The ombudsman for the U.S. EPA, Robert Martin, is accusing the agency’s administrator, Christine Todd Whitman, of punishing him for opposing an agreement limiting the financial liability of Citigroup for a controversial Superfund cleanup. Martin alleges that Whitman had a conflict of interest in the case because Citigroup is a principal investor in her husband’s venture capital firm. The agreement would limit Citigroup’s liability to just $7.2 million of an estimated $22 to $35 million price tag for the cleanup. After airing his objections, the ombudsman, who serves as the liaison between the EPA and the public, saw his office stripped of its independence and reassigned within the agency bureaucracy. Martin has taken his gripe to the courts, arguing that the move was punitive. On Friday, he won a delay of the reassignment until the end of February.
