EPA chief Lisa Jackson said Tuesday that Shell Oil — which has butted heads with the Environmental Protection Agency over a range of issues — financed her undergraduate education.



The company gave Jackson a scholarship to Tulane University, where she got her undergraduate degree. She later got a Master of Science degree at Princeton University.



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“I always remind people when I speak publicly that I’m a Shell Oil creation,” Jackson said an energy conference in Washington. “I was a Shell Oil scholar and my education at Tulane University was paid for by Shell Oil Company.”“Careful what you wish for,” Jackson joked.Shell Oil has butted heads with the EPA over its plans to drill off the northern coast of Alaska. The company abandoned plans to drill in the region this year amid efforts to obtain key approvals from the Interior Department and receive an air permit from the EPA.Jackson gave the keynote address at the Energy Information Administration’s annual conference, speaking right before Shell Oil President Marvin Odum.Jackson, who left immediately following her remarks, was not present when Odum called the delay “frustrating and disappointing.”“You might call it irresponsible,” Odum said.

This story was updated at 4:44 p.m.

