Thursday, October 16, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Panel approves Leavitt

EPA nominee clears one hurdle in vote by Senate committee

WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee on Wednesday approved Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, but several Democrats still vowed to block him from taking the post.

Making good on an agreement brokered with the White House earlier this month, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., was among five Democrats who showed up to create a quorum and enable the Environment and Public Works Committee to vote on Leavitt.

Two weeks ago, the Democrats boycotted a vote on Leavitt, forcing delay. But their attendance Wednesday cleared the way for the panel to vote 16-2 to move Leavitt's nomination to the Senate floor.

Reid agreed to back the Utah governor as part of a deal for Bush to nominate a Reid aide to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Afterward, Reid said he will support Leavitt even though he believes the nominee can do little to change the Bush administration's environmental principles. "I think he has an impossible job," Reid said.

All 10 Republicans on the environment panel voted for Leavitt, as did five Democrats and Sen. James Jeffords, a Vermont independent.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., voted against Leavitt. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., again boycotted the hearing.

"The environmental policies that this administration has pursued have been very controversial and, from my perspective, very damaging," Clinton said.

Clinton said she still plans to block Leavitt from reaching a final Senate vote.

Lieberman and fellow presidential contenders Sens. John Edwards, D-N.C., and John Kerry, D-Mass., also have said they plan to block a Senate vote on Leavitt.

During Wednesday's session, Republicans praised Leavitt's environmental record in Utah and listed his lengthy political credentials, including leadership of the National Governors Association.

Reid expressed satisfaction with Leavitt's responses to questions posed by senators, including one pushing the governor to commit to setting a standard for perchlorate in drinking water.

Although Leavitt did not commit to setting a standard, he said he would do so "as expeditiously as appropriate under the circumstances."

Reid said Leavitt would not be the one to decide a standard given opposition expressed by the Department of Defense, one of the largest users of perchlorate, a chemical used to make rocket fuel.

"He couldn't set a standard if he wanted," Reid said. "The administration doesn't want it."

On pollution discharged by mining operations, Leavitt defended a resolution he backed at the Western Governors Association that seeks to amend a toxic release program administered by the EPA.

Nevada ranks at the top of the EPA's pollution ranking, largely because the EPA calculates the mine waste -- excavated gravel and rock -- as a toxic discharge.

The EPA signaled last month that it is reviewing the program, a move decried by environmentalists but supported by the mining industry and the Nevada delegation.