Posted on Mon, Aug. 11, 2003
   Bush Picks Utah Gov. Leavitt to Head EPA

   JOHN HEILPRIN
   Associated Press

   WASHINGTON - 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 2 1/2 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.

   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.

   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.

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