Should have blogged about this last Friday but didn’t. So thanks to Abi @ 604 for reminding me.

Mary Gade was the head of the EPA’s Midwest Regional Office, and since 2006 when she was appointed by the Bush Administration she’s locked horns with Dow Chemical over cleanup of dioxin contaminated sediment in Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay. She’s invoked EPA emergency powers to force Dow to clean up three highly contaminated sites near its Midland plant, and last November she called for additional dredging after tests found dioxin levels of 1.6 PPT in a Saginaw park, the highest concentration ever recorded.

But last week, Gade resigned after being stripped of her authority by aides to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson who told her that, if she did not resign by June 1st, she would be fired.

First rule of a Corporate Kleptocracy:

Remove regulations on, curtail oversight of, and block corrective action against predatory industries.