Last Straw for EPA Administrator?
The EPA's coziness with industry and the White House -- at the expense of science -- is hardly new. But firing the EPA's Midwest Regulator for telling Dow Chemical to clean up a Michigan river could be so absurd that it signals the end for EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) compared Johnson on the Senate floor today with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Whitehouse said that like the U.S. Attorneys dismissed by Alberto Gonzales, Midwest regulator Mary Gade was let go because she wasn't "a loyal Bushie."
Whitehouse mentioned that the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee will hold an oversight hearing Wednesday on political interference at the EPA. The House oversight committee will hold a similar hearing Thursday where Johnson is scheduled to testify.
Johnson has been mostly silent in the face of nonstop criticism since December. With so much unchallenged evidence of inappropriate political interference, he may no longer be able to keep quiet.
Comments:
Posted 05/06/2008 12:19pm with
This should read
“Working for the US Government,
It is the only job you can get fired from for doing your job”.
The EPA is firing the very person that is enforcing the law of the EPA to protect the public and their environment.
If the Midwest Regulators position welds that type of power to enforce companies to cleanup its messes “No matter whom it is”, then the EPA needs more people that have a backbone like Mary Gade.
“Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee will hold an oversight hearing Wednesday on political interference at the EPA“
A hearing to do What? “We are going to ask tough question and expect honest answers”
This is going to be a dog and pony show, this committee has no teeth and to whom are they going to recommend changes to “The President”.
Fire the head of the EPA and put someone who is not influenced by political power or corruption.
Good Luck! At this rate that may be a hard person to find anywhere.