Salt Lake Tribune
August 12, 2003

Leavitt headed to EPA

By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune

Gov. Mike Leavitt stepped into the national spotlight Monday, accepting President Bush's invitation to join the Cabinet as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
 
While he said he would be sad leaving a state where he has been chief executive for more than a decade, he promised to take Utah-grown values with him to the controversy-plagued job, a role for which many environmentalists say he is ill-suited.
   
Flanked by his wife and Bush at a news conference in Aurora, Colo., announcing the nomination, Leavitt recounted a story he has told Utahns before -- about being a good steward of the environment by planting seeds -- and promised to take the same ethic to the EPA.
   
"If I am confirmed of this service, I will give you that same pledge," said Leavitt, 52. "I will leave it a better place than I found it, I will plant seeds for a future generation, and I will give it all I have."
   
He has done the same as Utah's governor, Leavitt said, calling his mission largely completed.
  
Bush announced his choice to replace former EPA director Christine Todd Whitman at a hotel near the Denver Airport on Monday afternoon. Leavitt's family and Utah legislative leaders, Senate President Al Mansell and Speaker of the House Marty Stephens also were on hand.
   
The president praised Leavitt as "a trusted friend, a capable executive and a man who understands the obligations of environmental stewardship." Bush and his EPA nominee, a fellow Western Republican, sat next to each other for years at meetings of the National Governors Association and traveled together to Israel on a fact-finding tour in 1998, the year before Bush announced he would run for president.
   
"The work of the EPA is vital and reflects a national consensus on the importance of good stewardship," said Bush.
   
Bush announced Leavitt's appointment during a swing through the West to focus on environmental issues, considered to be an Achilles heel for the president in his 2004 reelection bid. On Monday, he focused on Western wildfires. Later in the week, Bush is expected to stop in Oregon, to talk about forest policy, and Washington state, to talk about endangered wild salmon.
    Whitman, the former governor of New Jersey, announced her resignation in May, after 2 1/2 years in the position.
    While Whitman, who visited Utah in April 2002, denied conflict with her boss, it was widely reported she had become weary of trying to get her job done without heavy-handed intervention from the White House.
    Leavitt seemed to dispel any concern that he and Bush might clash over the issues, which include such thorny problems as global climate change, a depleted Superfund for toxic-waste cleanups and states outraged over proposed power plant pollution controls. The Utah governor said he and Bush "have a like mind and a like heart" on environmental policy.
    Leavitt spoke with the White House about the position in June but dismissed speculation about the position when it appeared Gov. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho was the front-runner for the job.
    Then, in early July, Bush asked Leavitt to meet with him in the Oval Office to talk about environmental issues. During the meeting, the Utah governor said Bush offered to help smooth the transition by asking Utahns to "release" Leavitt as governor so he could serve at the White House. About a week and a half ago, Leavitt received an official offer for the job.
    Now that he has accepted the nomination, Leavitt can expect tough Senate confirmation hearings. Mindful of next year's elections, Democrats have said they see the EPA position as a good place to focus their attacks on the Republican administration's environmental record.
    OSen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., in a news release about Leavitt's nomination, lambasted Bush for having the "worst environmental record in history."
    "The American people deserve to know whether Governor Leavitt shares the same disregard for clean air, clean water, land conservation and global warming as the president," said Lieberman.
    Leavitt can expect to find support in the Senate from the majority Republicans. U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, issued a news release Monday praising Leavitt for working shoulder-to-shoulder with people "interested in achieving a balanced approach to the protection of our environment and our natural resources."
    "His work on land and energy issues is admired nationally," said Hatch, "and I know that he will inject much-needed common sense into the EPA and its decision-making process."
    Among environmentalists, Leavitt can expect to find a few friends and many harsh critics. While wilderness and clean water advocates are likely to be among those attacking Leavitt's record, interest groups concerned about clean air and nuclear waste are bound to praise Leavitt.
    The governor has been a forceful advocate of a 13-state pact that calls for business and government to reduce power-plant emissions in an effort to clear the skies over national parks, especially the Grand Canyon and southern Utah's Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Arches.
    He also has been a vocal opponent of plans by the tiny Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians and a consortium of nuclear utilities to store up to 44,000 tons of spent nuclear full on Indian reservation land 45 miles southwest of Utah's capital city.
    However, many environmentalists, including those in Utah, predict Leavitt will carry out Bush administration goals they characterize as pro-business and anti-environmental.
    Philip E. Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said Leavitt, like Whitman, may be starting out with a reputation as a moderate, "but unlike her, he has taken a hard right turn on the environment."
    "I can't think of too many governors more hostile to government regulations than Mike Leavitt."
    Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Washington-based Clean Air Trust, pointed out Leavitt will be fighting for changes to EPA power-plant regulations that his group opposes.
    "There may be some pretty unpleasant moments for Leavitt in the confirmation hearings," predicted O'Donnell, whose group was started by northeastern state senators who are fighting the EPA proposal in court.
    Representatives from six environmentalist groups in Utah gathered at Salt Lake City's downtown library soon after news of Monday's appointment.
    "It's what you would expect," said Chip Ward, chairman of Families Against Incinerator Risk.
    Although he gave Leavitt high marks for fighting against nuclear waste in Utah, Ward criticized the governor for excluding environmental advocates from many of his policy discussions and for failing to crack down on dioxin at US Magnesium, a magnesium-processing company on the western edge of the Great Salt Lake that was for years the nation's worst polluter.
    "If you have a weak environmental record, you put a weak leader in" the EPA, said Ward. "And that's what the administration is getting with Mike Leavitt."
    Utah environmentalists also blasted Leavitt for not practicing the cooperative problem-solving philosophy he calls "enlibra."
    They said he too often labels environmentalists "extremists" and shuts them out of negotiations on key issues, especially questions about conserving public lands, such as wilderness. Instead, they say, he prefers to get environmental compliance from business by collaboration instead of enforcement.
    "I'm glad that he's leaving the state of Utah," said Zach Frankel of Utah Rivers Council. "But anyone who cares about America's environment should be concerned."
    Marc Clemens, chapter coordinator for the Utah Sierra Club, noted that Leavitt's push for the Legacy Highway along the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake put thousands of acres of wetlands and important habitat in jeopardy -- until the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals effectively blocked further construction on the project.
    "Mike Leavitt has no credentials, no understanding and no political willpower to protect America's clean air, clean water and clean land," he said.
    Leavitt is sure to be called upon to defend his environmental record over the next few months -- and he is slated to speak today in Salt Lake City to the national Environmental Council of the States.
    But the governor insisted Monday he would not discuss his philosophy on the environment until his confirmation hearing, probably this fall.