Late Thursday the Bush administration announced that it was nominating Granta Nakayama as chief of enforcement for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Nakayama is a specialist in environmental law, is a full partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP, the law firm that is now defending W.R. Grace & Co. against criminal charges in a major environmental case.

The law firm is defending Grace against multiple criminal charges alleging that the Columbia-based company and seven of its current or former executives knowingly put their workers and the public in danger through exposure to vermiculite ore contaminated with asbestos from the company’s mine in Libby, Montana, a case that is being called “one of the most significant criminal indictments for environmental crime in our history,” by EPA agents.

While Nakayama was a student in George Mason University School of Law, Kirkland & Ellis led the successful appellate court battle to scuttle the EPA’s 10-year effort to ban the mining, importation, use and sale of asbestos and asbestos-containing products.

But Thomas Skinner, the EPA’s acting head of enforcement, said Nakayama would avoid any conflicts.

“I’m very confident that the first thing he’s going to do when he walks in that door is to sign a formal recusal letter and to make clear to everyone in the agency that he’s to have nothing to do with W.R. Grace or other clients represented by [Kirkland & Ellis] and nobody can talk to him about these matters.

“I guarantee you it will happen,” Skinner added.

Yeah…and I have bridge for sale–cheap…

Eleven EPA lawyers and investigators contacted yesterday refused to comment on the record, with most saying that any public comments would be “a career-ender.”

Another brazenly anti-environmental apointment by the Bush administration. Let’s see if the Democrats have any spine on this one.

I’m posting this one under the category “environmental wisdom” even thought there is no wisdom apparent here.