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EPA official Forced Out, Sparks Interest on Capitol Hill

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May 02, 2008 1:19 PM

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports: The EPA official in Chicago, who has been placed on administrative leave and who the Bush administration has forced after pressuring DOW Chemical to clean-up a dioxin contamination in Michigan has already drummed up some interest on Capitol Hill, the Chicago Tribune first reported this morning.

Mary Gade was forced to quit her job as head of the U.S. EPA Midwest office on Thursday and expect Democrats to investigate the issue starting next week.

In a speech on the Senate floor Friday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI - who has carved out a role as something of a Democrat investigator - compared Gade's situation to the Bush administration's firings of nine U.S. attorneys in the aftermath of the 2006 midterm elections. 

Democrats complained then about the politicization of the U.S. attorneys. Whitehouse complained Friday about the politicization of the EPA.

He got into a colloquy on the floor with Florida Democrat Ben Nelson - who complained about the politicization of NASA - pointing to the changing of wording in reports from scientists there about climate change.

"We do not yet know all the details of Ms. Gade's firing, or everything that may have gone on between EPA and Dow Chemical," Whitehouse said. "But from all we have heard and seen, Mary Gade's story seems like déjà vu all over again from an administration that values compliance with a political agenda over the best interests of the American people."

Whitehouse said he and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., will question EPA officials on the firing/forcing out at an oversight hearing next week.

According to the Democrats in the House, they have similar plans.

May 2, 2008 in Washington | Permalink | User Comments (6)

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User Comments

EPA....This is something that causes eyebrows to raise! Corporate America has been running politics for over 30 years...and systems are bogged down....Systems have failed because of people who lie, steal and commit wrongs to maintain power....So the man who does a job for the right gets kicked down.....the American Way!!!!!

Posted by: Apachecheynne | May 2, 2008 1:36:05 PM

Ah. Just one more way that The republicans look to help us, "We the people."

Posted by: Louis | May 2, 2008 1:41:03 PM

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF WHY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS GOING TO FOLLOW THE DINOSAUR. THIS, "ME FIRST" ATTITUDE IS WHY McCAIN MIGHT BE ELECTED DOG CATCHER IN D.C.

Posted by: DAVID NH | May 2, 2008 1:47:38 PM

"In February Dow told federal regulators they had found dioxin levels of 5,900 parts per trillion in the Collins' neighborhood, above the federal cleanup standard of 1,000 parts per trillion. Michigan's far more stringent limit is 90 parts per trillion"

So the logical thing to do is to fire the person who is trying and get this cleaned up.

Posted by: Louis | May 2, 2008 1:47:57 PM

Aah, the Corporatocracy- to them, people- "the hoarde"- are just a means to the end: "maximize the return to the shareholder". Which is why, possibly in the next few decades, millions may die and hundreds of millions may become climate refugees d/t global warming: Oil and Agri-business will have their profit. Human suffering is not an issue.

Posted by: dave droll | May 2, 2008 2:20:23 PM

Court records show that Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) had a blood-alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit when he was arrested on drunken driving charges this week.

Court papers indicate that Fossella's blood-alcohol level was 0.17 percent when he was arrested early Thursday outside Washington. The legal limit in Virginia is 0.08 percent.

Posted by: Eric | May 2, 2008 5:33:30 PM

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