Deseret News
August 12, 2003

Wilds activists not surprised;  'Utah's loss is the nation's loss,' says one pollution fighter

By Donna Kemp Spangler and Jerry D. Spangler
Deseret Morning News staff writers

Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt admits he was unprepared for the complexity of environmental issues that awaited him when he first took office 10 years ago.

Things are about to get a whole lot more complicated for the governor who, in recent interviews with the Deseret Morning News, painted himself as a reluctant environmental governor.
      
On Monday, conservationists greeted news that Leavitt had been named top administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency with jeers wrapped in plenty of sarcasm.
      
"Utah's loss is the nation's loss," quipped Chip Ward with Families Against Incinerator Risk, an activist group that battles pollution in Utah's desert — including the nation's top air polluter, USMagnesium. "This does not bode well for the country."
      
But local environmentalists aren't too surprised that Bush would select Leavitt for the top environmental post.
      
"It's an appointment that would be consistent with other aspects of Bush's environmental issues," said Larry Young, executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "He's talked a moderate game and played the anti-environmental game in Utah."
      
As EPA director, Leavitt takes on one of the most controversial posts in Bush's Cabinet. He will be the lightning rod for Bush's clean air and water policies, and he will oversee the Superfund cleanups — a program with 22 cleanup sites in Utah.
      
Instead of lobbying the Legislature for more money for school textbooks, he will now be tackling such issues as acid rain, global warming and dirty smokestacks.
      
Leavitt has sparred off and on with Utah's environmental community, which has opposed his policies on wilderness, rural roads and just about every other issue having to do with land, water and air. Most recently, SUWA sued Leavitt over what it said was backroom deals with the Department of Interior that gutted wilderness protections.
      
But heading the EPA has brought out national critics who probably never heard of the Utah governor before Monday, and the resulting rhetoric is getting nastier than Leavitt is probably accustomed to in Utah. One national environmental group even called Leavitt's appointment akin to naming archconservative Attorney General John Ashcroft as head of the American Civil Liberties Union.
      
And activists near and far are finding little good to say about Leavitt's environmental record.
      
"If Utah is an example of what he will do for the nation, the nation had better prepare for the worst," said Denise Boggs, executive director of the Utah Environmental Congress. "He's done no meaningful things for the environment."
      
Lawson LeGate, southwest regional representative of the Sierra Club, agreed, pointing out a litany of "anti-environmental" issues Leavitt has pursued, including "the governor's dogged persistence to get Legacy Highway built, which will just end up in more urban sprawl," he said.
      
Leavitt told the Deseret Morning News recently he is proud of his environmental legacy, and he points to his ability to bring together diverse interests to build consensus. He was particularly proud of regional air quality partnerships to reduce haze over the western United States — a partnership he spearheaded.
      
"The air is cleaner and the water is cleaner," Leavitt said. "Demonstratively so."
      
Dianne Nielsen, director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, said Leavitt is "well-prepared and up to the job" of EPA director, promising he will bring an enthusiasm for federal-state partnerships.
      
"He is willing to tackle tough issues," she said. "He stepped up with other Western governors (to battle) regional haze problems, and now we are ahead of the game. It wasn't easy, and there was no road map to follow. But they figured out how to move forward."

While environmentalists were shuddering at the thought of a conservative Utah Republican steering the EPA, industry and energy officials were giddy with excitement.
      
"The governor, overall, he's very strong on consensus building," said Frank Maisano, energy consultant with Bracewell and Patterson in Washington, D.C. "We feel, we hope, that it's a good sign to move forward with some changes."
      
Tom Bingham with the Utah Manufacturers Association called the appointment a "real positive," adding industry should be supportive of Leavitt's long-standing philosophy of increasing economic development and jobs.
      
"I think he recognizes that instead of running around looking to impose fines (on businesses) for noncompliance that EPA could work with industries to find ways to bring them into compliance," he said.
      
And that kind of philosophy should keep small businesses in business instead of bankrupting them, Bingham added.
      
The fact that industry would cheer is not lost on conservationists, who see the appointment as just another Bush effort to help businesses while undermining environmental law and policy.
      
And they chide Leavitt for his environmental philosophy he calls Enlibra, a Latin-based term he says means to move toward balance.
      
"He has done nothing for the state of Utah," said Boggs. "The best he can do is make up a word he calls 'Enlibra.' "
      
Ultimately, the nation need only look to Utah to find out more about Leavitt's environmental legacy, conservationists say.
      
"His attitude (in Utah) toward enforcing federal environmental policy has been indifferent at best," Ward said. "The nation can expect the same weak interpretation and enforcement of environmental law and policy that we have become accustomed to in Utah."