In other news from the EPA, the Knight Ridder news agency is reporting that two of the agency’s top officials resigned shortly after the EPA weakened the nation’s clean air only to take jobs with industrial firms that greatly benefited from the rule changes.

John Pemberton, the chief of staff in the EPA’s air and radiation office, left to become the director of federal affairs for Southern Co., an Atlanta-based utility. The firm is considered to be the second biggest power-plant polluter in the nation and had spent millions lobbying for the rule changes.

In addition, Ed Krenik, who had been the EPA’s associate administrator for congressional affairs, left the EPA to work for the Houston-based law firm that coordinated lobbying for several utilities on easing the power-plant pollution rule.