Bush Picks Utah Governor to Head EPA

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.

Source: Associated Press