear: the Obama administration is committed to getting the economy back on track. Jackson says to achieve that mission we must develop American energy sources, like natural gas, but not at the cost of human health.

“The fact is we cannot create an economy that is built to last by putting our nation in a race to the bottom. A race for the weakest health protections and the most loopholes in our environmental policies.”

Republicans have increasingly attacked the Environmental Protection Agency for imposing regulations that they say inhibit job creation.

In his response to the president’s speech Republican Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels called for “A pause in the mindless piling on of expensive new regulations that devour dollars that otherwise could be used to hire somebody.”

Jackson says that regulating industry to protect the environment and human health does not devour dollars.

“You don’t have to choose between a clean environment and a healthy and thriving economy,” she countered. “There’s not one credible economic study that says that environmental protection is somehow responsible for the current recession or for the lack of jobs.”

Dennis McLerran is the director of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Northwest. He says this region is already making a conscious choice to create jobs in the renewable energy sector.

“We’re seeing big wind projects, increased interest in solar right down to the homeowner level and so I think we’re somewhat uniquely positioned to really be a model for the country in terms of how to do it right.”

The State of Washington has committed to 15 percent renewable power by 2020.

Coming soon: an EarthFix exclusive conversation with EPA head Lisa Jackson.