Conservatives are criticizing Gina McCarthy, President Obama's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

McCarthy has orchestrated many of the EPA's most controversial new rules, including regulations on new power plants.

"Gina McCarthy's nomination to head the EPA sends a clear message that the president's plan is to encumber the economy with rising energy costs, rather than encouraging growth in the energy sector to help bring costs down," the Independent Women's Forum said in a statement Monday.

She's likely to face tough questions from Republicans during her Senate confirmation hearings.

Conservatives say the EPA is killing jobs and undermining the energy industry.

"It is a shame the president continues to put his extreme partisan agenda ahead of jobs and energy security in West Virginia and across the country," Politico quoted Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.