vick vega
August 11th, 2003, 08:34 PM
Nothing terribly surprising. Bush picks an EPA head that is less enviro freindly than Whitman:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/08/11/epa.ap/index.html
Bush picks Utah governor to head EPA
Monday, August 11, 2003 Posted: 4:50 PM EDT (2050 GMT)
Bush, on a Western trip to talk about timber policies and wildfires, is expected to announce Leavitt's nomination late Monday.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush has picked Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, an advocate of shifting environmental regulation to the states, to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a senior administration official said Monday.
Leavitt, a three-term Republican governor, would succeed Christie Whitman, a former New Jersey governor who held the post of EPA administrator for the first 21/2 years of the administration before resigning in May.
The EPA post has been a lightning rod for critics of the administration's environmental policies. Bush, on a Western trip to talk about timber policies and wildfires, was expected to announce Leavitt's nomination late Monday. Leavitt, 52, has championed the idea of increasing environmental cooperation among federal, state and local officials.
Over the objections of environmentalists, he advocated a major highway extension through wetlands near the Great Salt Lake. The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals halted the project, saying the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not pay enough attention to wildlife or look at alternatives before approving it.
As governor, Leavitt has made several environmental arrangements with the Bush administration, most recently settling a long-standing dispute over ownership of roads across federal land.
He has also negotiated several exchanges of state and federal land, some of them questioned by Interior Department auditors. Administration officials described Leavitt, the nation's longest serving governor, as a leader on environmental issues with a record of improving air and water and conserving land.
He has been co-chair of the Western Regional Air Partnership, and officials said he was instrumental in bringing together states, tribes, environmentalists and industry to address the problem of brown haze over the Grand Canyon.
Leavitt also oversaw his state's preparations for and hosting of the 2002 Winter Olympics, and since then has served on a presidentially appointed advisory committee on homeland security.
As Utah's governor, he has fought against plans to build a temporary storage facility for high-level nuclear waste on an Indian reservation in western Utah. The state is also home to a biological test site, a chemical weapons incinerator, a low-level nuclear waste dump and a company that is one of the nation's largest air polluters.
In 1995, Leavitt called a growth summit to deal with Utah's booming population and economy. The meeting resulted in calls for local-based, free-market approaches to preserving open space, but yielded few tangible changes.
Whitman, who had a record as an environmental moderate when she was New Jersey's governor, clashed several times with officials in Bush's White House and other agencies. Her views often lost out to concerns raised by developers and energy companies.
Bush, for example, reversed his campaign position in favor of regulating carbon dioxide from burning coal and oil as a pollutant. Whitman had stated the administration's position would be in favor of placing a ceiling on CO2 emissions.
Against her advice, Bush also rejected an international treaty on global warming negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in 1997 by the Clinton administration. Leavitt had met with administration officials in early June to discuss the possibility of taking the post, but he declined then, saying it would be "highly problematic" because he was considering running for a fourth term, a spokeswoman said at the time.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, a former Republican senator, also had been mentioned as a candidate for the EPA post. Kempthorne confirmed earlier this month that he had talked with White House officials about the job shortly after Whitman's resignation.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/08/11/epa.ap/index.html
Bush picks Utah governor to head EPA
Monday, August 11, 2003 Posted: 4:50 PM EDT (2050 GMT)
Bush, on a Western trip to talk about timber policies and wildfires, is expected to announce Leavitt's nomination late Monday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush has picked Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, an advocate of shifting environmental regulation to the states, to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a senior administration official said Monday.
Leavitt, a three-term Republican governor, would succeed Christie Whitman, a former New Jersey governor who held the post of EPA administrator for the first 21/2 years of the administration before resigning in May.
The EPA post has been a lightning rod for critics of the administration's environmental policies. Bush, on a Western trip to talk about timber policies and wildfires, was expected to announce Leavitt's nomination late Monday. Leavitt, 52, has championed the idea of increasing environmental cooperation among federal, state and local officials.
Over the objections of environmentalists, he advocated a major highway extension through wetlands near the Great Salt Lake. The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals halted the project, saying the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not pay enough attention to wildlife or look at alternatives before approving it.
As governor, Leavitt has made several environmental arrangements with the Bush administration, most recently settling a long-standing dispute over ownership of roads across federal land.
He has also negotiated several exchanges of state and federal land, some of them questioned by Interior Department auditors. Administration officials described Leavitt, the nation's longest serving governor, as a leader on environmental issues with a record of improving air and water and conserving land.
He has been co-chair of the Western Regional Air Partnership, and officials said he was instrumental in bringing together states, tribes, environmentalists and industry to address the problem of brown haze over the Grand Canyon.
Leavitt also oversaw his state's preparations for and hosting of the 2002 Winter Olympics, and since then has served on a presidentially appointed advisory committee on homeland security.
As Utah's governor, he has fought against plans to build a temporary storage facility for high-level nuclear waste on an Indian reservation in western Utah. The state is also home to a biological test site, a chemical weapons incinerator, a low-level nuclear waste dump and a company that is one of the nation's largest air polluters.
In 1995, Leavitt called a growth summit to deal with Utah's booming population and economy. The meeting resulted in calls for local-based, free-market approaches to preserving open space, but yielded few tangible changes.
Whitman, who had a record as an environmental moderate when she was New Jersey's governor, clashed several times with officials in Bush's White House and other agencies. Her views often lost out to concerns raised by developers and energy companies.
Bush, for example, reversed his campaign position in favor of regulating carbon dioxide from burning coal and oil as a pollutant. Whitman had stated the administration's position would be in favor of placing a ceiling on CO2 emissions.
Against her advice, Bush also rejected an international treaty on global warming negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in 1997 by the Clinton administration. Leavitt had met with administration officials in early June to discuss the possibility of taking the post, but he declined then, saying it would be "highly problematic" because he was considering running for a fourth term, a spokeswoman said at the time.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, a former Republican senator, also had been mentioned as a candidate for the EPA post. Kempthorne confirmed earlier this month that he had talked with White House officials about the job shortly after Whitman's resignation.