EPA political appointees force out top Midwest regulator.
EPA political appointees force out top Midwest regulator.
The Chicago Tribune reports that the Bush administration has forced Mary Gade — the EPA’s regulator for the Midwest — to resign today, “after months of internal bickering about dioxin contamination downstream from Dow Chemical’s world headquarters in Michigan.” In January, the Tribune says, “Dow officials urged officials at the EPA’s headquarters to intervene” and oust Gade; she said that EPA officials, including EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, “repeatedly questioned her aggressive action against Dow.” The EPA forced Wade out despite giving her glowing reviews in the past:
Gade, who led the Illinois EPA under Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, previously had earned high marks from Bush administration officials and won praise from environmental groups that often are at odds with the federal agency. … When Johnson announced that the president had appointed Gade to the regional job in Chicago, he touted her “impressive environmental career” that began at the agency two decades earlier.
The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson notes that Gade’s ouster resembles the U.S. attorney scandal: “It seems the EPA is following the Department of Justice’s efforts to rid itself of staffers who are not ‘loyal Bushies.’”
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She’s been with the EPA for 20 years and they fire her for doing her job??????
May 1st, 2008 at 4:46 pmWhen will the do-nothings–Pelosi and Reid–impeach thiese crooks?
May 1st, 2008 at 4:50 pm“It seems the EPA is following the Department of Justice’s efforts to rid itself of staffers who are not ‘loyal Bushies.’”
11-11-08: ‘It seems the USA is following the rest of the World’s efforts to rid itself of the Bushies who aren’t loyal Americans’.
Watching Stephen Johnson stiff arm California’s efforts to lower CO2 emissions really, really pissed me off. He looks like a big guy; I’d sure like to meet him in a dark alley sometime, but, of course, his Limo doesn’t do alleys.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:51 pmJust more and more BushitCo in action.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:51 pmCongratulations, NEOFU(KINGCONS.
Wait until next January, then we can clear out all the bushies in one fell swoop.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:51 pmMethinks it is not a matter of just getting rid of the merely “disloyal”–after all why bother, with only 7 months to go until the election.
Methinks the Bush administration is purging high placed personnel so that they can install loyal recess apppintments who will mysteriously not notice mass deletions and shredding of records just in case they can’t declare martial law based on a trumped up incident with Iraq in time to suspend the NOvember elections the Democrats are bound to win.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:54 pm5th ~ I nominate your post above for the BEST run on sentence of the month.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:57 pm2. Doc Rock Says: When will the do-nothings–Pelosi and Reid–impeach thiese crooks?
When someone offers them a bigger bribe…
May 1st, 2008 at 4:58 pmI second the 5th, RUC
May 1st, 2008 at 5:01 pmI plead the 5th!!
May 1st, 2008 at 5:02 pmObama has some major house cleaning when he takes over. WTF is this Russia or the United States. Dammmmm where did we go wrong?
May 1st, 2008 at 5:05 pmThe skidmark Bush put on this nation will take decades to wash out. Huge efforts are going to be needed to find and weed out all the ‘loyal bushies’ still sucking at the government trough. I feel we will be fighting Bush’s ghost for many, many years.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:09 pmDoc Rock Says:
When will the do-nothings–Pelosi and Reid–impeach thiese crooks?
Both of them are allowing this to fester because they feel it will make for a bigger Democratic win in November. By waiting quietly, they are making sure the Bush administration keeps up with their lawbreaking activities. They feel it is good for Democrats. I feel it is not good for my country. The politicians we have today always support their party – not their country.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:13 pmI welcome RUCerious, Zimzone and ConcernedParent’s endorsement of my run-on sentence inasmuch as sufficient others might agree with the same unless a sudden majority challenges the expressed endorsement in which case I shall of corse reject the aforementiond support until such time as it might be politically advantageous for me to reverse my postion vis a vis public prefernece for run-on sentences as a positive whereupon I shall naturally deny my run-onsnetnece denial as though nothing had happened.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:14 pm5th Estate Says:
That’s easy for you to say.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:15 pmRuC,ZZ and CP…
5th GLAD for nomination. 5th HAPPY. 5th NO SMASH!
May 1st, 2008 at 5:20 pmStratRat… :D
Not easy to spell correctly, but not too hard to say. At school I was once ‘punished’ for an infraction of some Dickensian school rule with the task of writing a two page essay describing the inside of a ping-ball.
