First it was the controversy over Bush's pick for EPA director, Stephen Johnson, who advocated
testing pesticides in households with children, a study that has
since been cancelled.
Now, yet another Bush EPA choice is raising eyebrows:
President Bush has nominated Granta Nakayama, a partner in a law firm whose clients include W.R. Grace, BP, Dow Chemical and DuPont, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency's far-flung enforcement division.
Selecting a lawyer and an engineer with one of the nation's largest corporate law firms, whose clients have deep and occasionally controversial relations with the EPA, triggered concerns that Nakayama would not be able to aggressively enforce environmental laws.
Foremost among those concerns is W.R. Grace, which is under federal criminal indictment on charges related to the operation of its vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont. Hundreds of workers and Libby residents contracted lethal asbestos-related disease -- a situation that gained national attention after a Seattle Post-Intelligencer series in 1999.
Wow. A Bush nominee with questionable connections... who would have thought? This would be like putting a career diamond thief in charge of a jewelery store.
Giving the Environment the Finger ™ should be one of the Bush administration's slogans:
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., expressed concern about the nomination.
"This appointment is just the latest in a series of moves that calls into question this administration's commitment to protecting our environment, our natural resources and the health and well-being of all Americans," said Murray, who has aggressively pushed legislation to ban asbestos.
Critics say the White House has attempted to minimize the science supporting such things as global warming and the danger of mercury.
In one of the more recent controversies, The New York Times reported earlier this month that a White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases had repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that played down links between such emissions and global warming.
Screw Science™ too.
Way to go, Bush. Now we'll have the fox guarding the henhouse if this guy is confirmed.