The Environmental Protection Agency has named Lynn Buhl the new Midwest regional administrator of the EPA, replacing the ousted Mary Gade.

Gade was forced to resign as administrator of EPA Zone 5 earlier this year after she began pressuring Dow Chemical to begin clean-up of a large swath of dioxin-contaminated soil near Lake Huron.

Buhl has a history befitting a typical Bush appointee. Beginning in 1988, Buhl served as “counsel for environmental legal affairs” to auto-giant DaimlerChrysler for ten-years. Buhl then worked at Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality under Republican Gov. John Engler, who was often at odds with environmental advocates.

Maryland’s Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich nominated her to head the state’s Department of the Environment in 2003, but opposition from environmental advocacy groups was fierce. The Democratic-controlled Maryland Senate took the unprecedented step of rejecting her nomination.

Ehrlich eventually made Buhl the Deputy Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources. In September 2006, Buhl became Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance at EPA.

Buhl’s appointment has been called a victory for Dow, though it may be short-lived with little more than six months remaining for the Bush administration.