The Environmental “Protection” Agency faced two major slams yesterday, from east and west. In Washington, D.C., the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office issued a report scolding EPA for its post-9/11 cleanup efforts, saying the agency’s approach to toxic indoor contamination in buildings near the site is misdirected and ignores New Yorkers’ health concerns. The report “confirms our worst fears about the Bush administration’s incompetence,” said Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), who almost sounds as if she’s running for office or something. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Friends of the Earth and Earthjustice filed suit against EPA over its failure to set emissions standards for oceangoing ships around the nation. The agency had pledged in 2003 to issue such a rule by this April, but whoops! “What’s at stake here,” said Teri Shore of Friends of the Earth, “is the lives of thousands of people around the country who will continue to inhale diesel exhaust from large ships.”
