Bush Choice to Head E.P.A. 
Asks Clinton Administrator for Reference 

KATHARINE Q. SEELYE NY Times 13aug03

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12—By 6 o'clock this morning, Utah time, Gov. Michael O. Leavitt, President Bush's choice for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, had called Carol M. Browner, the administrator under President Bill Clinton. He asked if he could use her as a reference as he prepared for his confirmation hearings, which are bound to be rife with Democratic dissent.

Ms. Browner said sure, but she told him she would tell people about both his pluses and his minuses. In the plus category, she told a reporter later, she would say that they worked well together, that he was "very good on the Grand Canyon visibility stuff" and that "he didn't simply walk the industry line." In addition, she said, "he's a really nice guy."

On the down side, she said, she would say he was a true believer in two philosophies with which she adamantly disagrees. One, which he shares with the Bush administration, is cost-benefit analysis, which she opposes because, she said, it traditionally overestimates the cost of regulations to industry and underestimates the benefit to health and the environment. The second is his belief in states' rights, which she said can lead to low standards and to some states' becoming pollution havens.

The call to Ms. Browner, a Democrat, was an indication that Governor Leavitt, a Republican, was executing a comprehensive confirmation strategy to win over Democrats as well as Republicans for his hearings, expected to begin in September.

And it illustrated his chief virtue, as his supporters describe it: an ability to work both sides of the aisle.

Governor Leavitt is getting a big head start on his potential opposition. While he worked the phones and lined up support — he said today that among his calls was one to Christie Whitman, whose resignation as administrator made way for his nomination — the Senate was in recess. That means that organized opposition would be slower to take shape.

Several environmental groups were working feverishly to amass details critical of what the Sierra Club called his antienvironmental record, highlighted chiefly by secret negotiations he held with the Interior Department to eliminate protections for millions of acres of wilderness.

But the groups have not been united against him. Some have lauded him for keeping nuclear waste out of his state. Others have praised his work against urban sprawl.

Mr. Leavitt said in a speech today in Salt Lake City that his environmental views were in the "productive middle" and not on the extremes. That "is where the vast majority of the American people are," he said. Last week, before his nomination was announced, he called his environmental critics "extremists."

Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster who wrote a memorandum this year advising the administration how to sound sympathetic on the environment, said today: "The American people believe that many of these environmental groups are extreme. They want a centrist policy that doesn't hurt the economy and doesn't stop progress. Leavitt has taken that middle-of-the-road approach."

At the same time, most senators have been reluctant to criticize him. They include Senator James M. Jeffords, the Vermont independent and ranking minority member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which will hold the confirmation hearings.

His spokeswoman, Diane Derby, said Mr. Jeffords wanted to study Mr. Leavitt's record before weighing in and that he wanted to talk with the governor about one of his primary concerns — a lack of timely information to the committee from the Bush administration on environmental matters.

Similarly, Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate, who as a fellow governor has a long history with Mr. Leavitt, put out a statement that avoided any criticism of him as nominee.

This typified the approach of Democratic presidential candidates, who are lambasting President Bush's environmental record while essentially sparing Mr. Leavitt. Four of the nine Democrats running for president are in the Senate and will almost certainly use the confirmation hearings as a platform on which to attack the president's record.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, one candidate, sounded the strongest note. He said in a letter today to Senator James M. Inhofe, the chairman of the environment committee, that Governor Leavitt's record deserved extra scrutiny. Mr. Lieberman said he was concerned about the secret wilderness negotiations; his insistence on building a highway across wetlands, a project stopped by the courts; and his failure to respond quickly to the release of carcinogens from a magnesium plant near the Great Salt Lake.

Both sides expect the hearings to offer political fireworks. As one top Republican aide said, "We expect Lieberman may slap a hold on the nomination and say, `This is my trophy to the environmental group,' " referring to the process by which any senator can try to stop a nomination.

The Republican-controlled Senate could ignore the "hold," which could force the senator objecting to the nominee to stage a filibuster. But, the Republican aide said, if that happened, "pressure can be brought to bear, and we can get Democratic governors to come out and support Leavitt."

"There will be all kinds of political tricks here," the aide said, "but at the end of the day, he'll have solid, unified Republican support and at least 10 moderate Democrats."