A federal judge blasted former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman on Thursday for reassuring New Yorkers after the September 11 attacks that it was safe to return to their homes and offices while toxic dust was polluting the neighborhood.
U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts refused to grant Whitman immunity against a class-action lawsuit brought in 2004 by residents, students and workers in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn who said they were exposed to hazardous materials from the collapse of the World Trade Center.
“No reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people that it was safe to return to lower Manhattan, while knowing that such return could pose long-term health risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned by our laws,” the judge said.
She called Whitman’s actions “conscience-shocking,” saying the EPA chief knew that the fall of the twin towers released tons of hazardous materials into the air.
Well, I’m not shocked. Whitman was about as qualified to run the EPA as any other Bush crony. Well, that’s not true. She was better than Michael Brown.
I don’t suppose that her telling people that it was safe down there was any indication that she was under orders from higher ups to do so.
I believe that this is one of the reasons that she resigned her post, and is now being denied immunity. There have been some terrible things being done to the EPA under this administration. Sure Whitman was as qualified, but when I spoke to her as an advocate here for the Hudson River, she seemed to know her stuff, and seemed genuinely concerned. I kind of think that she was ordered to do this, as well as other atrocious things, and then stepped down.
Look at the administration’s “Clear Skies Initiative.” It should be called “Clear the Skys, Cause if you’re up there, you’re gonna choke, Initiative.”
Chris and Lou raise another recent Republikan phenomenon. Used to be among Conservatives, whether it was Truman or Eisenhower, you accepted responsibility for your political decisions. That included the dolts you sometimes appointed to office as political payback.
Nowadays, when problems arise, everyone rushs to teflon-coat the boss! “Oh, no — I didn’t know that” or “I can’t remember anyone telling me about that” or “I’m not certain who has oversight on that question” ad nauseum. If you’re running a department or a country, used to be you took responsibility for something, once in a while.
If department heads are not responsible for their departments, why even have them?!
Political paybacks.
Department heads are usually insulated from personal liability for their department’s errors. Usually the Governing authority is the one responsible unless it can be shown that the employee acted totally outside the bounds of policy. I’m not sure about Whitman being held personally responsible. In this case Whitman acted for the EPA.
It would be quite a political shocker if she suggests that the White House ordered her to make the statement.
She called Whitman’s actions “conscience-shocking,” saying the EPA chief knew that the fall of the twin towers released tons of hazardous materials into the air.
It sounds like the Judge has already made up her mind.
Of course the alternative was to evacuate nearly all of New York City for at least a year until the entire city could be decontaminated. Now that would have cost only a trillion dollars or so.
Hmm, I wonder if I underestimated the cost of closing Wall Street?