I delivered five pages the next day, and the until-then very common ‘punishment essay’ was officialy banned as a result.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:28 pm(Another favored punishmnet essay subject was “the sex-life of a baked-bean”).
At school I was once ‘punished’ for an infraction of some Dickensian school rule with the task of writing a two page essay describing the inside of a ping-ball.
And I was asked to leave Catholic school because when a Nun spoke about walking on water and stuff, I chimed in and said “Prove it”. A couple phone calls later and I was goooooooone! I guess I hit a nerve, huh?
May 1st, 2008 at 5:41 pmOops. Looks like one of the Bush appointees forgot the administration’s primary goal: eliminate oversight. She forgot she was working for a “regulatory” agency and thought she was working for a regulatory agency.
And, seriously, if you’re going to step on corporate toes, the very last toes you want to stomp are Dow Chemical’s. She’s lucky she didn’t end up like Viktor Yushchenko.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:47 pmJust think, Bush could have pointed to his administration doing something for the environment and peoples’ health if they made Dow clean up the dioxin. Just what will his library have to display for furtue generations to point to and say, “That’s an example of the good works accomplished by the Bush administration”.
Perhaps stacking the bones of some of the people that have died as a result of Bush’s presidency would draw tourists to visit. (I wonder if terrorists’ bones look different from innocent victims bones?)
May 1st, 2008 at 5:51 pmDow acknowledges tainting the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers, their floodplains, portions of the city of Midland and Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay with dioxins — chemical byproducts believed to cause cancer and damage reproductive and immune systems.
State officials have warned people not to eat carp, catfish or white bass caught in the rivers and to limit consumption of other fish.
“We’re talking a huge area of contamination here,” said Robert McCann, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
At one point, Republican legislators supporting Dow tried to kill the state hazardous waste program and slash DEQ Director Steven Chester’s pay.
The previous month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it was giving up on trying to negotiate a separate cleanup deal. Neither side would provide details because of a confidentiality agreement, but EPA said Dow’s final offer represented a step backward.
But when a final cleanup strategy will be agreed on — much less carried out — is anyone’s guess.
“With a cleanup of this magnitude, there are very few easy answers,” McCann said. “And even fewer short cuts.”
“It can no longer be argued that there isn’t a serious dioxin problem here,” said Ralph Dollhopf, associate director of EPA’s regional Superfund office in Chicago. “There is no question about Dow’s culpability. It is past time for this work to be done.”
Here is part of an article that came out last month. Mary was trying to make them agressively fix the problem and Dow was dragging it’s feet. Part of the problem is,there are 300 homes at least that are effected. People wear facemasks to mow their yards. They do not keep their windows open on windy days either. To top it off Republican Legislators were siding with Dow. Who cares if people die of cancer or damage their immune systems, Dow doesn’t.. They have been polluting that river since the 1890’s.
Criminals helping criminals; they don’t have to worry, they don’t live there…
May 1st, 2008 at 5:56 pmStratRat..–Catholic School
And the result of that “prove it” remark was I imagine a turning point.
I can’t help but think of Michael Palin’s ‘Ripping Yarns: Tonmlinson’s Schooldays’.
May 1st, 2008 at 6:11 pm5th Estate Says:
So, why aren’t you running for office? If you can baffle the nuns you can drive the shitkickers out of their little minds.
May 1st, 2008 at 6:27 pmHey, she’s lucky she only had to resign. She could have ended up swinging at the end of a rope to shut her up.
May 1st, 2008 at 6:30 pmThis same pressure on supposedly independent appointees to quit is happening up here in Canada.
May 1st, 2008 at 6:55 pmPrime Minister Harper, a Bush wannabe, is doing the same.
Democracy is falling by the wayside.
This is a free country. You are free to do as your told!
It’s pretty apparent isn’t it — you’re either with us (and our cronies) or your agin’ us.
May 1st, 2008 at 7:29 pmAfter twenty years of good service, she is suddenly incompetent.
Yes, it sounds like the Bushies — they have corrupted every facet of government.
Do only poor and lower middle class live downstream from Dow and other corporations who pollute the waters?
May 1st, 2008 at 7:37 pm27 Marie,
Look up “Environmental Racism”. United Church of Christ got the ball rolling on that about 10 or 15 years ago.
Is it intentional ? who knows ?
But there if you’re the Bush family you don’t build your ranch downstream of the outhouse as you can afford land whereever you want. Not to mention that it is easy to stop the building of an outhouse near your house if you have the influence of the Bush family.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:45 pm