more on the EPA administrator forced to resign

Mary Gade is no tree-hugger; just an honest public servant.

An EPA controversy brewing in the Midwest calls to mind the U.S. attorneys scandal, as Brad Johnson noted yesterday. Top officials in the agency have forced Mary Gade, head of the EPA's Region 5 office in Chicago, to step down from her post or be fired by June 1. The ouster comes after Gade pressured Dow Chemical to clean up the dioxin-saturated soil and sediment extending 50 miles downstream from its Michigan headquarters.

 

Gade is also the former director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and, perhaps most notably, a George W. Bush supporter and adviser. In 2000, she went to bat for then-governor and candidate Bush in an environmental roundtable for The Atlantic, praising his "fresh approach" and "strong leadership." But even her political loyalties couldn't shield her from an administration bent on protecting the chemical industry rather than the environment.