Dow Chemical’s Congressman: Gade Was ‘Unprofessional, Vindictive and Insulting’»

Mary Gade, the Midwest regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency who resigned last Thursday, laid the blame on her ongoing efforts to compel Dow Chemical to clean up its decades-old dioxin pollution from its flagship plant in Midland, Michigan. Gade is a lifelong Republican who has been praised by Democrats and environmentalists as “one of the most seasoned and experienced environmental policy-makers in the country,” “a woman of unquestioned credentials and integrity,” and “a highly-qualified and well-regarded official.”

Dave Camp (R-MI)

But Michael Hawthorne reports for the Chicago Tribune that there is at least one official who disagrees:

“In 20 years of public life I have never encountered a more unprofessional, vindictive and insulting government official,” said U.S. Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), whose wife is a former Dow attorney.

What could possibly motivate the nine-term Republican congressman representing Michigan’s Fourth District to make such a strongly worded statement?

Dave Camp Is A Dow Chemical Millionaire. Camp graduated from Midland Dow High School in 1971. In 1994, he married Nancy Keil, an attorney who was working for Dow Chemical at the time. Based on financial disclosure statments, Rep. Dave Camp is worth $3.6 million to $6.9 million, including Dow Chemical Co. stock valued at $500,001 to $1 million and his wife Nancy’s Dow Chemical 401(k) at $100,001 to $250,000. [Detroit News, 7/7/06]

Dow Chemical Fills Dave Camp’s Campaign Coffers. In his freshman term in 1990, Camp received “more than $100,000 from Dow Chemical sources,” the most money any member of Congress received then from any single company. Camp has received at least $298,685 in campaign contributions from Dow Chemical in his career. [Los Angeles Times, 7/1/1992; Center for Responsive Politics]

Dave Camp Scores Zero On The Environment. The League of Conservation Voters gave Rep. Camp (R-MI) a zero rating for the 110th Congress based on twenty key environmental votes this session. He has not scored above 10% in the last decade. [LCV Scorecard]

Dave Camp Believes In Federal Taxdollars Paying To Clean Up The Great Lakes. Press releases on Rep. Camp’s website call for the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act to be funded at $20 million a year instead of $16 million, promote the passage of the $1.71 billion Water Quality Investment Act, and celebrate the $2.75 million in local watershed earmarks he included in the 2008 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. Dow Chemical, the 169th largest company in the world, had sales of $53.5 billion in 2007. [Rep. Camp press releases; Forbes.com]

Dave Camp is only one of several Michigan political officials with strong ties to Dow Chemical who have fought environmental regulation of its dioxin pollution. On September 29, 2004, Camp told the Detroit Free Press, “We have a party responsible for the contamination who wants to do the right thing.” Somehow, Dow Chemical has still managed to avoid cleaning up the waterways downstream of its plant, which it has been operating since 1897.

Who Fired Mary Gade?»

Mary Gade, the Region 5 Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, abruptly resigned yesterday in the midst of a battle with Dow Chemical over its refusal to clean up decades-old dioxin pollution from its headquarters in Michigan. As Michael Hawthorne reported in the Chicago Tribune:

Gade told the Tribune she resigned after two aides to national EPA administrator Stephen Johnson took away her powers as regional administrator and told her to quit or be fired by June 1.

He further reported that one of those officials had recently assessed her performance as “outstanding“:

Five months ago, a top U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official gave Mary Gade a performance rating of “outstanding.” On Thursday, the same official told her to quit or be fired as the agency’s top regulator in the Midwest.

As the EPA organizational chart indicates, the regional administrators report directly to the office of EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson:

EPA Organizational Structure (Detail)

So who can the “two aides to national EPA administrator Stephen Johnson” who “took away her powers” be? The following are the most likely suspects. Read the rest of this entry »

Sen. Whitehouse Compares EPA Firing To U.S. Attorney Scandal: ‘Déjà Vu All Over Again’»

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency dismissed Midwest regional administrator Mary Gade, one of ten such officials appointed directly by EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. Gade — a lifelong Republican and a prominent supporter of George W. Bush’s pursuit of the presidency in 2000 — told the Chicago Tribune, “There’s no question this is about Dow.” Gade was locked in a battle with Dow Chemical over the cleanup of dioxin poisoning from its world headquarters in Michigan. As former EPA official Robert Sussman writes in the Wonk Room, “To remove a Regional Administrator because of a disagreement over policy at an individual site is unheard of.”

