Senators grill EPA pick on record in Utah, Bush policies

By Seth Borenstein, Knight Ridder, 9/24/2003

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Governor Mike Leavitt of Utah, took heat yesterday from the Senate Environment Committee for the alleged weakening of US environmental policy under his boss-to-be, but also basked in the praise for what his supporters said was a cleaner Utah.

Leavitt said he wasn't involved in many of Bush's controversial environmental policies and pledged cooperation with all sides.

"I view myself as a problem solver by nature," Leavitt said. "The solutions to the problems are found in the productive middle; rarely are they found in the extremes."

His approach has worked in Utah, where the air and water are cleaner since Leavitt took office, Republican senators maintained.

"The facts show that Governor Leavitt's environmental record is one of the best in the nation," said Senator James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma and chairman of the Senate Environment Committee.

"Being head of the EPA is a management job, and this man has proven he's a darn good manager," said Senator George Voinovich, Republican of Ohio.

Leavitt's environmental record over 11 years as governor is mixed, however. The state's water is cleaner, and Leavitt did initiate a landmark effort to curb urban sprawl -- unusual for a western Republican. But he also led an unsuccessful attempt to build a highway through some delicate wetlands.

And Leavitt's administration was slow to punish a trash-to-energy plant in Layton, Utah. The EPA stepped in and threatened $902 million in fines. Eventually the plant installed $7 million in pollution controls. State officials hail this as a success because the plant was cleaned up, but environmentalists say the polluters paid no penalties.

"Governor Leavitt's record environmentally is terrible," said Zach Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council.

Democrats attacked Bush's environmental record yesterday.

"Governor, the record of the Environmental Protection Agency under this president is abysmal," said Senator James Jeffords, Independent of Vermont. "We have watched this administration roll back environmental laws and regulations day after day, week after week, month after month."

"What we have today is a situation that into this political cauldron comes a good man," said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. He quoted an EPA report that said only 24 percent of major water polluters are penalized. "There's a widespread feeling that there is something of a polluter's holiday," Wyden said.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York,

and Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democrats' second in command in the Senate, as well as three presidential candidates -- Senators John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, and John Edwards of North Carolina -- promised to hold up Leavitt's nomination.