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) just spoke on the Senate floor about Gade’s firing. Whitehouse compared her firing with the U.S. Attorney scandal that enveloped the Department of Justice and led to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s resignation:

We do not yet know all the details of Ms. Gade’s firing, or everything that may have gone on between her office and Dow Chemical. But from everything that we’ve heard and seen so far, it looks like déjà vu all over again. From an administration that values compliance with its political agenda more than it values the trust or the best interests of the American people. Last year we learned that this is an administration that wouldn’t hesitate to fire capable federal prosecutors when they wouldn’t toe an improper party line. Today it seems that the Bush Administration might have once again removed a highly qualified and well-regarded official whose only misstep was to disagree with the political bosses.

Watch it:

Sen. Whitehouse also announced that he is conducting an oversight hearing into the politicization of the EPA and the circumstances of Gade’s dismissal next Wednesday. The last time EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson testified before Sen. Whitehouse, he put in a shameful performance, leading Whitehouse to state:

In my short time in Washington, I didn’t think I would again encounter a witness as evasive and unresponsive as Alberto Gonzales was during our investigation of the U.S. Attorney scandal. Unfortunately, today EPA Administrator Johnson stooped to that low standard.

UPDATE: Kate Sheppard at Gristmill writes that, according to an Energy and Commerce Committee spokesperson, Committee Chair John Dingell (D-MI) “is concerned about this and has asked his oversight staff to look into it.”

UPDATE II: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-MI) noted that Gade stepped down “the same day that Indiana forwarded its final draft air permit for the BP Whiting plant to EPA Region 5 for its review.” He has “asked for a meeting with the Administrator of EPA so that I can better understand why Ms. Gade has been placed on administrative leave,” and called on President Bush to “act swiftly to fill this important position with an administrator who will protect Lake Michigan and the communities that surround it.”

Sen. Whitehouse’s full remarks on politics at EPA, as prepared for delivery: Read the rest of this entry »

Shades Of U.S. Attorney Scandal: Top EPA Official Forced Out By Political Appointees»

The Wonk Room has previously described Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson as “the environment’s Alberto Gonzales.” After years of scandal as White House Counsel and Attorney General, Gonzales finally resigned after it was revealed that numerous U.S. attorneys were fired without cause under his watch.

Now it seems the EPA is following the Department of Justice’s efforts to rid itself of staffers who are not “loyal Bushies.”

The Chicago Tribune reports:

The Bush administration forced its top environmental regulator in the Midwest to quit Thursday after months of internal bickering about dioxin contamination downstream from Dow Chemical’s world headquarters in Michigan.

In an interview with the Tribune, Mary Gade said two top political appointees at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington stripped her of her powers as regional administrator and told her to quit or be fired by June 1.

As a congressional investigation revealed this week, the EPA’s regulation of toxic chemicals like dioxin has been corrupted by interference by the White House. But this case is even more egregious:

For the past year, Gade has been locked in a heated dispute with Dow about long-delayed plans to clean up dioxin-saturated soil and sediment that extends 50 miles beyond its Midland, Mich., plant into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. [. . .]

Though regional EPA administrators typically have wide latitude to enforce environmental laws, Gade drew fire from officials in Washington last month after she sent contractors to test soil in a Saginaw neighborhood where Dow had found high dioxin levels.

She said top lieutenants to Stephen Johnson, the national EPA administrator, repeatedly questioned her aggressive action against Dow, which long ago acknowledged it is responsible for the dioxin contamination but has resisted federal and state involvement in cleanup plans.

Gade told the Chicago Tribune, “There’s no question this is about Dow.” When Johnson appointed Gade to her position in 2006, he praised “her impressive environmental career,” saying, “Mary is well-prepared to lead the Agency’s largest regional office.”

UPDATE: In 2000, Mary Gade wrote optimistically about environmental policy in a Bush administration:

To the question of politics — or, I hope, the lack thereof. A successful twenty-first-century environmental policy will require a leader who can reach across partisan lines and bridge political differences on what should be the ultimate nonpartisan issue. It also will require a President who recognizes that environmental issues don’t respect national borders and who can credibly address these complex issues on the international stage. I confess, I’m a Republican and a supporter of Texas Governor George W. Bush. I believe Governor Bush in two terms has put together a stronger bipartisan record on conservation and the environment than Al Gore has in twenty-plus years in Washington, D.C., precisely because Bush puts action and results above talk and posture.

UPDATE II: Via Daily Kos user LakeSuperior, Michigan Environmental Council President Lana Pollack calls Mary Gade “woman of unquestioned credentials and integrity who was doing her job enforcing our environmental laws”:

If Mary Gade were indeed forced out because she was willing to enforce environmental laws against Dow Chemical, then it is a travesty.

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